Anology on Creation/Evolution [View All]

I've been thinking about the whole "evolution vs. creationism" thing for a while. Since I am a science teacher, I have to consider it.

What it boils down to is simply this: someone wants to play ball on our field, using our equipment, but they don't want to play by our rules.

Say you have a baseball field. Your teams are made up of players (scientists and teachers) who play a game (science) for a crowd of people (the general public and school children). The games are played every week or so, so there's always something going on someplace.

Now in comes a new team. They demand to play in your league. They haven't played in the minors, or they played minor league football, basketball, or some such sport (think of all those people posing as scientists when their area of study is philosophy, language, or something outside the sciences), and they claim to be as good at the sport (science) as the professionals, so they demand to be included. Their argument? It's only fair that you open up your league for new teams to play.

Of course, since this is played for the general public, they get to try out. Someone steps up to the plate and claims he gets as many strikes as he needs, until he gets a hit. Then he gets to run to whatever base he wants to in any order, until he stops. He can stop on 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or he can go all the way home on any hit he makes. This is similar to the idea that, because creationism is based on religion, it doesn't have to meet the same criteria as every other scientific theory. Of course, he gets laughed right out of the ballpark, but some people listen and think, you know? It would make my life so much easier - so he gets some followers who want to play, too.

Switch sides now. Their pitcher claims that none of your players can hit his pitches, and that every time he throws the ball, no matter where it goes, is a strike against your team. So if the pitcher decides to throw the ball into the outfield where your player can't hit it, it should still be a strike. All they are trying to do is win by saying your team can't hit, so the other team wins by default. This is comparable to all of the straw man arguments set up that have little or nothing to do with whether or not creationism is a valid sicentific theory. He gets laughed out of the ballpark, too, but, again, some people listen and think about how easy their life would be if they didn't have to follow the rules, too, so they want to play, too.

On top of that, consider that all of these players are playing from an hidden, outside rulebook that they all follow. The rulebook is open to everyone, but it has nothing to do with baseball. And the players pick and choose what they want to follow. Even so, they all insist that you follow their rulebook. This would be the Bible.

Not one of their players can completely follow the rules of the game, or follow the basic ideas of good sportsmanship. Some pick and choose what rules to follow (present some evidence, but they get that from places without any scientific background or from people who choose to ignore the scientific method), and some play by all of the rules and get angry when they can't hit or catch the ball (these people who try to argue scientifically, then get petulant when they lose the argument).

I think the next time some creationist claims that it's not fair they don't get to teach their "science", I'm going to agree with them that it's not fair - because they won't play by our rules, and yet they still want into the ballpark.

(Hidden rulebook from iceberg_303, on the Yahoo! Message boards)