# How does a Creationist explain disease? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 9, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-creationist-explain-disease/524238 "2010-01-09T02:26:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-creationist-explain-disease/524238/61 "2010-01-28T00:39:13Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Seriously man, you’re wrong about this. That fact doesn’t change the fact that evolution is obviously true and pretty important in explaining how and why the specific current biological forms _developed_ - but you’re still wrong. He may (or may not) be wrong but he is hardly alone. I had a teacher who said that without evolution, biology was just stamp collecting. The sentiment was rather common among the teachers. One said that it was evolution (and with it predictive science) that made biology a science. I see what you are saying and mostly agree with you but the sentiment DT is expressing is rather common among biologists and not without some basis. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-creationist-explain-disease/524238/62 "2010-01-28T00:55:45Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > and the possibility of an institutional bias against antievolutionist biologists which might deter them from entering or rising in the field. Like them being incompetent by definition? That’s like calling it institutional bias when an airline company won’t hire engineers who don’t believe in air. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-creationist-explain-disease/524238/63 "2010-01-28T00:58:54Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Like them being incompetent by definition? That’s like calling it institutional bias when an airline company won’t hire engineers who don’t believe in air. No, it’s like hiring engineers that don’t believe in metallurgy, but still manage to still believe in all the plane parts that already exist and understand how they and the air work together. This gross exageration of the percentage of biology that depends on understanding of evolution is what you’re wrong about. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-creationist-explain-disease/524238/64 "2010-01-28T01:02:14Z")
> [@Sapo](#): > > He may (or may not) be wrong but he is hardly alone. I had a teacher who said that without evolution, biology was just stamp collecting. The sentiment was rather common among the teachers. One said that it was evolution (and with it predictive science) that made biology a science. > > I see what you are saying and mostly agree with you but the sentiment DT is expressing is rather common among biologists and not without some basis. You know, this may be a defensive reaction to the fact evolutiuon is under attack - they inflate its importance to position the creationists as denying all of biology (which is obviously silly - or rather, even _more_ silly than the silliness of denying evolution alone). If everyone got their heads right and stopped denying evolution the hyperbole level would probably go down accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-creationist-explain-disease/524238/65 "2010-01-28T01:09:09Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > You know, this may be a defensive reaction to the fact evolutiuon is under attack - they inflate its importance to position the creationists as denying all of biology (which is obviously silly - or rather, even _more_ silly than the silliness of denying evolution alone). No; what actually happens is that we pretend that evolution is less important than it is so we can placate the creationists. “Evolution not taught in schools? No big deal.” ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-creationist-explain-disease/524238/66 "2010-01-28T01:13:16Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > No; what actually happens is that we pretend that evolution is less important than it is so we can placate the creationists. “Evolution not taught in schools? No big deal.” This may vary by region and/or the composition of the school board. Regardless, it’s tangential to the tangent we’ve been scuffling over. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-creationist-explain-disease/524238/67 "2010-01-28T01:56:37Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > [QUOTE=Chief Pedant] > On a slightly related topic, I’m not sure what the Creationist position is on carnivores, pre-Fall. I’ve always heard it claimed they ate plants; googling, I find this: > [@](#): > > In the garden of Eden, man and beast were given plants to eat as their food. This is critical to the belief of a young earth creationist.\*\* If carnivores were given plants to eat, then they must have eaten only plants.\*\* This is why they believe there was no death before the Fall of man, because even the carnivores were plant-eaters. [/QUOTE] But plants are full of living creatures. Are we to suppose that T-rex carefully picked out the worms from the apples before eating them? What about microscopic creatures? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-creationist-explain-disease/524238.md?page=3)