What my decade long foray into the creation-evolution debate taught me about the human condition (and how it applies today) – Part 1: Overview

This is the first in a series of posts intended to share insights I learned about how people end up believing the things they do. It feels like a good topic to discuss, given all what happened in 2020, and the information overload we are exposed to and the large number of voices competing for attention, clicks, followers, influence and even power. You might think as you read on, that this is about the creation-evolution debate, but it really isn't. This debate is how I learned what I did, but I have no intent to defend one side or the other, nor persuade readers towards a particular position in this debate.

A few recent circumstances got me reminiscing about a period of time in my life when I chased the tireless rabbit of the modern creation-evolution debate.  One was the unfortunate death of a former college student of mine to COVID-19.  It got me thinking of my time as a college professor, and the memories I had of not only this student, but some of my favorite moments as a professor.  Another was a podcast episode I listened to recently which related a story about Ken Ham.  A few months ago, I discovered the Holy Post podcast, which is in part run by Phil Vischer of VeggieTales fame.  I am now listening to it regularly, and trying to catch up on older episodes.  Episode 437 shares the story about Phil running afoul of Ken Ham, founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis and creator of the full-scale Ark Encounter attraction in Northern Kentucky.  Finally, I recently listened to a sermon emphasizing the comprehensive truth of the Bible, and lamenting widespread disbelief in the Bible among Christians, and that so many Christian colleges don’t teach the Bible as truth. 

All of this happened within a single month, and pointed me straight back to a fascinating journey I took – a deep dive down an endless rabbit hole of information, with branches upon branches, and branching branches of side tunnels to explore.  It was fascinating and I learned so much. I got to meet and interact with prominent thought leaders spanning the various positions, like Duane Gish, Vice President of the Institution for Creation Research, and author of the well-known book Evolution: The Fossils Say No! and Denis Lamoureux early on in his development of the evolutionary creationist position (a term he coined himself). I got to interview Phillip Johnson, the UC-Berkeley law professor, author of the widely known book, Darwin on Trial, and the father of the intelligent design movement, in front of a packed auditorium. I got to witness angry and skeptical audience members at a sold-out event at North Carolina State University, responding to Ken Miller, author of Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search For Common Ground Between God and Evolution, during a presentation of compelling evidence for evolution and his testimony of Christian faith. I consumed thousands of documents - dozens and dozens of books spanning both science and theology, newsletters and educational materials produced by creationist organizations, popular magazine articles, and multiple hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific research articles. I watched hundreds of hours of videos, most involving arguments and evidence in favor of creationism and a young earth. I joined pro-evolution/anti-creationism organizations and pro-creationism/anti-evolution organizations, to gain access to member-only materials, and to better understand their passions and positions. I studied geology, physics, astronomy, psychology, and the history and philosophy of science. I converted all of this into a brain-draining, ultra-rigorous upper-level elective college course named Creation, Evolution, or Both? An arena of intellectual reflection and discovery that was very special, and difficult to describe (and extremely difficult to organize and deliver). It was a transformational course for many students, based on the feedback I received. It was transformational for me as well - I doubt I would be the skeptical questioner I am, denying and exposing bogus arguments and information, while continually searching for the truth, if it wasn't for this decade-long excursion.

One of my all-time favorite creation-evolution debate images (Source: Ham, K., The Lie: Evolution. 1987)

I still reflect on, and use what I learned from that time, in many diverse situations, as I look for cause and effect, reasons why things are the way they are, and why people behave and believe the way they do.  It taught me more about the human condition than any other intellectual endeavor that I’ve pursued.  It’s the only area of knowledge, outside of what I accomplished for my PhD dissertation, where I feel sufficiently comfortable to claim expert-level knowledge (and I don’t say that lightly, as I am very aware that we all are definitely NOT experts with most subjects, even if we know quite a bit, and it’s my personal opinion – based on experience – that many people overestimate what they think they know about a subject, and are not truly experts, even though they often think they are).

As I got to thinking about this, and in light of the complex societal issues going on, as well as what seems to be a moment of reflection, if not a crisis, for at least a portion of American Christianity, I thought I’d write a post to share what I learned.  But the more I thought about it, I realized that It would be a very, very long blog post, and very likely could become a book, if I really were inclined to take it in that direction.  Instead, this post is the first in a series of posts to share observations about the human condition and lessons learned from my time involved in the creation-evolution debate.

Who is this for?  Well, if you can’t make sense of why things are the way they are these days – whether it be in the political arena, cultural arena, or religious arena, you might gain some insights.  It might help you be more careful with what you claim you know, so that you don’t prematurely assert you know something.  It might make you take greater caution with regard to who you entrust to tell you the truth.  It might help you be more understanding of why people believe things differently than you do.  It might make you aware of cognitive pitfalls (errors in thinking) which are all too easy to fall victim to, if you’re not aware of them.

It’s important to note that my purpose is not to re-engage with the creation-evolution debate.  I’ve left that behind me, and I’ll explain why in one of the upcoming posts.  I’m sure in the process of story-telling I might share some information about the Bible, or a particular Creationist, or a creationist position, or an evolutionist (or related position) which a reader may contend with.  That’s fine – that’s why blogs have a comment feature.  But I’m not in this for a debate, and I’m not going to debate.  But I do love me some juicy information!  I’ve not kept up with developments in the field over the past decade, so if you’ve got some recent information you want to share with me, post it in a comment.  Who knows?  I might wrap up my career back in the college classroom and offer a course on the topic.  I will say that there’s very little information on the subject prior to 2012 which I haven’t encountered.

This won’t be a comprehensive treatment, as I have limited time, and so do mos readers.  Each post will summarize the topic and include a few supplemental resources, but will only be scratching the surface - whether you want to chase any particular rabbit is up to you.  I envision this series of posts will lay out something like this over the next few months (figuring on at most one post per week). 

How it all got started

Simplicity and Complexity

Authority

Psychology

Information Literacy

Fallacy

Uncertainty

Immediacy

Exclusivity

Idolatry

Eternity

Tribalism

Semantics 

Risk

The next post is the story about how it all got started.