Being religious is about investing in an idea emotionally, and sometimes (I really do mean sometimes for a minority) that happens to such a degree that the person doing so is completely oblivious to what has happened to their ability to think clearly about specific things.
While within this post I am thinking specifically about creationism it can also be applied within many other contexts. Essentially the idea is that the available evidence can be happily ignored and the religious alternative of “a god did it all by magic” can be embraced as the right answer.
OK, this is not too serious a posting, and is instead simply poking a bit of gentle fun at the individuals who happily posed for their picture to be taken along with a question they had after the Ken Ham vs Bill Nye debate that took place within Mr Ham’s folly (creation ‘museum’) some time ago.
After listening to the debate (and I did so myself at the time), the only observation one can draw from the questions posed within the pictures is that either these people slept through it all, or they had a psychological block that rendered them immune to facts and reality. It also becomes clear that they are completely closed to the scientific reality that clearly has heaps of evidence vs on the other side absolutely nothing at all except the bible and a belief in it.
So the fun here is that somebody took the pictures they posed with and translated the question into what they were really saying, and so without any further babbling from me, here are my three favourites …
That is only a small sample, you will find the complete collection here, and they are both funny and yet also true as well.
Oh and least you be concerned, these are all consenting adults who have not only had full access to education and they also just sat through a one hour presentation of the facts by Bill Nye, so if they still indeed opt to stand up and declare themselves to be ignorant after that, then it really was their own choice.
Nevertheless they still perhaps deserve some sympathy, for they are the victims here, the end product of adherence to a belief that is simply not true. It should also be worth noting that creationism is itself not an idea that all religious people buy into, many (perhaps most) are quite happy to accept the prevailing scientific consensus.