The notoriously bizarre Institute for Creation Research (sic) cult
routinely publishes equally bizarre religious notions which they wish to
pretend are some how scientific. This text file takes some of the cult's
own bizarre publications and takes a look at them in extract to show just
how nutty (verging on the insane) these "Modern Day Flat Earth
Society" nuts actually are.
Copyright by The Skeptic Tank, 2002, all rights reserved. Permission
is granted to disseminate this criticism freely provided no fees or
costs are associated with the document's free distribution among
academia and the lay public.
Speaking of gravitational theories, here we have an ICR cult propaganda
piece that presumes to instruct its followers as to what gravity is.
It promises to be amusing, at the very least. It's also ironic in
that gravity and evolution are both directly observed phenomena. Both
gravity and evolution have a number of closely-related theories which
attempt to describe how the phenomena work.
Creationists point at the various _theories_ of evolution which
attempt to explain the observed phenomena and they glibly demand
that evolution doesn't happen because there's theories which
atempt to describe it. Yes, it makes no sense but I've often
heard nuts demand that evolution is "only a theory" ignoring
the fact that theories describe an observed phenomena.
How we have the ICR cult looking at gravity. This should be amusing:
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<laughing> Well, most of us. Creationists are an apparent
exception.
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This is something that I encounter routinely in my work. I see a
lot of people express their ignorance about a subject and then,
because they don't understand it, presume to demand that nobody
understands it. The feeling seems to be that they feel they should
be smart enough or educated enough to understand something yet,
since they don't, nobody understands it.
The nut could go to his or her local library and check out
some wonderful txt books which cover contemporary particle physics
which should end his puzzlement. Certainly no vaguely defined
"scientists" who know about libraries remain "puzzled"
by gravity.
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Space isn't empty, dear. Look up "deSitter space" and
"Hilbert" space. This nut's ignorance is profound yet there's
also an unmitigated audacity shortly to come when we learn:
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My guess is this nut is still living in the 13'th century.
Science has been profoundly successful as describing all natural
laws and phenomena -- can you, dear reader, think of a phenomena
which hasn't been explained by the understanding of quantum
particle physics in terms of forces, probability waves, and
particle interactions?
I wonder if the nut is going to demand that gravity is caused
by his gods. Let's see...
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Good grief. We're reading text written by someone living in the
13'th century, folks. "Gods dun it" seems to be the answer to
every question creationists have. This is what they demand we
teach in the public schools, too.
Let's see... We get a history lesson of Galileo, Cavendish,
Newton, and a conspiracy rant that these people's comments about
their deity constructs not appearing in text books is some how
sinister... "half the story" as if people's occultism should
be included in with their scientific work. Amusing. Freakish,
true, but amusing.
It gets better. Watch as the ICR cult expains what they would
teach to students in the public schools:
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Gravity most definately changes with time simply because gravity is
caused by elementary quantum particles -- gluons -- which are
exchanged between hadrons at long distances in effects which are
always accumulative, never subtractive. Gravitational fields are
formed by the exchange of quantum particles between all bodies in
the universe though at strengths which diminish a squares of the
distances involved.
As hadrons decay over time (protons decay at extremely low rates)
the rate of gluons exchanged changes over time. The force which
manifests as the result of this particle exchange thus changes over
time.
The nut doubtlessly makes this assertion because the decline
in the gravitational constant is so profoundly small across
billions of years so as to be utterly meaningless to human
endeavor as to be ignorable. But gravity does change over time.
If the universe is open and continues to expand as it's currently
doing, eventually all of the matter in the universe will decay
back into the probability waves from which the universe sprang
from. As that expansion occures, hadrons decay, gravitons and
gravitrinos become less populace, gravity in the universe will be
on the decline.
If the universe is closed and the expansion phase reverses and
the whole enchilada comes crashing back on to itself into a big
crunch, the gravitational constant will also diminish over time
as hadrons evaporate back into the probability waves from which
they came.
I seriously doubt whether the uncountable eons of time between
now and either of these final event occur creationists will
ever learn anything about reality. Not if this character is any
example of what to expect in the future.
What's interesting is that the nut got the remaining 5 points
about gravity correct. Now we get to watch as the nut tries
to string gravity to his occult superstition in the text segment
appearing under the amusing title, "Gravity and Scripture."
>laugh>
Remember that we're here to discover what gravity is, don't forget.
I have a sneaking suspicion that we might not actually get there.
Let's go see...
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<heh> We got off to a bad start.
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Good frocking grief. Gravity "holds things together" and the
classical Christanic mythologies has a god also "hold things
together" and thus the Christian deity must cause gravity? Is that
what this ICR nut is trying to tell his or her followers?! Seriously?
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Woops! we just leaped forward a step. Where did the universe get
mentioned? Weren't we talking about one of the Christian gods?
How did that universe get in here?
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Leaping over quite a few steps we some how ended up equating one
of the Christian gods to gravity. How did we get here? Some ICR
nut found a word he things means "holds things together,"
attributes it to the Christian deity construct, assumes that it's
some how talking about gravity, and there we are?
Yes, this belongs in public school classrooms. Yep. And if that
stupidity and abject nuttyness wasn't enough, catch this:
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Maybe that's how the 1988 Dodgers made it to the World Series.
Can you imagine this crap being taught in the public schools as if
it were science? Jonny already can't think in school because the
punk behind him is packing a gun (thanks to the NRA and Republicans
in general) and Sally is unable to think in school because she's
worried about how she'll afford the abortion. Along comes the
creationist cult to inform Jonny and Sally that the scientific
fact of the matter is that the universe will disappear if the
ICR cult's god "turns his back on the universe."
"Lime Jello" springs instantly to mind. As in "turning
children's brains to lime Jello." What's horrible is that this is
apparently what the ICR cult is programming into the little heads of
their own children in their churches. Now the cult want to inflict this
idiotic nonsense upon children out in the real world who already
have a hard enough time getting an education as it is.
We haven't gotten to a scientific explanation of gravity yet but we
still have some propaganda remaining. Always hopefull we'll go
forward to the section of propaganda titled, "Gravity and Modern
Science" and see if we get around to a scientific answer.
Let's see. We have the four "forces" of natural, the
electromagnetic force, strong nuclear, weak nuclear, and gravity. Okay,
we're okay so far as that goes. The anticipation, though, is building...
Ah, amazingly we get to something that's actually correct:
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That's marginally correct so far as it goes and it's a wonder that
the ICR cult got that far. But don't hand out any congradulations
just yet because the propaganda piece isn't done quite yet. There
is still more time to shove in the other foot:
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<laughing> You were expecting science, maybe? <heh> Yes,
this cult's deity construct maintains gravity, science has yet to
confirm previous incidents of possible detected gravitons and
gravitrinos, so the nut is holding out hopes that some day
his religious notions will be vindicated by science.
And maybe there's room for a third foot since there's a
"Conclusion" section to this propaganda piece:
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Yes, we don't want his gods to turn their backs on us else we
will -- scientifically proven! -- quark off out of existance and
chaos. Such academic insight is deserving of a Nobel or two,
don't you think?
Any text written by the creationist cult which may be quoted within this
criticial examination of the creationist cult is provided according to
U. S. Code Title 17 "Fair Use" dictates which may be reviewed at
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
"You can lie about ICR all you want." --
Jason Daniel Henderson
"Thank you for your permission however there's never any need
to.
Gravity holds us firmly on the ground...
This mysterious gravity force continues to puzzle scientists
even as it gives stability to the universe.
How is gravity able to act across empty space...
Science has never been very successful in explaining
such "natural" laws.
Gravity, as well as every other intricate physical law
and constant, is actually an absolute testimony to creation.
1) Gravity does not change with time.
Two Bible verses especially help us understand the
nature of gravity.
First, Colossians 1:17 explains that Christ is before
all things, and by Him all things consist. The Greek
verb for "consist" (sunistano) means to cohere, preserve,
or hold together.
The word is used in Colossians in the perfect tense, which
describes a present continuing state arising from past action.
This perfect tense also implies permanence of the act of
holding the universe together.
One mechanism used is obviously gravity, established by
the Creator and still maintained without flaw today.
If the Lord turned His back on the universe for one moment,
instant chaos would result.
The hypothesized particles called gravitons, with no mass
or charge, are thought to stream back and forth continually
between the earth and moon, resulting in the observed gravity
force.
Neither gravity waves nor graviton particles have been
observed yet. One wonders if scientists will ever discover
the actual method by which the Lord maintains the gravity
system. Perhaps, similar to the creation process itself,
such details lie forever beyond our probing.
Ultimate truth about the universe must also deal with God's
initial provision and His continuing care for us. The Creator
is clearly an intimate part of every physical detail, including
gravity.
Creationist propaganda is already self-debunking." --
Fredric L. Rice
This web site is not affiliated or associated with any creationist cult in any way and neither the web site host, the web site owner, or any of the authors which assisted in debunking creationist nonsense are in any way connected with any creationist cult.
E-Mail Fredric L. Rice / The Skeptic Tank