|
|
|
Henry Morris on Trial: Introduction
By Tommy Huxley
Posted on: 4/20/2002
|
Part I of a detailed, four-part examination of some of the ideas of Henry Morris.
|
Henry Morris on Trial: How Creation Science Abuses the Second Law of Thermodynamics, Misrepresenting Both Science and ScriptureO Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called
— 1 Timothy 6:20 Most creationists are immune to criticism. Whenever they spout unscientific and unsubstantiated claims in their books and religious tracts, scientists will point out their discrepancies to no avail. Creationists are deaf to honest objections.
For example, time and again, creationists will go on the radio to declare that transitional fossils are nonexistent in the fossil record. You can introduce volumes of paleontological literature that attests to the contrary, but creationists will calmly repeat the missing-fossil claim in a perpetual robotic mantra while remaining oblivious to the protests surrounding them. If creationists discover a particular argument that sounds good for their side, then damn the critics. They’ve found a talisman to protect them.
This psychological defense is called cognitive dissonance. Or to put it another way, “Don’t bother me with the facts because I’ve already made up my mind.”
 In 1961, Henry Morris and John Whitcomb published a popular creationist book called The Genesis Flood. Among that book’s many claims is that the Earth and universe are only 6,000 years old, that the entire fossil record was laid down at one time during Noah’s Flood, and that evolution is impossible because it violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
The last claim about evolution violating thermodynamics is yet another magic amulet creationists wave in defiance of honest scientific objections. Even Nobel prize-winning physicists have disputed that claim, but creationists are deaf to unpleasant noise. They steadily repeat preposterous claims, regardless of the protests.
Maybe they’re biding their time, hoping the objections will eventually dissipate. Or maybe they’re waiting for the Rapture of the Church to yank them off to Heaven, away from those godless evolutionists who pester them with annoying facts.
Morris went even further and declared that the Second Law didn’t exist when God first created the universe. According to Morris and his many disciples, our cosmos was originally a paradise free of death and decay until Adam and Eve ate the magical fruit from the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” In a split second after that moment of Original Sin, God supernaturally changed the laws of physics and brought material disorder into the universe. Not only do we now have death, decay and destruction on our planet, but whole galaxies, billions of light years away, are now expiring from heat loss due to Adam and Eve’s minor rebellion.
Does the Bible actually make this claim? No, it doesn’t. Young-Earth creationists claim to be fundamentalists who seriously follow scripture, yet they adopt the Catholic Church’s tradition (which they ironically loathe) of electing a priesthood that decrees non-Biblical views as Christian orthodoxy. And these same papists have anointed Henry Morris as their first Pope.
Again, the Bible does not claim that the Second Law of Thermodynamics is the result of a cursed creation resulting from Adam’s sin.
SFN Fan Mail Related to this Article:
|
Henry Morris on Trial:Introduction
Morris’ Scientific Distortions
Morris’ Theological Distortions
Conclusion
|
|
|
Back to Creation/Evolution
|
