Are You Being Brainwashed?
Apparently there is a humanist conspiracy to fill science
textbooks with propaganda to prepare the global population for the coming
"New World Order".
I have been looking forward to getting my hands on Kent Hovind's booklet, Are You
Being Brainwashed? - Propaganda in Science Textbooks (2002).
Hovind claims this booklet exposes the "lies" being taught in
the science class;
The purpose of this booklet is to
expose these lies in today's textbooks and present another more reasonable view
of origins. (p3)
Some teach evolution because they understand clearly the link between this
theory and their dreams of a "New World Order". The evolution
theory is the very foundation for "Mother Earth" worship, Communism,
Nazism, Socialism, Marxism, and a whole host of other anti-god
"isms". (p39)
Hovind resorts to his usual bag of tricks - straw man arguments, quote mining, elementary scientific errors and even a few contradictions. All of this occurs within 36 pages of medium font text. An online version has also become available.
The text itself is just a summary of Lies in the Textbooks; Part 4 of Hovind's Seminar Series. For a more detailed examination of Hovind's claims on that issue see Debunking Attacks on Evolution (Parts One Two and Three).
[Note: Hovind's booklet should not be confused with the
long debunked pamphlet
Have
You Been Brainwashed? by Duane Gish]
What
Would Hovind Consider an Example of Evolution?
(How to Build a
Straw Man in One Easy Step)
".... some rabbits have adapted to 130F desert
temperatures and others have adapted to -30F arctic temperatures but none can
ever adapt to 5,000F or -400F" (p7)
"Farmers have been trying for years to breed bigger pigs, but they will
never get one as big as Texas." (p23)
"Some insects become resistant to pesticides, but they will never become
resistant to a sledgehammer" (p23)
"Dog breeders may be able to get big dogs or little dogs, but they never
get elephants or pine trees." (p24)
"If I prove a Cadillac engine can fit in a Chevy, does that prove they
both evolved from a skateboard?" (p24)
"Percentage of differences [between DNA] may not mean anything
anyway. Watermelons are 97% water, clouds are 100% water. That is
only a three percent difference. Does that prove that watermelons are
related to clouds? Jellyfish and snow cones are both 98% water.
Does that mean they are identical twins and the missing link between
watermelons and clouds." (p19)
Contradictions
|
Many scientists today approach the study of science with the idea that nothing beyond the natural observable world exists. To them everything must be explained without appealing to the supernatural. They do not seem to be able to distinguish between the operation of complex systems and the origin of those systems. (p10) |
In order for something to be truly scientific in the strict sense of the word, it must be observable, testable and demonstratable. The entire subject of origins (both creation and evolution) is actually outside the field of science. (p6) |
|
No one alive today has observed the creation of the universe, and we can not "do it again" in the laboratory to demonstrate how it happens. (p6) |
Even if a group of intelligent scientists could spend millions of dollars and produce life in a laboratory, that would only serve as evidence that it takes intelligence to create life - it certainly would not prove that life came by chance (p16) |
|
Even though slightly more scientists may currently believe
evolution [1], truth is not determined by the majority. There is no way
either side can claim to have proven their case using the scientific method.
(p7) |
Recent surveys show that over half of the United States
population believes the universe was created only a few thousand years ago
[2]. There is much scientific evidence to indicate this view is valid.
(p8) |
|
The peppered moth experiment was recently proven to be a fraud. (p23) |
The creationists see the [peppered] moth as an example of the Creator planning ahead. The moths are designed to be able to survive as a species even if some changes happened to their environment [as demonstrated by the peppered moth experiment] (p23) |
Attacking the Messenger
Dr Stephen J Gould becomes a "Marxist Professor at Harvard University in Boston" (p34)
An unnamed scientist is described as an "atheist Russian astronomer" (p3)
Earnst Haeckal becomes a "German God-hater"
Scientific
Howlers
Evolution Theory says that all life "came from a rock" (p22)
The periods of the Geologic Column are determined by "giving an age to each rock layer, based on how long they thought it would take these life forms to evolve from one kind to another." (p11-12)
"Evolutionists" claim birds were the last organisms to evolve. "They claim that birds are found on the top [of the Geologic Column] because they evolved last." (p13)
Clams only exist at the bottom of the Geologic Column. "It may be that clams are on the bottom because they were already on the bottom when the flood [sic] started; that's where they live." (p13)
"Animals and plants that die today do not become fossils unless they are buried rapidly under layers of mud" (p14)
"Darwin himself admitted the absurdity of believing that something as complex as the eye could have been formed by natural selection" (p15)
"Modern horse skeletons have been found in layers older than ... the so-called four toed ancestors" (p19)
Horses can't have evolved from Hrycaotherium because a nearly identical animal "is a small, four-toed, meat-eating animal that is alive in South America" (p19)
"There are no vestigial organs!" (p21)
Vestigial organs would not support Evolution Theory (p21)
Human embryos do not have "gill slits" (p21)
"The peppered moth experiment was recently proven to be a fraud" (p23)
Humans and dinosaurs co-existed. Humans hunted dinosaurs to extinction. (p24-25)
"Lucy" is not a missing link but "just an unusual monkey" (p26)
"Lucy" could be alive in the "the jungles of Sumatra" (p26)
The present geology of Mexico and Central America are supposed to have existed 200 million years ago. (p27)
If there are imprints of magnetic reversals in rocks this will make "a north-seeking compass ... point south" (p27)
The Earth's "magnetic field is getting weaker so the earth [sic] cannot be billions of years old." (p28)
There are no imprinted magnetic reversals in rocks, only "stronger and weaker magnetism" (p28)
What's Hovind's Alternative Theory?
Below you will read what Hovind proposes (p7) be added to the science curriculum as a "more reasonable view of origins" (p3). Hovind claims a failure to do so amounts to "indoctrination" (p3).
A Creator (God) designed and created the universe sometime within the last 6,000 to 10,000 years, giving existence to basic forms of plant and animal life that were able to produce varieties of offspring, some of which would be able to survive in various types of climates and/or changing conditions. The "adaptations" or variations of which these offspring were capable of have definite limits. [....]
Sometime after the creation [sic] (1656 years later according to the Bible [sic] account), the world was destroyed by a global flood, whose force totally disrupted the surface of the earth [sic] and formed great oil, coal, and gas deposits from the buried plants and animals. This flood also deposited thousands of feet of stratified sediments containing billions of fossils from the creatures and plant life that perished in the flood.
As flood waters receded from rising mountains, geological features such the Grand Canyon and the Badlands formed rapidly while the sediments were still relatively soft. Rushing water cuts canyons quickly.