A Terribly Frighting Book . . .

 

Many years ago I was a young Fundamentalist Baptist Young-Earth Creationist Christian, in my early 20's.  I enjoyed collecting Christian books that (obviously) supported my religious beliefs.  But stepping back a few years earlier (50 years ago) for just a moment - when I was in my early teens, before I was a Christian, I remember going on a school field trip with my science class to look for fossils along the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, at the Calvert Cliffs State Park.  The fossil shell impression below is one that I found that day:

I carried my discovery to my science teacher and he told me that it was a scallop or clam fossil that was about 12,000,000 years old.  I was thrilled.

The transformation from science loving student to science denying young adult began when I was 17.  I am not exactly sure what the motivation was.  I was regularly attending a teen youth group at a local non denominational church - under no pressure from my parents, who were not even attending church at this time.  But for some reason I had latched onto this whole Jesus thing on my own, listening to sermons on the radio at night, reading mostly Chic Tracts, which I had begun collecting from the local Bible & Book store.  At 17, alone in my bed room, "I accepted Jesus into my heart".

Jump ahead about 4 - 5 years - one day I was in either a library or book store (sorry, my memory is 65 years old) and as I often would do, I was browsing the religious section.  My attention was drawn to a book on biological evolution.  I can't remember the title but I suspect that it mentioned Christianity or the bible in the title or subtitle, and I likely thought that it was a book challenging the claims of evolution science from a Christian perspective.  At any rate, after just a few minutes I realized that this was a book by a scientist - one who actually knew what he was talking about with regard to the scientific study of biological evolution - and the information he was presenting was to counter, with science, the claims of science-denying Young-Earth Creationist Christianity.  As I was curiously reading I came across a particular section that must have caused me great concern because I remember getting this feeling of panic and fear that I hadn't ever felt before.  Suddenly I was neck deep in a struggle with cognitive dissonance, though I didn't know that at the time.  I immediately sought the safety of ignorance and denial, quickly closed the book and put it back on the shelf where it couldn't hurt me ever again.

As a result of this experience it would be another 20 years before I would again pick up a book on evolution that wasn't written by a Christian for the express purpose of convincing Christians that evolution was false, and to continue believing what they believe.  What a terrible approach.

From my observations since becoming an atheist more than 20 years ago, many, if not most Christians, ESPECIALLY those from the Fundamentalist Baptist Young-Earth Creationist camp, likely suffer from the same malady that I suffered from oh those many years ago.  They do not and will not read anything that promotes a view that is counter to what they already believe.

When I was a Christian and my beliefs were challenged, I sought reassurance. Now, as an atheist, when my beliefs are challenged I seek answers.

"Creationists use data the way a drunk man uses a lamp post - for support, not illumination."

~unknown

bob

r.u.reasonable@gmail.com