Creationists Infiltrate Geology Conferences

[Atheist-Lite]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... ining.html

Geology will survive creationist undermining

WHAT should a scientific society do when creationists want to participate in its conferences? This question faces many scientific organisations in the US. At meetings of the Geological Society of America (GSA) in 2009 and 2010, young-Earth creationists, who think Noah's flood was a historical event and the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, presented posters, gave talks and led field trips.

I attended a number of these events, and I can attest that the creationists were careful to give mainstream presentations using standard geologic methods. They referred to the geologic timeline of millions and billions of years. Nowhere did the words "Noah's flood" appear. Nothing in their presentations revealed that they thought the Grand Canyon's upper rocks were deposited in a year and that dinosaurs and humans once lived together.

It's not surprising that they were able to do so: the presenters had received decent geology educations from legitimate institutions. Geologically, they could talk the talk and walk the walk. But why? What is the point of giving a talk on marine strata in the late Cretaceous, as Marcus Ross of Liberty University, a Christian college in Lynchburg, Virginia, did, when you actually think the Earth is only a few thousand years old?

The point is to be able to claim legitimacy. Creationists have used their participation in conferences to argue that their ideas are taken seriously by real scientists. After the 2009 GSA meeting, for example, Steve Austin of the Institute for Creation Research in Dallas, Texas, proclaimed that creationists had been influential at the meeting. "There are many within the GSA that take seriously the creation and flood narrative text of the Bible," he claimed. After the 2010 meeting, a press release from the fundamentalist Cedarville University in Ohio crowed: "Cedarville leaders talked about alternative views for how the rocks formed, emphasizing short time spans and catastrophic formation... rather than slow formation over millions of years."

(continued)

[Bella Fortuna]

Rock on!

[Atheist-Lite]

Rock on!

Looks like they've dug a tunnel?

[Jason]

They're sapping!

[Xamonas Chegwé]

So creationists went to the conference, gave mainstream lectures with no allusion to creationism that were (apparently) well received, just so that they could later claim that creationists had been listened to and agreed with at the conference.

Isn't that... lying?

Wait a minute, I think there's a commandment about that here somewhere...

[Faithfree]

Perhaps the title should be: Creationists flood geology conferences ..

[Atheist-Lite]

So creationists went to the conference, gave mainstream lectures with no allusion to creationism that were (apparently) well received, just so that they could later claim that creationists had been listened to and agreed with at the conference.

Isn't that... lying?

Wait a minute, I think there's a commandment about that here somewhere...

Lying is OK so long as you ask forgiveness of J'sus afterwards. The only unforgiveable sin is to blaspheme the 'fing holy ghost.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Elsewhere here today someone challenged me to show theists were amoral. 'nuff said.

[Jason]

Lying isn't immoral or even amoral in itself.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Lying isn't immoral or even amoral in itself.

Situational ethics much?

[Tyrannical]

There certainly was significant world wide flooding during the existence of modern man when the glaciers melted and the ice age ended. Ironically, some atheists like to downplay that fact for "religious" reasons.

[Bella Fortuna]

Lying isn't immoral or even amoral in itself.

Situational ethics much?

A tectonic shift in one's ethics?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There certainly was significant world wide flooding during the existence of modern man when the glaciers melted and the ice age ended. Ironically, some atheists like to downplay that fact for "religious" reasons.

Define "significant" and explain how closely the flooding you mention matches the Noah Flood, please?

[klr]

I really can't see the long-term benefits of engaging in this charade TBH ... but then again, everything about creationism is just staving off the inevitable.

[Bella Fortuna]

I really can't see the long-term benefits of engaging in this charade TBH ... but then again, everything about creationism is just staving off the inevitable.

.................predestination!