The leaders of America�s Christian fundamentalists and Bible
literalists are constantly whining about being mocked and ridiculed. There are
good reasons for the derision, and no one better personifies those reasons than
Ken Ham, the founder of Answers in
Genesis and the Creation
Museum.
On 17 February, the Associated Press ran a story about Mr.
Ham�s latest pronouncement. It was also carried by OneNewsNow -- the propaganda
organ of Don and Tim Wildmon�s rabidly anti-gay (and anti-gay families),
anti-civil equality, anti-reason, anti-science American Family Association
website -- under the title �Creation Museum
founder: U.S. should take Genesis literally�:
In
what he characterized as a �State of the Union� speech from his museum in
Kentucky, Ken Ham rebuked churches and Christian scholars who don�t believe in
a young Earth and creation in six days. �That�s why we have such a weak church,
why a church is not touching the culture,� he stated. �[T]he church in our
Western world needs to repent of compromise and get back to the authority of
the Word of God and stand unashamedly on the Word of God.�
Apparently Mr. Ham wants churches and �Christian scholars�
to intentionally lie. It�s absolute fact
that the earth is not 6,000
years-old, as Mr. Ham insists, nor did human children play with dinosaurs in
Eden as his museum asserts. Mr. Ham and those who believe as he does seem
little more than scared children who refuse to recognize the Old Testament for
what it is: stories created by Bronze Age people to explain what they didn�t
understand and to create fear of a wrathful �God,� thus enabling his priests
and prophets to control the people. The same hold true today.
Don and Tim Wildmon�s American Family Association conducted
a poll in mid-February in relation to Mr. Ham�s statements. The question asked
was �What side of the argument would your
pastor take in the evolution-vs.-creation debate?� The offered responses
were
- The first chapter of
Genesis says it all -- literally
- God created the earth, but
probably populated the planet through the evolutionary process
- Scientific explanation
(Big bang theory, for example) is more believable than Genesis 1
- I do not attend church
When I checked the results of the poll on February 17, 2010,
at 2:33 PM, 1,060 AFA viewers had voted:
- The first chapter of
Genesis says it all -- literally: 87.08 percent
- God created the earth, but
probably populated the planet through the evolutionary process: 6.98
percent
- Scientific explanation
(Big bang theory, for example) is more believable than Genesis 1: 2.36
percent
- I do not attend church:
3.58 percent
The 87.08 percent response rate from AFA readers was not
surprising. The other percentages, however, offered some hope that reason and
rationality are not completely dead among some of those readers.
When asked by Bill Maher in the quasi-documentary Religulous (2008), why he insisted the
earth was 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs coexisted with humans, Mr. Ham
responded, �If you�re saying this part [of the Bible] over here that says God
made land animals and man on the same day is not true, then, ultimately, why
should I believe this bit over here?� Religion for Mr. Ham and his followers is
a house of cards. Any card that falls brings down the entire structure.
Yet Ham and his followers continue to reveal their
hypocrisy. Is Mr. Ham et al in favor
of selling daughters into slavery? Is Mr. Ham in favor of stoning to death
people who wear clothing made of two different threads? Is Mr. Ham in favor of
stoning non-virgin brides? Is Mr. Ham in favor of killing gays? All of these
were �God�s commands� in the Old Testament? Or is Mr. Ham just content with
making a very good living from
promoting Genesis as literal �truth,� being the curator of the Creation Museum
and his
lucrative speaking engagements?
What type of person is attracted/drawn to the biblical
literalism and religious fundamentalism advocated by Mr. Ham?
Generally speaking, those who are very insecure and afraid
of reality. People who are so insecure and so afraid of life and reality that they
withdraw into a cozy little box that has on its entrance: �No Thinking Required
Here. Just Believe and Obey.� Such people prefer to believe absolutely in a
book that contains texts written by Bronze Age people who didn�t know North and
South America, Australia, or Antarctica existed. Nor did they know the earth
was round and not the center of the solar system. But then again, religious
fundamentalism does make not thinking a virtue.
Fundamentalism also seems to give its adherent a sense of
their own moral superiority and that they -- and they alone -- know �the Truth�
and will be saved during �the Rapture.� Perhaps that�s also one of the draws of
fundamentalism: to be among the elite, the self-righteous, the saved.
Christian fundamentalism also seems to thrive on a type of
fatalism, a gleeful welcoming of the end of the world that would likely appeal
to someone at odds with this world and life in general. Consider an article
titled �The World as It Really Is�
by Jim Fletcher, whose latest book is titledIt�s
the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) , with the subtitle �How to stop worrying and
learn to love these END TIMES.�
After listing some human miseries he saw while strolling
around Austin, Texas, Mr. Fletcher stated:
But
even in all this misery, I thought about how it confirms the Bible. If the
Bible is true, we would expect to see a diseased and dying world. A physically
dying world. Pollution. Corruption. Illness. . . .
The Bible�s early books contain the history of Earth�s beginnings. Genesis
contains the historical account of man�s spiritual and physical fall. In those
brief verses, we can know enough to figure out our world. . . .
If the Bible is
literally true, then human misery is �God�s will.� That�s a strange sort of
�loving God� who takes pleasure in torturing His creations. But it�s the
opening of the second paragraph that speaks to the essence of fundamentalism�s
glorification of irrationality and mind-numbing simplicity. Genesis contains �the
history of Earth�s beginnings�: the earth is a flat disk supported by pillars
and covered by a dome to keep out all those celestial waters and, according to
Mr. Fletcher, Genesis is all we need to know �to figure out our world.� The
Kafkaesque appeal of fundamentalism: no thinking needed, just believe, obey and
send in your donations to help spread �the Truth.�
The �wisdom� of Mr.
Fletcher continued when he explained how it was not the slaughter and torture
of millions and millions of people by religious zealots during the last two
millennia, but �the beginnings of
modern evolutionary thought, which has destroyed millions and millions of
people, and now has America�s children in its grip.�
Can you think of ANY
incident in the 151 years since the theory of evolutionary in which
evolutionists killed, maimed, waterboarded, or in any way �destroyed�
fundamentalists in the name of Darwin? Mr. Fletcher would, no doubt, bring up
Hitler and the �connection� his ilk like to posit between Darwin�s theory and
Nazi-style eugenics. Madmen such as Hitler cherry-picked and used whatever they
could to advances their cause, including
Christianity.
As for science, reason
and critical thinking having �America�s children in [their] grip,� GOOD!
Perhaps they will then be able to see through the irrationality and inherent
bigotry that underwrite religious fundamentalism and the hypocrisy of its
leaders:
Again
I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. --Matthew 19:24, NRSV
Ultimately, biblical literalists and fundamentalist
preachers are selling their product: salvation. And business is good. Jerry
Falwell left millions and his private jet to Liberty University. Pat Robertson
used to breed thoroughbred racehorses on his expansive Virginia estate.
Alex
Koppelman was correct when he suggested America�s fundamentalist leaders run �the redemption racket.�
And essential to that racket is Genesis as literal history. Mr. Ham is just
playing his part . . . and profiting from it.