By Lisa Walker of AAP
Melbourne, AAP - In the beginning, says the Bible, darkness covered the earth. According to a Melbourne scientist, a new darkness threatens it.
Geologist Ian Plimer says the darkness is creationism, the belief in the literal truth of the Bible story of God creating the earth in six days.
Prof Plimer makes no apology for his scathing attack on creationism, which he brands as a fundamentalist Christian cult and accuses of being wedded to dogma and engaging in blatant scientific fraud.
``I fight fire with fire,'' he says of his decade-long battle with those who preach creationism.
``You shouldn't treat a crazy, religious cult with kid gloves.''
The Melbourne University geology professor has opted more for the boxing gloves in his latest hammering of creationist ideals, his recently published book Telling Lies For God: Reason versus Creationism.
``Pseudo-scientific nonsense'', ``invalidated junk science'' and a ``nefarious fundamentalist cult'' are some of his descriptions of creationism.
His fear is that narrow fundamentalist cults want creationist ``science'' given equal time in schools, as part of a battle for control of the ``minds and souls of the young''.
One of his targets, Creation Science Foundation managing director Carl Wieland, based in Queensland, hits back with equal punch, saying Prof Plimer's book contains ``innuendo, clever halftruths and totally incorrect statements''.
Dr Wieland says his organisation is no more a cult than the Scripture Union or the Bible Society and that thousands of qualified scientists have been convinced ``of the truth of biblical creation''.
Creationists dismiss evolution and take the bible literally. They believe that the earth was created in six days and is between 6000 and 10,000 years old (as opposed to 4500 million years) and Noah really did gather together a pair of every organism to survive a Great Flood about 4000 years ago.
Prof Plimer finds these beliefs fanciful but treats the movement seriously.
While he does not want to deny people the right to believe what they want, he says he opposes creationists relabelling religion as science and using schools as recruiting grounds.
In New South Wales, Upper House MP Fred Nile wants to teach creationism alongside science in schools, he says.
And in Queensland, he says the green light has been given through legislation for ``creationists to do whatever they wanted with children'' at schools.
Prof Plimer says the movement is growing.
``There is no doubt it is growing. Any 'ism' ... tends to grow in uncertain and very changing times,'' he says.
Dr Wieland's Creation Science Foundation is one of the biggest creationist movements in the world, second only to its United States counterpart.
Dr Wieland says about 15,000 people subscribe to his organisation's magazine, but the total number of Australians who share his creationist beliefs ``would be in the six-figure range ... since it represents the historic orthodox Christian view, in spite of recent attempts to portray it as non-mainstream''.
A 1992 national survey of first year university biology students found that one in eight believed the literal meaning of the Bible.
Prof Plimer says his book is not about trying to convert ``religious nutters''.
Instead, it was written for parents who he says need to be aware of what their children can be exposed to in schools.
He uses both logic and scientific evidence in his book in a bid to meticulously discredit the creationist movement's beliefs.
``Do we really believe as a matter of literal truth that our flat Earth, formed from water, stands on pillars and that the sun rotates around the Earth?'' he asks.
He poses basic questions, such as how did Noah feed at least 30 million pairs of organisms on his ark, and how did he cope with thousands of tonnes of urine and excreta daily?
He deducts Noah would have had load 460 organisms onto the ark each second to coincide with the Bible, which says the loading occurred over a 24-hour day.
Scientifically, he details how the geological evidence against a Great Flood is ``overwhelming''.
While Prof Plimer has been criticised by American anti-creationists for his heavy-handed style, the scholar says his views are supported by the major churches, scientists and educators.
Evidence of support from the religious mainstream comes in the foreword to the book, written by the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Peter Hollingworth.
Archbishop Hollingworth writes that creation science, when followed to its conclusions, is ``anti-knowledge, anti-religious and anti-science''.
He argues that there is no inevitable conflict between accepting evolutionary theory while at the same time believing that God created the universe.
The archbishop's fear is that creation theory, by arguing that the Bible account of creation is to be taken literally and that science is wrong, is promoting an unnecessary conflict in student's minds.
He says the push to have creationism taught in schools is ultimately a threat to the proper place of religion in the state school curricula.
(Telling Lies For God: Reason versus Creationism, by Ian Plimer. Random House. $14.95)
AAP jc 17/11/94 17-31NZ