Panda's Thumb has a spy at 2005 Creation Mega Conference

Well let's take a little look at the anti-science crowd okay-dokey?

I arrived in Lynchburg without incident and located my host for the next few days; the Sleep Inn. Check-in went smoothly. The nice person at the desk pointed me towards the Liberty University campus. I decided to walk.

So far, so good. Oooh it's at Lynchburg, He might have a Jerry Falwell sighting!

It was rather hot and humid and I was sweating quite a bit when I managed to locate the Vines Center, which was the main facility for the conference.

That's because air conditioning requires science and science is bad! Get hot with the Lord!

I go inside, let my eyes adjust to the dim lighting, and locate the conference registration table. I waited my turn, paid my $150 (!!)registration fee, and received my conference package. A complete schedule of the presentations. A notebook. Promotional material for various creationist groups. A copy of Ken Ham's subtly titled book The Lie: Evolution. Ham is the President of Answers in Genesis, co-sponsor of the conference.
I already had a copy of Ham's book, and had read it a few years ago. My brother, thinking he was being amusing, got it for me as a birthday present. The second paragraph of the book's introduction says, “My parents knew that evolution was wrong because it was obvious from Genesis that God had given us the details of the creation of the world.” One of the presenters at the conference expressed the same thought more directly: “God said it, that settles it.”

Well there you go then. Debates over. I don't know why I was so confused. Thanks for straightening me out.

They hate the fact that they must wage this war on science's turf. They want to be able to cite the authority of scripture and have everyone else take them seriously. It is already a major defeat for them that they must argue in scientific terms.
That is why many of the scientific assertions they make are jaw-droppingly ignorant. That is why they are able to stand in front of audiences, and, without apparent shame, speak with great confidence on subjects they obviously know nothing about. That is why one of the rallying cries I heard several times during the conference was, "It doesn't take a PhD!" Getting it right is not something that is important to them. Victory over the enemy is what's important. If achieving that victory means playing fast and loose with the facts then so be it.

Let's hear it for Ignorance!

People start taking their seats and Jerry Falwell approaches the platform. Golly! He's famous. I've seen him on television.

Oooh here we go.

He describes the conference as an historic event, and claims around 2000 attendees. My own informal count says that's a plausible number. He then asserts that all the polls show that 2/3 to 3/4 of Americans agree with AiG on this issue, which is total nonsense. The polls have consistently shown that the percentage of people accepting the Young-Earth position is just under fifty percent.

He boasts that the debate is being won by the church. He says that despite having the media, Hollywood and academe against them, the church of Jesus Christ returned George W. Bush to the White House. And this is about science, right?

Then he launches into the standard pitch about creation being necessary to redemption. If Genesis is unreliable, then how can they be confident that the crucifixion account is true.
Evolution implies humans are worthless animals that have no value except to PETA. Laughter.

If God could create an adult Adam with apparent age, why couldn't he do the same with the universe? (I suppose He could have, but why would He?)

Wow! Man that creeps me out! These people are in an ideological war! And they think they are winning. Are they? Next up was Ken Ham, author of "The Lie: Evolution". I wonder what his take will be?

Here's a list of the things Ham described as needing to be retrieved by the Christian community: Christian Institutions, History, Creation, Chemistry, DNA, Marriage, Dinosaurs, Animal Kinds, Biology, Genetics, The Meaning of Death, Physics, Geology, The Grand Canyon, People Groups, Education and Genesis 1-11.

Dinosaurs? Not Dinosaurs you bastards, we love Dinosaurs!

Okay that is enough! I have waded in the shallow end of the gene pool long enough. These people need to be stopped! They can teach their own inbred children any damn thing they want, but that is not good enough. They want to retard our children's education so that won't feel so inferior to those "stupid intellecktewels".

I say NO! We did not survive millions of years of hardships and civilization building just so some lazy southern imbeciles could demand that we stop being so smart and start allowing them to feel superior once in a while. Too damn bad! You want to feel smart, get smart! Read, study, explore, and allow your tiny minds to open up to new and possibly life altering knowledge.

In other words stop being a Dumbass!