So Bill Nye, of Science Guy fame publicly debated a dude named Ken Ham who claims he believes the world is only 6,000 years old. I say claims because I doubt he really believes this, because it would make him a giant idiot. More than likely, he talks about this belief because it gets him money and power from idiots who actually DO believe it. I could be wrong. He could actually believe that. I'm not sure if that's worse than him being a con man about it, honestly.
Anyway, they debated and people have talked a lot about it. The whole issue annoyed me and I couldn't quite put my finger on why until today someone posted something about it and I decided to comment back. My comment was something along the lines of how shocked Ken Ham will be whenever Cthulhu eats him. People thought it was funny. I thought it was funny, but on further reflection, I realized that comment actually has a lot to do with what annoys me SO MUCH about this whole debate.
The creation of the world debate is something that science people get a lot of press on and something that Christians get a lot of press on. Both sides debate and argue. Science types show up with facts and data, the religious people show up with lit torches and angry mobs and stuff they think they understand from the Bible. Past that, the whole topic rarely gets any discussion.
No one invites pagans to the debate. No one who believes the world was created by a goddess is ever asked to give their opinions. No one who believes aliens are responsible for our origins are ever invited. No one who thinks we traveled from another world are invited. And certainly, people who honestly think it's stupid to discuss this at all are invited. No, as usual, everyone who isn't the Christian or the Scientist is ignored. In a lot of cases, even Christians who have no problem with evolution or an old earth are ignored.
The Intelligent Design/Creationist crowd is always talking about how they JUST WANT to be able to have an open dialogue about things that aren't believed by the scientific community. But that isn't what they want. They want to feel like they're being martyred because people see them are idiots because they believe the world is younger than some of the trees on the planet and some of the artifacts from old civilizations. They certainly do not want any kind of open dialogue that would involve beliefs of a scientific nature that still do not line up with theirs.
Personally, I think the idea of the world only being 6,000 years old is not only idiotic, but horribly boring. How could we possibly want that? How could we not savor the idea of ancient, dark relics lurking under layers of ice? How could we not want there to be secrets so old and so profound that they would drive us insane if not for us understanding the truth of them in our marrow? Boring. Boring. Boring.
I continue to hope that Cthulhu eats them.
YES. This is absolutely on point. No one in the grey area is invited to the conversation. There are only the two extremes. And if you really think about it, the only ones invited are those who don't believe in the life of the earth they are talking about. Science and the crazy Creationist folks both believe that the earth is a dead rock. No one who believes that the earth Herself might just be a divine figure is ever invited to the table. That idea that the earth is a dead rock, and we can either go to another planet when it is destroyed, or God will come and save us, is what allows human activity that kills the planet to continue.
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