 There has been a lot of traffic recently concerning Gish's
debating tactics. I have a hypothesis that could explain it (I'm
sure it has crossed everyone's mind at some time). Is Gish (or any
other big-name creationist) just in it for the money?

 He (they) must make quite a bit of money off lectures and
books. And notice they are all aimed at popular audiences. He really
doesn't seem to care that anyone with any science acumen, or a lib-
rary to check out a quotation will see through his arguments. I
just watched a PBS special on P.T. Barnum, and his attitudes towards
the 'rubes' got me to thinking about this.

 If you wanted to con a large group of
people out of money by telling them what they wanted to hear -- who
would you target? Fundies, of course. Look at how much T.V. evangelists
fleece these people for. And they don't even mind when their preacher
get's caught with a hooker or their prayer requests are checked for
money, then thrown away. (Did anyone else see that CBS(?) news
special about this -- fascinating)

 So, I was just wondering, is there any evidence that Gish
or Morris (or any other of the big boys) are just hucksters; or
do they really believe in what they are doing? How could they when
they knowingly misquote people? Also, from reading all the material
they must have to find these (mis)quotes, they have to know they are
not putting forth a fair representation of evolution. Morris has even
made up evidence to bash evolution with. If these "scientists"
really believed in creation, why don't they go into the lab and
conduct some experiments to test their ideas (or at least try to
put forth a cohesive, testable theoretical framework)?

 A good piece of evidence to examine would be, where does
all the money the ICR makes (or any of their organizations) go?

Chris Colby ## email: colby@bu-bio.bu.edu ##

-----------
> I have a hypothesis [...] Is Gish (or any other big-name
> creationist) just in it for the money?

That's possible.  In the Gish/Plimer debate, Gish protested this
accusation by saying that he doesn't keep his appearance fees,
and he left a higher-paying job at Upjohn for the ICR.  However,
Barry Price [1] claims that once one figures in book royalties,
Gish makes pretty good dough ("several times Plimer's income").

But I wouldn't bet on any of these folks really being insincere
about their own beliefs.  My money is on the hypothesis that
these folks really believe they're doing God's work by deluding
people into accepting creationism.  I'd wager that they lose more
souls than they save in this manner, but I suspect they don't see
it that way.

[1] Barry Price, _The Creation Science Controversy_, p. 61
--
Chris Stassen      stassen@alc.com
Disclaimer:  My employer's account, but not their opinions

