YEC is a massive conspiracy theory

Young earth creationism (YEC) seems at first like a straightforward denial of science. One might say that young earth creationists believe scientists are wrong about the age of the universe, the age of the earth, biological evolution, and so on. Here’s the thing: if they are so wrong, what exactly are scientists doing and what are we to make of the mountains of scientific papers published on these topics every year? When pressed, many creationists will admit to believing that yes, scientists are indeed lying and engaged in a conspiracy to cover up the truth. Creationists tend to downplay this aspect, especially when trying to avoid being lumped in with the flat earth crowd.

However, YEC is very much a conspiracy theory on the same level as the flat earth. When I listed some of the things scientists would have to be wrong (and lying) about above, the “and so on” is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The list in fact includes most of modern physics, including general relativity and quantum mechanics, and virtually all of modern biology, geology, anthropology, and paleontology. For example, YEC requires that radiometric dating does not work, which can only be the case if the decay rates of various isotopes have not been constant over time, which is in direct contradiction to the laws of nuclear physics. YEC is also in direct contradiction to the principles of geology that are used in the mining and oil industries; academic science is one thing, but the idea that oil and coal companies are more interested in maintaining a conspiracy than actually maximizing profit is a flabbergasting belief to hold.

Again, it’s not possible that scientists are simply mistaken according to YEC. Science would have to be so profoundly wrong that normal science simply can’t be happening as it appears to be happening. This would have to be a worldwide conspiracy involving (conservatively) hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of individuals. No evidence of such a conspiracy has ever been presented.

ID is actually a conspiracy

Intelligent design (ID) was an attempt to surreptitiously rename creationism in order to get it taught in public schools following Edwards v. Aguillard, the 1987 Supreme Court decision that ruled it unconstitutional to teach creationism in public schools. Attempts to teach ID led to the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, a federal case in Pennsylvania.

I suppose what disappointed me the most was that when the advocates of Intelligent Design during the trial said that the book “Of Pandas and People” had nothing to do with creationism, they lied; it turned out the original drafts were all about Creationism. After the drafts were subpoenaed (thousand of pages) it was discovered that a simple search and replace was used to change the text from creationism wording to something, well, less creationism sounding. It was changed because the Supreme Court in 1987 ruled it was unconstitutional to teach creationism in public schools. When I say “search and replace” I really mean they found examples of where the words didn’t exactly get changed enough. You can see it here…

Wherever the word “creationists” appeared it was replaced with “cdesign proponentsists” – that’s merely creationists without the “reation” and with “design” and “proponents” replaced in.

Torrone 2007 (emphasis added) – PBS Remotely Connected: “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial”

The court correctly found that ID is a religious belief and not a scientific theory.

It is easily apparent and widely known that “creation scientists” and creationist apologists are more than willing to be dishonest to promote their cause; ID is just one example.