what's the problem with creationists?

Question

The theory of evolution is more than logical and believable, we see the evidence all around us every day. Is it that creationists either don't try to understand the world around them, is it that they refuse to take on new iformation because that would confirm that what they believed previously was wrong and therefore other things they believe could be wrong(intelligent force guiding the universe e.t.c.), or is it that they are simply too dim to understand what is essentially a very simple process? I admit that the view of evolution put forward in the media is mostly over simplified and in many cases actually misleading, but in the west we have universities or at least public libraries. is self education and self improvement too high a cost in the quest for the truth and meaning (if any) of life?

email in response to unicorns answer- In response to your answer to my question I should first say that it is not my intention to offend, only to express oppinions and invite others to express thiers.
You will notice that I mentioned the THEORY of evolution, not the FACT of evolution.There are no facts in science, a theory can never be proved, only disproved. As long as a theory isn't disproved, it remains our best guess of the truth. As theories are disproven or proved to be flawed, the theories are thrown away and started again, or modified to explain the new findings. In this way theories EVOLVE and bring us closer to the truth, rather than stagnating by continuing to believe that which no longer makes sense in light of new knowledge. I believe "facts" spouted by men in white coats no more than I believe the "facts" ejaculated by priests.

p.s. I added the copy of the email I sent to unicorn on account of not being able to email some of the other people with similar replies. I would much prefer to corespond privately as that way any response can be much more relevent to a specific answer.

O.K. scrap th e private corespondence stuff, theres too many people i can't contact privately, and anyway, i suppose this is meant to be a public thing or whatever.

education/religious upbringing-Yes it definetely is a major factor, I know someone myself who was brought up in an unusually isolated way as a jehova's witness.For reasons i won't go into here she broke away and on top of being shunned by her family very nearly fell apart when she got out into the real world and found the truth about the world and all the other faiths.

baby girl- cars dont evolve, car designs evolve as the designers learn more about how the universe functions.

nogodlikemygod- intelect has evolutionary advantages because it enables us to make clothes,tools,e.t.c. speech and emotions enable us to live in large social groups.it is interesting to note that inteligence and speech amongst primates is very closely linked to the size of social groups,and ratio of brain size to body determines intelligence.

many of the answers given have pointed to the first option in my question being verry likely in alot of cases- they refuse to allow thier understanding of the universe to evolve because they consider the idea of evolution to be a crime against thier god.
also a few of the answers imply the dimness option has a bearing on creationist beliefs.

l-o-d tiger- I like the story- at last the proof we need to call the theory FACT. let me know what the next stage turn out to be - a wad of cash would be nice perhaps.

I appologise for spelling mistakes and bad gramar, trying to type faster than my brain can communicate with my hands(medical condition). If the creationists are right and a god exists that made everything perfect, then i must have been created by his retarded brother.

Answer 1

When my grandmother was a very young girl her mother put one of her baby teeth in a jar and set it on her bedside table. My grandmother kept that tooth all her life. As she became an adult a very strange thing began to happen that "Tooth" began to change, slowly at first. It got longer and longer and then one day inside that jar there was a tiny explosion. The jar shook it scared grandmother so badly that she had a heart attack. The jar fell onto the bed and burst open. My mom came running into the room. Grandma was shaking violently and held up this beautiful watch that keeps perfect time. It was her tooth that she had kept in the jar for all those years. I still wear that watch today. I just can't wait to see what it turns into next. And you think I'm dimwitted?

Answer 2

Have you seen the documentation around the flood actually being rather small geographically speaking but to those all those many years ago it must have truly seemed like the whole world flooded (as their "whole world" did)? I think that rather explains some of it. From a geographical perspective, I believe part of what gives the ocean it's salt is the minerals and such that the water picks up as it makes it's way down the various streams and rivers into the ocean. I cannot recall the rate at which this occurs or how much this is replaced back by rain water that picks up sediments but it is a thing to look into just from a scientific perspective.

Answer 3

Yeah, why just the other day, I went hiking in the mountains, and in the bottom of the stream was this shiny item.

I knew that it rained two days eariler and the minerals must have washed over all the rocks pounding it into shape, and along the way it picked up jewels and melted silicone to produce the watch. Somewhere along the way it must have come accross an cow, for the leather band.

It even had letters stamped into the back of the watch.

Answer 4

Try to think of any explosion that has produced order. Does a terrorist bomb create harmony? Big bangs cause chaos. How could a Big Bang produce a rose, apple trees, fish, sunsets, the seasons, hummingbirds, polar bears—thousands of birds and animals, each with its own eyes, nose, and mouth? A child can see that there is "grand design" in creation.

Try this interesting experiment: Empty your garage of every piece of metal, wood, paint, rubber and plastic. Make sure there is nothing there. Nothing. Then wait for ten years and see if a Mercedes evolves. Try it. If it doesn’t appear, leave it for 20 years. If that doesn’t work, try it for 100 years. Then try leaving it for 10,000 years. Here’s what will produce the necessary blind faith to make the evolutionary process believable: leave it for 250 million years.

"New scientific revelations about supernovas, black holes, quarks, and the big bang even suggest to some scientists that there is a ‘grand design’ in the universe." (U.S. News & World Re-port, March 31, 1997)

"The universe suddenly exploded into being...The big bang bears an uncanny resemblance to the Genesis command." Jim Holt, Wall Street Journal science writer.

The Book of Genesis tells us that everything was created by God—nothing "evolved." Every creature was given the ability to reproduce after its own kind as is stated ten times in Genesis. Dogs do not produce cats. Neither do cats and dogs have a common ancestry. Dogs began as dogs and are still dogs. They vary in species from Chihuahuas to Saint Bernards, but you will not find a "dat" or a "cog" (part cat/dog) throughout God’s creation. Frogs don’t reproduce oysters, cows don’t have lambs, and pregnant pigs don’t give birth to rabbits. God made monkeys as monkeys, and man as man.

Each creature brings forth after its own kind. That’s no theory; that’s a fact. Why then should we believe that man comes from another species? If evolution is true, then it is proof that the Bible is false. However, the whole of creation stands in contradiction to the theory of evolution.

Dr. Kent Hovind of Florida has a standing offer of $250,000 to "anyone who can give any empirical evidence (scientific proof) for evolution." Evolution— true science fiction. His website is www.drdino.com.

Answer 5

How does evolution explain intellect, speech, and emotions. We aren't smart because are brains are bigger; we only use 10% of our brains. Speech is an unnessary trait because mute people survive fine and we are the only species with distict languages. You don't see fish dying out because they can't talk. If evolution were true why would we need emotions. All emotions do is prevent us from the main idea in evolution, reproduction. You see it on T.V. and in movies. The guy says "do you wanna have sex" and the girl says "no I'm mad at you" The idea of evolution would be to increase the population of a species and emotions get in the way of that.

Answer 6

Evolution has yet to explain how life began. that's a pretty big hole in your theory. Also in order to prove creation wrong you must also prove how the universe came into existence. Science proves that every model of the big bang theory does not work. So it is science that proves bad science is wrong. Maybe you should be asking yourself why you cling to ideas that your own religion of bad science has disproved. If you guys ever open your eyes and stop blindly following your priests in white lab coats maybe you will see the truth.

Answer 7

The Gadfly (answer 2) has it in a nutshell.

There is a false dichotomy blown up to immense proportions by Biblical literalists and atheistic scientists.

To any Christian who doubts the strictly literal interpretation of the Genesis creation story, or to any literalist who is curious enough to see a different Christian view, and to any atheist or agnostic evolutionist who is interested enough to see how Christians can accommodate evolutionary theory, I recommend

http://www.christianity.co.nz/science5htm
The age of the universe
6htm
The theory of evolution
7htm
What does Genesis 1 really teach?
8htm
Sorting it all out

The direct link from this site doesn't seem to work but if you type it in the address line near the top of your screen it should.

Answer 8

You see creation and the world around you through the tinted glasses of evolution.

Christians see creation and the world around them in the light of God's Word.

Same view.
Divergent viewpoints.
Funny, the scriptures tell us that the evidence of God is all around in creation, so non-believers have no excuse for not believing.

Answer 9

Jehovah's Witnesses are not creationists. In fact, they reject creationism as the unscientific nonsense that it is.
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2002/6/8/article_01.htm
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2004/6/22/article_01.htm

The questioner casually slanders Jehovah's Witnesses, so it probably makes sense to set the record straight. Jehovah's Witnesses practice the Scriptural practice of disfellowshipping for unrepentance of such serious sins as fornication, drug abuse, stealing, and apostasy. Baptized Witnesses who join the military or publicly engage in worship with another religion are considered to have disassociated themselves from Jehovah's Witnesses.

Contrary to the misinformation of anti-Witnesses, it is quite possible to become inactive in the JW religion without becoming disfellowshipped. As long as one's lifestyle does not bring reproach upon the congregation, and as long as one does not advocate one's disagreements with the religion, the congregation has no interest in "investigating", exposing, and disfellowshipping an inactive former Jehovah's Witness.

For those who are disfellowshipped or disassociated, a primarly goal is to shock the person into recognizing the serious of their wrong so that they rejoin the congregation in pure worship. Since the primary bonds that are broken involve friendship and spiritual fellowship, it is well understood that family bonds remain intact. Parents, siblings, and grown children of disfellowshipped and disassociated ones sometimes choose to limit what they may feel is discouraging or "bad association" but that is a personal decision and is not required by their religion.

Former Witnesses who are disfellowshipped or disassociated are typically treated in accord with the Scriptural pattern explained in these Scriptures:

(1 Corinthians 5:11-13) Quit mixing in company with anyone called a brother that is a fornicator or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man. ...Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.

(Titus 3:10) As for a man that promotes a sect, reject him after a first and a second admonition

(Romans 16:17) Now I exhort you, brothers, to keep your eye on those who cause divisions and occasions for stumbling contrary to the teaching that you have learned, and avoid them.

(2 Thessalonians 3:6) Now we are giving you orders, brothers, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to withdraw from every brother walking disorderly and not according to the tradition you received from us.

(2 Thessalonians 3:14) But if anyone is not obedient to our word through this letter, keep this one marked, stop associating with him, that he may become ashamed.

(2 John 10) If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, never receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him.

(Matthew 18:17) If he does not listen to them, speak to the congregation. If he does not listen even to the congregation, let him be to you just as a man of the nations

Becoming baptized as a Jehovah's Witnesses is not a trivial step. At a minimum, a student must demonstrate months of regular meeting attendance and public ministry, then must himself express the desire to be baptized. The candidate then spends hours answering hundreds of bible questions wherein he expresses both a clear understanding and personal conviction regarding Jehovah's Witness teachings in at least three separate interviews with three different elders. The candidate must vocally agree to be baptized in front of hundreds or thousands of eyewitnesses, and must be publicly immersed in water. This is not a momentary emotional decision by an unreasoning child. Dedication as a Witness required hard work and determination at the time.

Learn more:
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/1988/4/15/article_01.htm
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/1997/1/1/article_01.htm

Answer 10

The problem is religion. Religion is inherently authoritarian -- whatever the priest, pope, or minister says, goes. And if they say "God created it, God did it, God is the answer, every time" then that's the truth, damnit!

It's very hard for anyone to be different, because humans are social animals: we want people to like us, and we want to be like the people we like. It seldom occurs to us that the people we like may be wrong.