Creationists gather at a conference to explain, well, everything:
The 2005 Creation Mega-Conference, slated from Jul. 17 to 22 in Lynchburg, Va. tackled several prominent issues facing the creation/evolution debate, such as the dinosaurs, the flood and Big Bang theory.
The six-day conference opened with a performance by Buddy Davis – a Dinosaur sculptor, author/speaker, and musician, whose keynote presentations clarified the creationist’s take on issues such as the age of the earth and fossils.
David Dewitt, Director of the Center for Creation Studies and associate professor of Biology explained in a nutshell, “We believe that Adam and Eve were real people and that God created everything in six 24-hour days.”
In “Rocks Around the Clock: The Eons That Never Were,” Geologist Dr. Emil Silvestru rejectedmthe notion that the earth had existed for millions of years, and instead offered a six thousand year chronology: Creation, six days, Lost World, 1700 years, no big mountains, no plate tectonics, Flood, 370 days, creation of high mountains, deep oceans, sedimentary rocks, plate tectonics form continents, Ice Age, 1000 years, and Post Ice Age, 3000 years.
Flood hydrology is a belief that the flood covered the entire earth.
Dinosaurs were also explained. According to John Whitcomb, co-author of the seminal creationist book, The Genesis Flood (1961), Noah’s ark carried 1,000 different kinds of dinosaurs as well as all of the other species, and the book has sold more than a quarter of a million copies in English…
According to one assessment, at the root of the creationist argument is the concern that evolution undermines moral beliefs, leading to lawlessness, family breakdown, homosexuality, pornography, and abortion.
If evolution is true, said Philip Bell in his talk, and we are descended from ape-like animals with no morality, no aesthetic sensibility and no soul,” then “you would have no purpose for your existence.”
“If we don’t understand the young earth and how God created it in six 24-hour days, then our values are skewed, said the Reverend Jerry Falwell, and he is hopeful that “The biblical account is the believable one. The creation debate is being won.”
The report is so rich that any attempts at snark would simply fall short, so I will not even try. I will, however, note that this report was filed under the heading of ‘Education.’ A Lynchburg television station filed this report:
“We’ll be able to show people the mounting scientific evidence that supports creationism,” said David DeWitt, the director of Liberty University’s Center for Creation Studies. “There is so much propaganda out there depicting Creationists as ignorant. We’re not a bunch of flat Earthers.”
The overriding theme of the conference is to debunk secular theory and to show a creator’s hand in the development of the universe.
“Science rightly interpreted is consistent with the Bible,” DeWitt said. “The speakers all believe in the Biblical account of creation.”
Discuss
The Panda’s Thumb has a man on the inside. Here are parts one and two.