It's All a Trick of the Devil

Creationists have been getting a lot of press lately, with their new propaganda film out and their continued efforts to undermine the teaching of science in our school system. These creationists, the ones who hide behind the pseudo-scientific title of “Intelligent Design,” clearly have no understanding of evolutionary theory or even science in general. They are woefully misinformed and, as I’ve discussed elsewhere, approach the whole issue from the wrong end; trying to punch holes in a theory in order to validate their theory, rather than getting any evidence to support their views. These are people who, because of their preconceived notions, genuinely feel that the evidence supporting evolution is flawed or inconclusive. They may believe the Earth is six thousand years old and they may fight tooth-and-nail against anything that contradicts the word of the Bible but I genuinely feel that most of them, if presented with the full scope of the evidence in support of evolution, would at least take it upon themselves to look more closely at the matter, rather than stick dogmatically to their views. That isn’t to say that they would necessarily change their minds, but that if they really knew the full extent of the evidence in support of Evolution, their curiosity would get the best of them and they might be able to look at the situation more objectively.

Less likely to stray from the dogma, however, are the creationists that do accept that the evidence we have clearly supports the theory of Evolution. How can someone that will admit that the evidence supports the theory be a creationist, though? By believing that the evidence is--you guessed it--a trick of the Devil.

Let me go back several years for a moment, back to my very first experience with a Young Earth Creationist. I was about 20 and had only just recently learned that there were people--Americans, no less--who truly believed the Earth to be only six thousand years old. When I first heard this, I immediately thought “Wait...how do they explain dinosaur fossils in their world view?” When I finally met a Young Earth Creationist, I wasted no time in asking the dinosaur question. The answer, as it turns out, is that dinosaur bones are a Trick of the Devil. As if, upon the invention of the shovel, the Prince of Lies worried that the humans would dig straight down to Hell, and decided that ancient bones of giant beasts would be sufficient distraction to prevent such an occurrence. This was, of course, before the phrase “Intelligent Design” was thought up by some brilliant evangelical PR man and thus, before the popularization of the now generally-accepted-by-creationists notion that dinosaurs and man peacefully co-existed.

There are still people, right here in the USA, that think this way. That think that the 150 years of compiled evidence in support of evolution, even right down to the evidence contained within our DNA, is nothing more than the Devil’s trickery. How can you possibly convince these people otherwise? Well, you can’t. Not ever. The Trick of the Devil argument is the ultimate logic-stopper. It’s the adult equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling “LA LA LA LA LA LA, I can’t hear you!!” The Devil has played many roles in the mythology of the Bible and now, in the face of overwhelming, mutually supported evidence, he has been cast as the Mark Furman in the OJ trial of Evolution.

It’s quite the confusing situation. On the one hand, these are people who are reasonable enough to look at the sheer amount of the evidence and logically conclude that it empirically supports Evolution. On the other hand, they believe that the only reason Evolution is so clearly obvious is because that’s what the Devil wants us to think! Where does the line get drawn on such reasoning? At what point can someone in that mindset accept anything as reality? After all, it is the clearest example of willful ignorance I can think of. They choose to believe it is a trick of the Devil because they simply aren’t willing to accept the alternative, no matter what the physical world my have to say about it. So where is the line? If one of these people comes home to find their spouse murdered, for example, can they accept that? If they’re unable to accept the shock to their world that the truth of Evolution would be, how can they possibly accept that God would allow someone to murder their beloved husband or wife? If you go to the museum, a dinosaur fossil is just as tangible as the mutilated corpse of a loved one. God could not allow such a thing, the corpse must be a trick of the Devil, right?

Yes, that example may be a bit extreme, but that’s the point. If you’re willing to accept that objects that you can hold in your hand can have been created by Satan to mislead you, then there’s literally no limit, no cut-off that can be clearly defined for what can be accepted as fact and what is test or a ploy perpetuated by the Nemesis. It is the ultimate form of conspiracy theory, where literally everything can be fabricated, in some cases with God’s consent, to lead us to the wrong conclusions. It’s a small stumble from that place to a state of being fully delusional, forming your own beliefs regardless of what you may see, hear, taste, smell or feel to the contrary.

Make no mistake about my intention; I think that most of the people who use the “Trick of the Devil” argument will never use it for anything but as a trap door to escape a debate that their religion can’t win. But it’s important to acknowledge the full extent of the self-deception at work in such seemingly innocuous statements. Only a tiny fraction of one percent of such people may ever make the leap to full-blown paranoid delusions ... but they’re all standing on the precipice.