Just how daft can beliefs get, can they become, not just outrageously bizarre, but complete decoupled from reality, and yet still assert a claim of “truth”? Yes, they can and often do.
I must confess to an excessive degree of bemusement derived from a scan of Ken Ham’s folly, perhaps better known to some as the Creation Museum (side thought: the use of the word “museum” in that context is an abuse of the term). Anyway, there are specific things that are quite well-known about Mr Ham and his merry band of delusional accolades, for example their rejection of the prevailing scientific consensus and assertion that evolution is wrong. The entire basis for doing this is because the Bible says “god did it” and beyond that they have nothing.
Ah, but these are not just ordinary creationists, no instead under the banner of “Answers in Genesis” they have carved out a niche for themselves that is truly unique, so much so that other creationists have branded them “delusional” …
- Answers in Creation, has called Ham wilfully ignorant and said he “deliberately misleads”
- Kent Hovind, another rather famously nutty young earth creationist has also labelled them “misguided”
Are they really so crazy that other slightly less crazy creationists wash their hands of them? Well, you can be their judge, because here are a few of the more unusual claims that they make.
Dragons Are real
Yes indeed, they truly do assert that Dragons are not just myths.
They are not just going for something sort of dragon’ish, they are in with flying fire-breathing dragons, and assert this with incoherent logic such as …
Many dragon legends such as what we find outside the Bible could be embellished, but the basic characteristics of dragons can be found in known creatures. Some dragon descriptions fit well with certain dinosaurs. Fossil pterosaurs reveal dragon-like wings. Certain beetles shoot out burning chemicals, so is a fire-breathing dragon really that far-fetched?
“But but, why would they assert this?”, you might howl back in laughter, well because that is what the bible says, so in their minds it just must be true. Here is the specific bible verse ..
The burden against the beasts of the South. Through a land of trouble and anguish, From which came the lioness and lion, The viper and fiery flying serpent, They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, And their treasures on the humps of camels, To a people who shall not profit. (Isaiah 30:6)
Is this a joke? No not at all, they are dead serious, since every word in the bible is believed to be literally true then they must either embrace the weird bits as truth, or ditch the belief. There is no middle ground, this literal belief means that once you toss aside something and just silly, then the rest of the literalism would collapse like a house of cards.
You might then ask, “what happened to the dragons?” … and of course they have an answer …
Land and air dragons would have been taken on Noah’s Ark and probably existed for some time afterward, based on the descriptions we see in the Bible and legends and artifacts worldwide. But they died out due to the curse of sin, with factors such as environmental and habitat changes, food source problems, genetic mutations, and diseases. Also, man most likely played a role in the demise of dragons, as we read in the legends of dragon slayers.
Ah yes, pity all those poor unemployed dragon slayers once the last fire-breathing dragon had been dispatched.
Unicorns are Real
If you are going for flying fire-breathing dragons being real but dying out due to a band a dragon slayers, well why not go the extra mile and toss in a few unicorns as well.
The absence of a unicorn in the modern world should not cause us to doubt its past existence. (Think of the dodo bird. It does not exist today, but we do not doubt that it existed in the past.).
Er yes, but we have written eyewitness accounts, drawings, and stuffed examples of dodo’s – actual evidence, unlike the unicorn claim.
“But but, ‘unicorns’ for fracks sake, why do they believe this?” … you know the answer … right? …
The Bible is clearly describing a real animal. The unicorn mentioned in the Bible was a powerful animal possessing one or two strong horns—…Whatever it was, it is now likely extinct like many other animals. To think of the biblical unicorn as a fantasy animal is to demean God’s Word, which is true in every detail.
Yes of course, it is because the bible says so, and for the truly curious, you can find Unicorns mentioned in Job 39:9–10, Numbers 23:22, 24:8; Deuteronomy 33:17; Psalm 22:21, 29:6, 92:10; Isaiah 34:7. and since , according to these literalistic loons, the bible just must be right about everything, so bugger reality – unicorns are real.
OK, so hopefully now you understand why other young-earth creationists label Answers-in-Genesis as utterly potty.
The real tragedy here is that they vigorously promote this utter bullshit as fact, not just within their museum of the absurd, but also via churches, sunday schools, and home-schooling – basically the “get them young and they will be hooked for life” philosophy.
Is this really true?
Yes, Ken Ham will soon be off to Houston to speak at a Home-schooling conference and push his agenda. Since he was going to be in the area, the local Houston Atheists challenged him to a debate, but he rather rapidly ducked and ran – not a surprise really.