mormonsandscience

What is the difference between a fast talking salesman and an evolutionary spin doctor? Not much lately, and here’s why.

For decades the evolutionists have enjoyed a monopoly on scientific explanations regarding the origins of humanity.  However, recently this monopoly has encountered stiff opposition from believers.  Believers are publishing books, articles, speeches, websites, and documentaries to show the world that the emperor has no clothes – in other words, that evolution is not the perfect, untouchable theory of science that some would like us to believe.  There are also ongoing efforts to dethrone the emperor and put it on par with competing theories of science such as the new intelligent design movement.  (Intelligent design is using science to show that the world was created by an intelligent and purposive entity.)  

This backlash against evolution has many evolutionists in a tizzy, and they are fighting back.  Like a spoiled kid who wants to be the only one at the top of a dirt pile, evolutionists are kicking and screaming to maintain their position of prominence in science and education.  They don’t like it when other people challenge their positions and they don’t want to go head-to-head with a competing theory.  As far as they are concerned, they are right and everyone who opposes them is wrong.  The spoiled kid on top of the dirt pile has even resorted to name calling; occasionally calling those who embrace intelligent design (ID) and reject evolution, “IDiots.” 

In their exclusive club there is no room for believers who accept intelligent design.  Yet with the majority of Americans believing in God, they are finding that it is lonely at the top, which is why they are seeking converts and attempting to justify their position.  To win people over to their side they have resorted to aggressive tactics of persuasion resembling those used in sales.  Yes, in a way the evolutionist is just like the door-to-door salesman – both are trying to sell you a bill of goods that you don’t want.  Here’s how.

1.  Like a fast talking salesman they are throwing around facts and specialized jargon to add legitimacy to their claims.  To prove that evolution can create a new species, someone might claim that “Polyploidization from hybrids resulted in speciation within the Tragopogon genus through a hybridization of T. dubius and T. pratensis.”  Only someone with a background in botany could appreciate this statement, so how can others dispute it?  They can’t.  If we do not understand statements like this then the evolutionists expect us to just trust what they are saying because, after all, they are the “experts”.

2.  Like a salesman they are telling us that we should accept what they are saying because an important person has bought into the program.  A typical example is the papacy in the Catholic Church.  The Catholic Church has formally recognized evolution as a true principle of science.  If the leadership of the Catholic Church can accept evolution, then so can you.  Yet believers who accept evolution don’t seem to realize that a core tenet of evolution is random change in the genome.  God did not leave humanity’s creation to chance because His house is a house of order and we are created in His image.

3.  Finally, like a salesman they try to get you to accept something small, and when you accept, they raise the stakes to a higher commitment (a technique called “low-balling” in sales).  Specifically, after getting people to commit to lite evolution, they raise the stakes and tell them that they should also accept high stakes evolution.  Here’s how it works.  The fundamental definition of evolution is random change in the genes or genotype – no problem there.  And microevolution refers to minor change within a species – no problem there.  Now, they say, if you accept these types of evolution then you should also accept macroevolutionary change across life forms, the kind of evolution that turns a sea going fish into a land going salamander.  Not so fast!  The first two definitions have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the third has not.  Yet they claim that all evolution has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and so you should accept the entire program.     

Learn to recognize these tactics and you will be better equipped to withstand the fiery darts of atheistic dogma.  Regardless of the scholarly arguments and famous people who accept evolution, remember that, on a general level, evolution is a straight forward and easy to understand concept – random genomic mutations and undirected environmental selection (survival of the fittest) turned simple molecules into complex human beings.  If this bill of intellectual goods opposes everything you believe about the origins of humanity, just smile and confidently say, “No sale!”