© Copyright 1988 by Fred K. Parrish

Dr. Parrish is an associate professor of biology at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He received his Ph.D. in biology from Emory University in Atlanta.

It all started in April 1985 when I was asked if I would talk informally on the creation-evolution controversy to the Georgia Tech Faculty / Student Christian Forum. I agreed to do so.

Normally, when addressing such an audience as this, my talk emphasizes how religion and science supplement each other. Since I have a background in religion, I also discuss the origin, meaning, and significance of the Old Testament. This talk was intended to be no exception.

However, a week later, at the end of April, I was asked by the meeting organizer if I would mind having a local creationist opposite me so that there could be an informal exchange. "Fairness" was used as the reason. Having previously debated several local creationists in the Atlanta area, I had no misgivings. So I agreed.

A week later I was informed by the meeting organizer that an out-of-town creationist would be in town at the time of the talk. It was then suggested that I debate him. By now I was getting concerned-- but rather than withdraw and thereby foster propaganda that I was afraid to debate the creationist, I again agreed.

On May 16 I received a letter stating that the out-of-town creationist was Walter Brown. A brochure listing his qualifications was enclosed: he is a mechanical engineer and director of an organization whose purpose is to "bring glory to our Creator." He debates suckers like me all over the country. By this time I was upset, but more was to come.

A week before the debate, slated for May 30 (during final exam week at my university), a packet of materials arrived including:

1. An agreement to debate (which prohibited the discussion of religion and stated that the creationist was to speak first)

2. A descriptive list of suggested support personnel for such a debate.

3. The text of before-and-after questionnaires for the audience

4. A suggested stage diagram (where the moderator is placed on the same side with the creationist)

5. A copy of Brown's now famous The Scientific[sic] Case for Creation: 108 Categories of Evidence (which lines up against evolution an array of mostly physical and chemical technicalities that take a lot of time to research and refute)

The agreement to debate is illustrative.

                     STATEMENT OF AGREEMENT


I agree to conduct a debate with _____________________________on
                                      (opponent's name)
________________________________ at ___________________________.
     (date and time)                        (place)

The debate question will be: Does the scientific evidence better
support the creation model or the evolution model of origins?

I also agree to the following format:

     Time (minutes)                     Activity

     1-3                      Introduction by moderator
      55                      Presentation by the creationist
       5                            --stretch break--
      55                      Presentation by the evolutionist
      10                            --stretch break--
      20                      First rebuttal by the creationist
      20                      First rebuttal by the evolutionist
       8                      Second rebuttal by the creationist
       8                      Second rebuttal by the evolutionist
                              (Note: Each debater, in his second
                              rebuttal, may ask his opponent
                              direct questions.)
       5                            --break--
      30                      Questions from the audience.  Each
                              debater can give up to a two minute
                              answer and his opponent can offer a
                              30 second comment.

I agree that only the nature of science, scientific evidence and
the logical inferences from that evidence will be discussed.
Religious matters will not be discussed.  I am aware that the
host organization will administer a questionnaire at this debate.
A debater may exceed his 55 minute opening presentation by up to
two minutes; however, any excess time will be deducted from that
debater's first rebuttal. 

                              ___________________________________
                                          (signature)

After receiving the above material, I reminded the organizer that I had originally agreed only to a small informal meeting with a Christian organization, that now this had grown to a full fledged formal debate, with religion prohibited, in a large auditorium with the public invited, and that if he wanted me to participate there would be no more preconditions, no questionnaires, and no more trickery. He seemed to back off, but that may have been only because he had already emptied his bag of tricks on me.

Such maneuvers appear to be common. For example, when Duane Gish spoke some time back at Georgia State University, the "debate" was set up by the philosophy club with Gish talking for 45 minutes, three opponents responding for five minutes each, and Gish taking another 45 minutes to answer. Fortunately I was not a participant that time!

As I hurriedly prepared for the impending encounter, I reminded myself that the creationist idea of a scientific debate is to pick at the scientific literature, keep the opposition on the defensive, and stay away from the Genesis account (which they immediately label as out of bounds because it is religion). Most audiences accept this because they don't understand that the primary issues in the creation-evolution controversy are political and educational and they don't realize that so-called "scientific creationism" is merely religion in the guise of science. In my opinion, the creation model needs to be introduced in every debate on the subject. Given the usual circumstances, however, it is the debater on the evolution side who has to do the introducing.

Dr. Brown opened our debate with the standard creationist line of argument. At the end of his allotted time, he posed a number of questions for me: an obvious strategy to gain the offensive and keep the opposition busy. I didn't fall for it.

In my opening remarks I included a brief account of how I was manipulated into the debate and the nature of the creationist preconditions. Audience reaction indicated a lack of approval for such creationist machinations. I then pointed out that this exchange could not be a typical scientific debate in which participants are stimulated to test ideas in the field or lab. Rather, this was to be a philosophical discussion in which nothing would be settled; that even if all of Brown's arguments were answered he would probably say the same or similar things to other audiences later, as creationists consistently do. I added that, for these and other reasons, many scientists feel that such debates are a waste of time.

Next I proceeded to explain the nature of science: reproducibility, rejection of authority, concern with the physical world, description of how the world works by statements, testability, falsifiability, universality, and so forth. The scientific approach was contrasted with other ways of viewing the world. One example I used was law, which is based on authority and precedent, is variable from court to court, concerns itself with personal interrelationships, is "moral," and so on. (The example of law is useful because most people can accept it more easily than if religion is selected. Once the example of law is in place, however, religion can then be compared with it and both together contrasted with science.) I used art as another perspective, saying "Heaven help the person who has an appendectomy by a surgeon who studied anatomy under Picasso."

I then pointed out that evolution is a scientific statement, carefully defined it, and warned of the creationist misdefinition. My brief overview of organic evolution followed.

Once these points were made, I explained that, in order to be perfectly fair, the source and nature of the creation model would next have to be examined. What was the source? I told the audience that this was revealed in a literature search I had earlier performed using creationist attorney Wendell Bird's version of the creation model from the December 1978 issue of Acts & Facts as a starting point. (I projected Bird's model on the screen.)

This search was to locate in the library a creation account possessing all of Bird's points. Over a thousand such accounts were found, but only one had all seven of his points in order. I explained that the probability of each point was 10^-3 , so 10^-3 seven times is 10^-21. The diameter of the universe in inches is 10^28, and the chances that the account that I found is not the one referred to by Wendell Bird is about one in 10^21. I then acknowledged that this use of statistics is ridiculous but typical of the way the creationists use numbers. The actual probability that the account I found is the wrong one, I explained, is possibly one in 5,040 (7 factorial) -- statistically significant but still highly unlikely.

Anyway, I noted that this one matching account was a familiar one which originated largely from Mesopotamia but had been appropriated by a bunch of itinerant sheep herders who modified it from a polytheistic to a monotheistic form. It was therefore called the Modified Mesopotamian Model, I said, "well known" by the acronym MMM (pronounced ummm). I then suggested that, since further slight changes had been made in it by the "scientific" creationists, it was now called the Modern Modified Mesopotamian Model, or MMMM. The MMMM was then explained in full detail, utilizing "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Creation Model," by Frank Awbrey from Creation / Evolution Issue I.

Comparing it with scientific statements, I was able to show that the MMMM is dogmatic, based on authority, can't be falsified, and so forth. Furthermore, members of some creationist organizations sign oaths that they believe this model to be literally true (the text of one such oath was projected on the screen). I emphasized that scientists don't sign oaths committing them to hold something irrevocably as true.

I concluded by presenting Brown with about ten questions to answer concerning the creation model.

In his rebuttal he appeared upset, accused me of introducing religion (to which I demurred), ignored my questions (as I had ignored his), and introduced more standard creationist rhetoric.

In my rebuttal I used specific illustrations to outline general creationist strategies. I also noted that, when I see how they treat the things with which I am familiar, I have no confidence in how they treat the things with which I am not. Some of my examples included:

1. Population statistics (utilizing the "bunny blunder" described by David H. Milne in Creation / Evolution Issue XIV)

2. Misquotes (using Richard Lewontin's article "Adaptation," Scientific American reprint # 1408, showing how creationists had pieced together phrases distant from each other in the article to reverse his position)

3. Lies or blunders (referencing figure 2.9 in the creationist book Origin of Life by Bliss and Parker, wherein they imply no intermediates between coacervates and eukaryotic cells by simply leaving out about six phyla)

4. Erection of strawmen

5. Misstatement of evolution

6. Misuse of probability statistics

7. Misrepresentation of the second law of thermodynamics

8. Bringing up of discarded ideas from the scientific literature (ammocetes, hectocotylus, Piltdown man, and Nebraska man--- all of which were later corrected by scientists, not creationists).

After pointing out such misdeeds, I gave the names of books for further study. My close was a paraphrase of T. H. Huxley's final statement from his famous debate with Bishop Wilberforce.

Thousands of people have devoted their lives--- many have given their lives--- to better the human condition and to build the intellectual body of knowledge we call science. In describing how the physical world works, it is unsurpassed. In my opinion, use of that knowledge in the kind of deception characteristic of creationists destroys their integrity, subverts their credibility, and belittles the beliefs they try to promote. Is their religion dependent on subterfuge for validation and sustenance? I would rather be descended from the lowest worm than be specially created with great intellectual powers and use them in such a fashion.

This article originally appeared in CREATION / EVOLUTION XXII.

To secure reprint permission, contact the National Center for Science Education at the address below.

For further information on how you can become active in the effort to counter the effects of "scientific" creationism, please contact

NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION
PO BOX 9477
BERKELEY CA 94710-0477

Phone: (510) 526-1674

Through them you can also purchase a subscription to the journal CREATION / EVOLUTION, which contains more material such as this.

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