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UPDATE: Europeans Warned of the "Dangers of Creationism"

from the October 09, 2007 eNews issue
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The idea that we are all simply the result of random chance has become embedded in Western culture - here in the United States, in Europe, and elsewhere. The premise that life is accidental pervades, not just biology, but also the fields of psychology, our social and political sciences, our news media, entertainment, and, of course, our public schools.

In last week's eNews we brought this issue to your attention, today we are going to follow up with an in-depth look the outcome of Thursday's vote: On October 4th the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly passed a resolution titled "The Dangers of Creationism in Education" that firmly opposes the teaching of creation and intelligent design in public school classrooms. The "non-binding" resolution is indicative of the widespread opposition to intelligent design among Europe's political leaders. These events do not bode well for Bible-believing Christians, and are no doubt a foreshadowing of things to come.

The text of the resolution, which passed by a 2 to 1 margin, states that: "The Parliamentary Assembly is worried about the possible ill-effects of the spread of creationist ideas within our education systems and about the consequences for our democracies. If we are not careful, creationism could become a threat to human rights which are a key concern of the Council of Europe... The Parliamentary Assembly therefore urges the member states, and especially their education authorities to firmly oppose the teaching of creationism as a scientific discipline on an equal footing with the theory of evolution and in general resist presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion and to promote the teaching of evolution as a fundamental scientific theory in the school curriculum."

"Therein Lies The Danger..."

Perhaps most disturbing is the resolution's description of the "extremists" who believe that what the Bible says is true: "The war on the theory of evolution and on its proponents most often originates in forms of religious extremism which are closely allied to extreme right-wing political movements. The creationist movements possess real political power. The fact of the matter, and this has been exposed on several occasions, is that some advocates of strict creationism are out to replace democracy by theocracy... Investigation of the creationists' growing influence shows that the arguments between creationism and evolution go well beyond intellectual debate. If we are not careful, the values that are the very essence of the Council of Europe will be under direct threat from creationist fundamentalists..."

The Council of Europe also claims that because Creationism is a "total rejection of science" it is "one of the most serious threats to human rights and civic rights." Yet even more troubling to the Assembly is the spread of intelligent design, which "presented in a more subtle way, seeks to portray its approach as scientific, and therein lies the danger." The resolution also describes Creationists as pseudo-scientists who "sow doubt and confusion."

The Assembly then goes on to inextricably link evolution with the fight against AIDS and infections disease and even global warming: "Denying [evolution] could have serious consequences for the development of our societies. Advances in medical research with the aim of effectively combating infectious diseases such as AIDS are impossible if every principle of evolution is denied. One cannot be fully aware of the risks involved in the significant decline in biodiversity and climate change if the mechanisms of evolution are not understood."

Rather than encouraging open scientific debate, the Council of Europe is employing fear-mongering and government-imposed censorship to stifle intelligent design - which they view as a growing threat. The good news is that more people are opening their eyes to the truth.

Why Do They Feel Threatened?

The more we learn about universe, the more obvious it becomes that we are not the result of random chance. The discovery of DNA, in particular, has radically transformed modern science and changed how many look at the origin of life. DNA is a digital, error-correcting, and self-replicating code; and within its complicated and elegant structure are the blueprints of every living thing on the planet. According to Dr. Jerry Bergman, a professor of science at Northwest College, "At the moment of conception, a fertilized human egg is about the size of a pinhead, yet it contains information equivalent to about six billion chemical letters. This is enough information to fill 1000 books, 500 pages thick with print so small you would need a microscope to read it! If all the chemical letters in the human body were printed in books, it is estimated they would fill the Grand Canyon fifty times!"

Random chance cannot account for the complex design of DNA. It is statistically and mathematically impossible. The chances of winning the state lottery every week of your life from the age of 18 to 99 are better than the odds of a single-celled organism being formed by random chance. Likewise, the probability of spontaneous generation is about the same as the probability that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard could assemble a 747 from the contents therein. It is impossible. The evidence all points to the unavoidable conclusion that we not the product of chance or evolution, but the result of intelligent design.