Sensationalistic Creationists

Instead of refuting evolution and affirming how evidence supports creation, this post will be geared toward biblical creationists.

First, I want to send you to an important article on "Ten Basics Every Creationist Should Know". 

Moving on...

In our enthusiasm to proclaim the truth, some of us get rambunctious and will grab things that irrefutably prove the existence of God, or conclusively destroy evolution. At least, that's how some things are presented. I have encountered well-meaning religious people who will pass along urban legends as fact, such as the atheist professor's chalk that did not break, or a youthful Albert Einstein putting a mouthy teacher in his place. Sometimes people are downright gullible, sometimes they act in haste, sometimes a mistake is made, sometimes a source is wrong. It happens. Anti-creationists and atheopaths in general are constantly manufacturing criticisms of us, we do not need to help them out by being blatantly careless.

Slow down, and check your sources, people! For example, I heard that Richard Dawkins said that if a 900 foot tall Jesus appeared before him, he would still not believe in God. I wanted to use that, but I could not find anything. Instead, I can use this hearsay as an example of what not to use. Creationists have a great deal of evidence to affirm creation and refute evolution, so we do not need to act in haste for some spectacular "proof" of our claims.

U.S. Geological Survey/Grand Canyon photo by Carol Wippich

And no matter what "proof" is offered, some people will still refuse to believe. It's not a matter of their evidence versus our evidence, because we all have the same data to work with. Instead, it is the interpretation of the data. Some people see the Grand Canyon as proof of evolution. Those of us who are less gullible and examine the facts see evidence of the Global Flood. We start with our presuppositions.

But why are some people apparently afraid that some evolutionist will be able to destroy their faith? How can they prepare themselves so they are not so prone to panic, and tempted to pass along rumors?

People often tell us excitedly how ‘the lights came on’ for them after being exposed to a creation message for the first time. Many become passionate ‘creation evangelists’ in their fervour to share the very same type of information that changed their own lives.

But sometimes they find it tough going. It often means answering question after question to remove the stumbling blocks that have built up in people’s minds over the years. Thus, many Christians mistakenly presume there must be a better way to reach larger numbers of people in one fell swoop.

This leads to a phenomenon I call ‘Looking for the knockout punch’. In boxing parlance, it refers to a single ‘winning blow’ that will take down the opposition in one attempt. Similarly, many Bible-believers are eager to find some startling piece of evidence as ‘ultimate proof’ of biblical creation. Of course, we’d love nothing more than to be able to reach millions with such a ‘knockout blow’. For one thing, it would certainly make our job a lot easier. But, in terms of evangelism, this is not really likely. People rarely get converted on the very first occasion they are witnessed to anyway. Moreover, I don’t recall an example where a single brilliant evidence has led to mass conversions.

I strongly recommend that you read the rest of "The 'Knockout Punch' Syndrome".