Back To The Middle Ages - The Creationist´s Worldview

Anyone wondering why the religious convictions of the candidates play such a major role in the US election campaign will be no less surprised that many supporters of the Republican Party even reject or even oppose the generally accepted theory of evolution according to Charles Darwin.

A faithful interpretation of the Bible and fear of the secularization of American society combine to form an aggressive hostility to science. The replacement of the scientifically founded model of evolution by the dogmas of creationism is the goal of large sections of the conservative right. What's behind all this?

The Creationist World View - Everything Has Always Been This Way

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, forty-two percent of Americans today believe that life on Earth is not subject to any evolutionary change. All life, therefore, existed from the beginning in its today's form.

Even though there are numerous, sometimes conflicting currents among the creationists, a considerable success of their fundamental convictions is therefore apparent.

When people talk about creationism in the USA today, the keyword "Intelligent Design" usually appears. This buzzword stands for the conviction that the emergence of life in particular and ultimately even of the entire universe must be a work of the Creator, God.

The followers of Intelligent Design derive this conviction from the Bible, who as believing Christians believe that they must take it literally.

Creationism rejects the notion that the whole of creation can only have come about through accidental events, mutations, and the influence of the same laws of nature everywhere.

They reject the scientific search for an answer to the question of the principles according to which the world came into being in favor of belief in creative intelligence

The idea of "intelligent design" not only excludes chance as the driving force behind world development but also speaks for a teleological view of the world.

Teleology (from telos - the goal) is a view that exchanges cause and effect. While most people see causality as a development from the past into the future, the teleological view reverses this chain.

Accordingly, the cause that sets a chain of events in motion does not lie at its beginning, but in its future outcome. One speaks here of a so-called final cause.

From a philosophical point of view, this is an interesting question, and questions about the irrevocability of the principle of causality are also unquestionably legitimate in theoretical physics models of thought. To bring an all-encompassing and planning intelligence into play, however, has no scientific, but purely religious motives.

So the origin of man as he is today was planned from the beginning by God and thus also determined his development. So it was not chaotic processes and selection that affected the emergence of the species, but a complete, divine plan.

The intensity and rhetorical refinement with which creationists defend their world view against any criticism, however scientifically founded, is indeed fascinating, but ultimately, due to their pseudo-scientific diction, not the subject of discussion here.

Attack on religion-free education - How the creationists want to give themselves the appearance of science

Religious nonsense is not really a severe problem in a free and enlightened society. Religion and state are clearly separated in the USA, as in all other western nations.

The education sector is, therefore, immune to the dangers of sectarian aberrations. In the case of creationism, however, the situation is a little different.

As mentioned above, creationists, especially the followers of "Intelligent Design," are never at a loss to justify their views. Their ingenuity is just as great when it comes to their concern to make creationism a binding subject matter in American schools on an equal footing with Darwin's theory of evolution.

The principle of keeping religious topics out of the traditional teaching of public schools is something the creationists want to avoid. They argue that the idea of "intelligent design" is by no means a religious doctrine. Their idea is, just like the theory of evolution, a scientific theory. Therefore, according to the argumentation, it is only right and proper to teach "intelligent design" in biology classes on an equal footing with evolutionary theory.

Now one could sit back and relax as an enlightened citizen, for the creationists have so far had to deal with a court every time they wanted to enforce their demands.

But the apparent inferiority of this lobby is a vast deception. After all, they had already managed to pull George W. Bush on their side in 2005. He advocated teaching creationism and evolution theory in parallel.

George W. Bush is no longer in office, and so far all courts have ruled against the representatives of "Intelligent Design," but it may only be a matter of time before their efforts are successful.

The religious right is an essential political influence in the USA. The lobbying work it does is crowned with success in many other areas.

It is to be feared that attempts to undermine the separation of state and church in the USA will continue and eventually be successful. For me personally, the idea of a nuclear-armed ally led by religious fundamentalists is not a vision of the future that I look forward to with joy.

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