I hate Austin in April. Every plant and fungus in the area is intent on producing the maximum amount of allergens possible. But that’s just an aside. The real issue isn’t that the planets are trying to kill me, it just seems that way to me. The real issue is that the plants are trying to reproduce and my bodily systems are rejecting the pollen that has spewed into the air.
It’s not the plant’s fault.
Likewise, whenever I see a claim like this
13. Why hasn’t anyone collected the millions of dollars in rewards for proof of evolution?
from a creationist, I just have to laugh. The simple answer isn’t that it’s not because there isn’t sufficient evidence for evolution. It’s because creationists refuse to acknowledge it.
Look at this way, if evidence mattered, then there wouldn’t be any creationists. I’ve done one series and am working on this one of debunking creationist falsehoods, misconceptions, and mistakes. And yet nothing I’m doing is in anyway unique. These are arguments that have been destroyed dozens of times in the past. And yet the authors of each new website and forum post think that they are producing the ultimate argument against which evolution cannot stand.
Read the transcript of the Kitzmiller trial. Doctors Ken Miller and Kevin Padian presented tons of evidence, each one reinforced with peer-reviewed papers. While Michael Behe (supporting the creationist side) admitted to not having read dozens of books and over 50 papers specifically about the evolution of the immune system, yet said that they wouldn’t meet his criteria even if he read them.
If evidence mattered to these people, then the question would be over and I’d be blogging about my cat.
Look at Michael Behe. He has a tenured spot in a university. He doesn’t actually have to teach classes or do research though, because he’s being covered by a grant from the Discovery Institute. In his own words, he doesn’t do research because he’s more interested in the larger theoretical issues of Intelligent Design.
Where can I get a job like that? He pumps out a book every couple of years and otherwise gets to sit at home in his underwear eating chips and watching MASH reruns. He has a vested interest in not accepting the evidence.
If it wasn’t for Intelligent Design, he’d be a nobody researcher and a nobody teacher at a small university. Now he gets to spend time giving talks to the Greater Atlanta Christian Women’s Bridge Club. He doesn’t have to deal with all those pesky questions from researchers and biologists.
So, why hasn’t anyone collected the prize money?
The first reason is that in all of the examples I’m aware of, the prize money doesn’t actually exist. Even the website I’m debunking here states that they have a $1,000,000 prize… but that they don’t actually have a million dollars.
The second reason is that the requirements are either super vague or so specific that they cannot be answered. For example in our Missing Universe Museum example
That reward* is yours if you can fill in the frames below with living transitional forms from one kind to another as shown in the fictional example above.
Emphasis in the original. (The asterisks points to the statement that they don’t actually have a million dollars.)
What they want is an animal that is alive today that is intermediate between (for example) an artiodactyl and a cetacean. Or between a dinosaur and a bird. Or between a lizard and a mammal.
Even to someone who is casually aware of biology and paleontology, this is clearly impossible. Of course, they must know that fossils exist, which why they require a ‘living’ example.
Also note that they use the Biblical word ‘kind’. Which is, at best, ill-defined. Is a ‘kind’ a species or a family or something else?
In general, whenever a creationist makes a ‘prize’ like this, they have a select group of ‘judges’. The judges are either creationists themselves or people who are not biologists. Indeed, in one case, an organization had many people listed on their panel of judges. I contacted a few of them and the ‘judges’ weren’t even aware that they were on the list.
Finally, the evidence is already freely available in thousands of books, millions of peer-reviewed papers, and hundreds of courses taught every semester in biology departments all over the world. Why not just look at the evidence instead of paying someone a huge sum (that doesn’t actually exist) to do something when it can be done for free?
Because that’s not the point of the prize. The point is to make it so impossible that anyone who tries is guaranteed to fail, thus promoting the agenda of the person offering the prize.
Here’s an example of all of these.
It’s a win-win for the creationists. If someone challenges them, then they use their judges, their rules, and their ability to change things on the fly to crush the challenger. If no one challenges them, then they say no one can and declare victory.
