NEVER argue with a fool in public鈥攑eople might not be able to tell
the difference. Such advice would surely be wasted on Ian Plimer, the Australian
geologist who has sold his home to take a prominent creationist to court,
claiming the videos, tapes and books he sells are deceptive and therefore break
Australian trading laws (see page 4).
Some will applaud this lone warrior鈥檚 bloody-minded stance. Others will
already be rubbing their hands at the prospect of seeing creationism torn apart
by lawyers in the courtroom. They may need to think again. Taking creationists
to court in this way is really no different from suing astrologists for
misleading their customers, and could easily backfire.
Nobody should underestimate the mental gymnastics required to believe that
the Earth is 6000 years old and that the fossil record was formed during Noah鈥檚
flood. People capable of such gymnastics will not buckle in court. The
creationists will have their stock answers ready, perverse though their logic
may seem to those who interpret Genesis as allegory. The ruling,
whichever way it goes, will change nobody鈥檚 mind.
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Instead, it may galvanise the creationist cause, loading its notion of
鈥渟cience鈥� with a dignity it doesn鈥檛 deserve. The strength of Plimer鈥檚 protest
may even lead some outsiders to suspect that there must be something persuasive
about creationism that scientists would like to see hushed up: why else would
they seek to ban creationist 鈥渆ducational materials鈥�?
You have to be gullible to believe in creationism. But you also have to be
gullible to believe we are about to slip, en masse, into a new dark age of
unreason. Just as there were no reds under the bed in the 1950s, so there are no
great hordes of creationists lurking in the closet in the late 1990s.
Creationist groups can campaign all they like to have their theories taught
alongside Darwinism and geology in Australian schools. They won鈥檛, and
shouldn鈥檛, succeed. But for that we must put our faith in common sense and the
forces of reason鈥攏ot bans meted out in court.
