Religion or Bad Science?

Over the Memorial Day weekend Answers in Genesis (AiG) opened its $27 million dollar Creationism Museum in Kentucky.

There were a number of groups that organized demonstrations in order to prove that people weren’t going to let the distortion of truth go unprotested. Virtually all of these groups fell over themselves denying that it was religion that were opposing. It wasn’t religion, it was “bad science.”

There is a difference between “bad science” and dishonesty. There’s certainly enough “bad science” out there. Jumping to conclusions on too little evidence is “bad science.” Failing to investigate alternative hypotheses adequately is “bad science.” Failure to fully investigate whether a correlation really demonstrates a cause and effect relationship is “bad science.”

Drawing the curve before you plot the points isn’t “bad science,” its dishonesty. And, essentially, that’s what religion does. First it establishes “the truth” and then it goes looking for so-called evidence, or twisted hypotheses, that support the predetermined conclusion. Where I come from that’s called lying.

When are we going to stop putting religion up on a pedestal and keep it immune from the criticism of reason? Guys, it wasn’t “bad science” you were protesting, it was the dogma inherent in religion. How about we be honest about it?