The primary message of Aron Ra, writer and producer of the Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism on YouTube, was around how creationists lie for Jesus. Creationists simply do not care what the truth is, and therefore can make no concession about the facts of evolution. For creationists it is not the facts that guide them but a demonstration of conviction in a position of faith. More explicitly he says “Among Creationists lying is a means to an end. And the ends justify the means. So its okay to lie if you are lying for Jesus.”
Aron thanked New Zealand for Ray Comfort, a New Zealand evangelical street preacher who now lives in the United States. Comfort has been preaching for decades, and must have been told about evolution almost every day. Aron describes the impact this has had on him, saying “Yet when he got on the 700 club and was talking with Pat Robertson of the Christian Coalition he described the evolution of the first dog as an amorphous mass of meat that sat around for millions of years blind until it suddenly grew eyes legs and a tail and turned into a dog. He knows that’s not evolution. Comfort also knows he has to construct a straw man because he can’t discredit evolution any other way.”
Comfort is an example of the kind of creationist that does not care what the truth is. To Comfort it matters more that people believe than whether what he says is true. Comfort feels an obligation to defend his religious doctrine even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Aron Ra expands, saying “Why would anybody be so determined to preserve or promote a belief rather than investigating it to ensure its correct? I’ve often met people who say they don’t care what the facts are. They are going to believe what they want to believe. And if I try to tell them what the facts are then they get angry saying why can’t I believe what I want to believe?”
He expressed frustration with how critics can have absolute certainty about their claims without any evidence to back it up, pretending to know something they don’t or that anyone could possibly know. He describes how a persons word when making religious claims is insufficient; “If you can’t confirm the accuracy to any degree at all by any means whatsoever then it is a fact that you cannot honestly say you know what you think you know. So don’t say ‘I know it for a fact’, because a fact is a point of data that is either not in dispute or is indisputable in that it is objectively verifiable. And that is never the case with religious beliefs.”
Truth is defined as that which is concordant with reality. While reality itself is not truth, statements about reality can be if those statements are true. Aron gave an example of how one discovers truth, “When a witness takes the stand and promises to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth do we assume that everything they say from that point on is the truth just because they said so? No. It becomes the job of the court to determine whether that is the truth and the way they determine that is to determining whether it is true. So, the truth is what the facts are. Whatever statement can be shown to be true. Consequently there is no truth to any religious belief. Conversely if you have no faith at all and rely on scientific data instead then you actually can show that what you believe really is true. You can show the truth of it, you can show evolution is true for example.”
Aron described how he had once believed in various forms of woo, but had discarded those beliefs one by one as he had applied reason and evidence. Therefore evidence can change t
The primary message of Aron Ra, writer and producer of the Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism on YouTube, was around how creationists lie for Jesus. Creationists simply do not care what the truth is, and therefore can make no concession about the facts of evolution. For creationists it is not the facts that guide them but a demonstration of conviction in a position of faith. More explicitly he says “Among Creationists lying is a means to an end. And the ends justify the means. So its okay to lie if you are lying for Jesus.”
Aron thanked New Zealand for Ray Comfort, a New Zealand evangelical street preacher who now lives in the United States. Comfort has been preaching for decades, and must have been told about evolution almost every day. Aron describes the impact this has had on him, saying “Yet when he got on the 700 club and was talking with Pat Robertson of the Christian Coalition he described the evolution of the first dog as an amorphous mass of meat that sat around for millions of years blind until it suddenly grew eyes legs and a tail and turned into a dog. He knows that’s not evolution. Comfort also knows he has to construct a straw man because he can’t discredit evolution any other way.”
Comfort is an example of the kind of creationist that does not care what the truth is. To Comfort it matters more that people believe than whether what he says is true. Comfort feels an obligation to defend his religious doctrine even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Aron Ra expands, saying “Why would anybody be so determined to preserve or promote a belief rather than investigating it to ensure its correct? I’ve often met people who say they don’t care what the facts are. They are going to believe what they want to believe. And if I try to tell them what the facts are then they get angry saying why can’t I believe what I want to believe?”
He expressed frustration with how critics can have absolute certainty about their claims without any evidence to back it up, pretending to know something they don’t or that anyone could possibly know. He describes how a persons word when making religious claims is insufficient; “If you can’t confirm the accuracy to any degree at all by any means whatsoever then it is a fact that you cannot honestly say you know what you think you know. So don’t say ‘I know it for a fact’, because a fact is a point of data that is either not in dispute or is indisputable in that it is objectively verifiable. And that is never the case with religious beliefs.”
Truth is defined as that which is concordant with reality. While reality itself is not truth, statements about reality can be if those statements are true. Aron gave an example of how one discovers truth, “When a witness takes the stand and promises to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth do we assume that everything they say from that point on is the truth just because they said so? No. It becomes the job of the court to determine whether that is the truth and the way they determine that is to determining whether it is true. So, the truth is what the facts are. Whatever statement can be shown to be true. Consequently there is no truth to any religious belief. Conversely if you have no faith at all and rely on scientific data instead then you actually can show that what you believe really is true. You can show the truth of it, you can show evolution is true for example.”
Aron described how he had once believed in various forms of woo, but had discarded those beliefs one by one as he had applied reason and evidence. Therefore evidence can change the beliefs of someone who is rational an who is honest about the truth. However, he said that believers would not change their minds. Describing the difference he used an example of a discussion between himself and a street preacher, saying “Believers sometimes say ‘I’m not going to change your mind and you’re not going to change mine’, and that may be true in some cases, but not always, and its important to understand why. Because someone can change my mind, if they are right. There will be a way to show it. And I would change my mind because I am an honest person. But faith based beliefs are held regardless of evidence and will not change because of it. So it doesn’t matter if you can prove you are right because they will never accept it.”
he beliefs of someone who is rational an who is honest about the truth. However, he said that believers would not change their minds. Describing the difference he used an example of a discussion between himself and a street preacher, saying “Believers sometimes say ‘I’m not going to change your mind and you’re not going to change mine’, and that may be true in some cases, but not always, and its important to understand why. Because someone can change my mind, if they are right. There will be a way to show it. And I would change my mind because I am an honest person. But faith based beliefs are held regardless of evidence and will not change because of it. So it doesn’t matter if you can prove you are right because they will never accept it.”