I have been directly involved in the creation Vs. evolution battle for the last five years, before then I spent five years acquainting myself with the arguments and science behind both sides of the issue and have continued my studied to this day. So while I am obviously no authority on the matter, not being a science professional or educator, I am sufficiently acquainted with the subject to be able to hold my own in a discussion and to voice an intelligent opinion. A few atheist-evolution scientists whom I have had the pleasure of engaging in dialogue may beg to differ with my claim, but I am confident that any non-bias reviewer of those dialogues will agree with me.
There are many creation science organizations that are on the front line defending true science against evolution. I have great respect and love for these organizations and the amazing work they are doing. However, I do have concerns about the manner in which some of them handle criticism of their published material.
As a person on the front lines of dialogue in the public arena and social media, I have made use of their great material in my arguments and yet have been on occasion stonewalled by the organizations failure to provide me with a reply to an intelligent question posed by an atheist-evolutionist concerning one of their author’s comments.
I know that they are not able to reply to every person who contacts them with frivolous questions, but there should be in place some kind of system to accommodate legitimate arguments against their published material. The problem is that in most cases, there is not. And while I appreciate what they are accomplishing, I can’t bring myself to give them a pass when it comes to defending what they publish and we non-scientists use in our arguments against evolution.
This problem is compounded by the fact that there is not a great deal of the necessary kind of networking going on among the creationist science organizations. There is an unhealthy lack of sophisticated cooperation among them that is necessary in order to effectively combat the anti- God powers that be in mainstream and the evolutionist science education community.
While I will not refer to many creationists organizations out of love and respect for what they are trying to accomplish, to make my point I will mention a few.
I must go on record as stating my disappointment with what I have personally observed and experienced as a minister attempting to get information, suggest actions and important subjects not addressed, and even getting comments about apparently legitimate accusations from an evolutionist leveled against a creationists article that was published.
Although I have received replies to inquiries about an evolutionists accusation concerning a published creationist article on relatively rare occasions, (particularly from one creation science organization, (CMI), and that not without being dubbed by at least one of the organizations key representatives as a pest); they have generally inform us that they are understaffed and too over-extended to be able to handle “debates” over what they have published.
My question would be: "even by proxy via a competent front line supporter who is willing to put in the time and effort to at least stand up to the slander and misinformation tactics of evolutionists that have been so successful in demeaning and hampering creation science and even ID defenses?"
Why not set up a department that trains your qualified public supporters to help answer questions and combat the many anti-creationist attacks from atheist evolutionists? Couldn't the many creationists organizations of like mind form a better network of cooperation with each other?
This is also what concerns me, with all of the creation science organizations around and the amount of important material that they publish and provide for us online, there should be better cooperation among them and greater efficiency of organization so that their work will have maximum affect.
People power should not be an excuse as there are many of us out here who would be willing to work as trained volunteers on the front line if we could count on having access to the experts publishing the material for questions or arguments we can’t sufficiently respond to. After all, what good is publishing an article if an evolutionist can claim it is a lie or wrong giving rational sounding reasons, and the author is too busy writing other material to answer questions that only they or someone in their organization can answer?
If I were heading such an organization, I would make it mandatory for any writer to interact with reasonable arguments posed against their article/publication for a reasonable period of time before they are allowed to move on the other projects. And even after they have moved on, I would require them to have trained sufficiently a volunteer who can take questions and provide updates for serious questions on their material. That would at least satisfy the accusations of hiding behind budgets and lack of time and people to engage opponents of their work. And it would provide data for their archives that would be useful to front-liners attempting to defend them.
It is bad enough that we as believers have to tolerate virtually the entire educational, media, judiciary, political, and even many “religious Christian” power’s bias against us, but then to have the very organizations that are on the front line battling the misinformation and falsely named science, tell us, we don’t have the man power or time to answer the many arguments by evolutionists against our material, leaves those of us on the dialogue front line many times with egg on our faces when we can’t get key replies from the original authors or at least and official reply from someone qualified within the organization.
Understand me; I am not suggesting that creation organizations must reply to every argument by evolutionists or every inquiry by supporters, but they should all have a system in place that will allow for the maximum of efficiency when dealing with hostile attacks in the public arena.
An example of what I am talking about is the Discovery Institute; while not a creationism organization per say though there are creationists on their staff, it does a commendable job answering its critics.
I have used their material on the front line dialogues in my encounters with evolutionists, and when confronted by an argument that I did not have the information to respond to, I was usually able to find just the right answer on their web site, often already addressed by the author of the material that I had made use of in my dialogue. I can’t tell you how refreshing and easy that makes my work.
CMI (Creation Ministries International) is another good example, but with a twist, they also have a commendable archive with a great search feature. Additionally, they provide timely answers to questions via email. But here is the twist, each person is only allowed one question per month, and there is one system for all, so that front-liners (even front-liners who are also supporters) are placed on the same level as general emailers who are not supporters and who may have no interest in defending creationism. There is no special email hot-line for those on the front line doing intellectual and indeed spiritual battle with atheist evolutionists who are determined to destroy the credibility of creationist scientists.
To their credit, they did bend their rules for me on several occasions and replied to my second and third emails, but always with a reminder that they have extended me a courtesy in doing so and that I should wait one month before contacting them again.
But to my surprise, I was informed by a mutual friend that I and a high staffer at CMI shared, that at least one of their key representatives considered me to be a pest, and this in spite of the fact that I had informed them that I was in an important online dialogue with several prominent evolution scientists who were attacking CMI.
I did not mind, because I do understand there situation, in fact I was honored that he remembered me. But at the same time I think it is unfortunate and unacceptable that such conditions exist in creationist organizations, when the primary goal is to inform the public and equip the believers with accurate and up to date information that can assist in defeating the deceptions of the atheist scientists whose clear goal is to destroy the credibility of all creation organizations who obviously pose a serious threat to their agendas.
The Discovery Institute, while to my knowledge has no hotline either, has an excellent data base available to the public and they are willing to assist me whenever I have contacted them by phone to get the information that I need.
Now I know that the excuse that will be brought up is that they receive more money than other organization do and can afford to do more. But that is my point; money should not be the determining factor in creation science organizations, efficiency. Such organizations should create a volunteer training program that will allow them to utilize the people power of those who support them.
Granted a screening process must be in place to eliminate any chance of taking in saboteurs, but the benefit of people power and greater efficiency in combating hostile misinformation by evolutionist atheists would be invaluable.
We as supporters of such organization indeed have our obligation to do more to support them financially, but in the final analysis, the organizations are responsible to get the job done that they believe God has given them and they set out to do. And failure to utilize the “human” resources available to them in order to more efficiently accomplish this is, in my opinion, unacceptable.
I close with this reminder and disclaimer:
This call is not an attack on creationist organizations, but merely a call for help and reminder of their obligation to strive for the highest efficiency possible.
It is also a reminder to every creationists of our obligation to not only provide better financial support for such organizations that are providing such important material for us, but also to keep in contact with them to make sure that they are putting our funds to the best use possible.
I must in all fairness make mention of a few of the individuals in major creation organizations that have shown an amazing interest and effort to assist sincere supporters in getting answers and taking the battle to the enemy.
Dr. Terry Mortenson of Answers In Genesis, is an amazing speaker and a dedicated champion for creationism as many others at AiG no doubt are, I have learned a great deal from his material but he has also assisted me on a number of occasions to get answers even outside of his area of expertise and his help has been an amazing blessing.
Also, Dr. Jerry Bergman of Answers in Genesis is another wonderful individual whom I have learned a great deal from his work and who has assisted me to get information when I had needs in the heat of intellectual battle.
Dr. Carl Werner and his wife Debbie have also been an amazing help to me with their work and have been also helpful in getting answers for me.
Finally, Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute has shown a wonderful willingness to assist me in getting answers to my question.
I do not mention these to encourage others to burden them with cries for help as they, like all others, have their work cut out for them. But having made such a fuss about the need for better organizational assistance to front-line defenders, I thought I should make it clear that there are people who do and are rising to the occasion.
CREATION ORGANIZATIONS-For the sake of those of us out here on the front line with you who are trying to defend you and help get your message out to a public that have been deceived,
please help us to help you.