Liberals and the mortal danger of creationism

Noah Berlatsky has a fine essay Liberal Creationist Idiocy.

Excerpt:

Right-wing heartland Republicans may believe in it, but it's the left that truly loves creationism. Political outrage is fine, but everyone has to acknowledge at least to some small extent that sentient humans can differ on how often we should drop bombs on Afghanistan or when and whether women should have access to abortion. But creationism? That's an argument about facts, not morals. It's the ultimate proof that all those Red State yahoos are not just cruel, heartless bastards, but are congenitally, intentionally and hopelessly stupid. If the right lives to accuse their enemies of immorality, the left lives to accuse theirs of idiocy—and nothing screams "idiot" like looking at a Tyrannosaurus and trying to figure out how it could’ve fit on the ark.

Liberal attacks on creationists have, therefore, a unique note of barely restrained glee and purified contempt. Katha Pollitt's recent essay in The Nation is an apt example of the genre. Riffing off a recent poll showing that 46 percent of Americans are Creationists, she vaults enthusiastically to the conclusion that almost half of her fellow citizens are actively and dangerously mentally ill...

Obviously, if you don't have a degree from an elite institution, you must be a fool. Certainly, you shouldn't dare question the scientists. After all, the best research suggests that only 10 to 20 percent of them have been involved in or witnessed research fraud. What's not to trust?

However, I don't think you have to be a fool to believe [in creationism]. Really, all you have to be is human. Humans, of whatever creed or politics, believe lots of things that have no particular scientific basis. Some people believe in ghosts. Some people—even some left-wing people—believe vaccines cause autism. Some people, again, some of them left-wingers, believe John F. Kennedy's assassination was part of a vast conspiracy. Some people believe that Kennedy was a good President. Some people believe that economists can forecast the economy...

All of these beliefs have more practical negative consequences than a belief in creationism. In fact, the only real effect of creationism, as far as I can see, is to interfere with the teaching of evolution in some secondary schools. And given how lousy U.S. high schools are, this is probably a boon for science....

Pollitt mentions the possibility that people just say that they are creationists for cultural reasons, rather than because they've studied, or even thought about, the science. But she doesn't mention her own cultural interests or predilections. She claims she's pointing out the dangers of the ideology, but it's not like her article includes any scientific evidence that creationism is damaging. All she's really got is theory, innuendo, and a few pitiful quotes from troubled scientists who mumble that disbelief in the scientific method is "very troubling."...

I wish my fellow citizens would vote for single-payer healthcare; I wish they'd get rid of right-to-work laws; I wish they'd embrace legal marijuana and stop supporting wars. But creationism? I'm sorry, but if we woke up tomorrow and everyone suddenly believed in evolution, the world wouldn't be one jot better than it is today—except maybe we'd be spared the self-congratulatory liberal concern-trolling on the subject.

I'm not a creationist, in the sense of a young-earth creationist. I believe that the earth is 5 billion years old, and that life has evolved. I believe God created everything in the universe and holds everything in existence at each moment. My take on evolution is Thomist, rather than Paleyean or Ken Ham-ean.

But my creationist friends are right about the most important thing, the central thing: God created the heavens and earth, and we are His creatures.

Creationists are the smartest people I know. I think they're wrong about the age of the earth, but they're right about nearly everything else. They're right about God's existence, His sovereignty, His grace, and His love. They're right about the big things. They are also the backbone of our country-- the salt of the earth-- and it is their wisdom, industry and decency that has made American a great country and the world leader in science.

That's a 'paradox' that atheists avoid like the plague. America leads the world in science, with no real rivals, and we are the most creationist Western nation. Evolutionary education in our schools is and has always been sketchy at best, in part because of parental and educator resistance and in part because Darwinists aren't a particularly bright crowd and partly because the material cannot be taught rigorously when it is taught as dogma, as it is now.

And yet without good education in evolution our schools turn out the best biologists and scientists and doctors in the world.

Atheists and liberals despise creationists not because creationists pose any threat to science or to our civilization. Atheists and liberals despise creationists because atheists and liberals are elitist anti-Christian bigots, and regularly scheduled two-minute hates aimed at their Christian neighbors keeps them in good standing in their social and professional circles in which disparagement of Christianity is currency and lubricant.