The story of my metamorphosis from a Bible-believing youngster growing up in a fundamentalist-creationist home to a science-loving skeptical rationalist is long and tortuous (and torturous), and I won’t repeat it here. But I do remember a very interesting aspect of that worldview that I’d like to describe here, for the morbid amusement of those who are interested in the science-fundamentalism culture war.
My parents, graduates of William Jennings BryanCollege in Dayton TN (my mother was also a former missionary kid)–that should tell you something right there–were also public school teachers, so I was exposed to a very unique set of perspectives on the question of science vs creationism and how it affects public education.
Many people wonder how it is that creationists can still think that evolution is foolishness, and that it doesn’t belong in the public schools, when court case after court case has come down in favor of secular science education, and every public school system in the country adheres to largely mainstream science education standards.
Well, I have an answer for you.
The way a large number of creationists interpret all this, the way they make sense of the overwhelming legal and educational tide against them, is NOT to reason that, “Gee, maybe all these biology and education experts and government officials are right; maybe evolution IS good science, after all!”
Oh no no no. For that would mean the crumbling of their ideological edifice.
The way the majority of them interpret their astounding, perpetual, and overwhelming losses in the scholarly and legal forum is as follows:
“The world belongs to the devil.”
I kid you not. From my own parents (teachers) to public school principals and administrators, preachers, apologists, activists, and right-wing politicians, although they won’t say it publicly (at least not usually), this is seriously how many of them analyze their losses in the public forum. I have heard it literally dozens if not hundreds of time throughout my life.
Since some Bible passages describe the world as being utterly evil and under Satan’s direct control (e.g., Ephesians 2:2, Ephesians 6:12, 1 John 5:19), creationists and fundamentalists believe that Satan himself is behind the pro-evolution science taught in American high schools, and literally pulled some sort of diabolical strings to get verdicts like we saw in Edwards vs. Aguilard and Kitzmiller et al vs. Dover ASB.
If that ain’t creepy–and very revealing of the kind of mindset we’re dealing with here–I don’t know what is. It shows how, no matter what kind of legal, scientific, or logical evidence argues against their position, they will NEVER change their mind, because it’s all a diabolical conspiracy. Literally.
