If you walked near the Student Union this past Tuesday, you might have heard the sound of a lone man crying out in Free Speech Alley. This man was probably the Rev. Britt Williams of the Consuming Fire Fellowship, a radical Christian church based in Woodville, Miss. For those of you still unfamiliar with these people, their small church espouses some of the most ignorant beliefs I have ever seen. Most Christians believe Jesus preached the “good news” about God’s mercy and the forgiveness of sins, but the Consuming Fire Fellowship professes a God of wrath and condemnation. Instead of forgiving sins for the salvation of human souls, Williams’ version of God is expanding the list of sins for which you will be sent to hell.
The hot topic this past Tuesday was the battle between creationism and evolution. They began by saying “evolution is stupid” – but I beg to differ.
Yes, they believe “evolution is stupid” and anyone who agrees with the theory of evolution is rejecting God. But how can a person who looks at the evidence and agrees with science be rejecting God?
Science does not require atheism, nor has any scientific finding disproved the existence of a higher being. These biblical literalists, however, think believing anything other than what is written in the Bible is to rebel against God and fall into the darkness of ignorance. Let me get this straight – gathering knowledge from a diversity of sources is ignorance? Believing only in the Bible without outside sources is the path to wisdom? This is just plain backwards. The Consuming Fire Fellowship is willful ignorance at its best.
Once their beliefs have been questioned, they try to defend themselves by saying there is no piece of evidence supporting the theory of evolution. According to their Web site, “All scientists know this, including L. Harrison Matthews. In his forward to Charles Darwin’s 1971 edition of Origin of the Species Matthews says, ‘Belief in the theory of evolution is thus exactly parallel to belief in special creation; both are concepts which believers know to be true but neither, up to the present, has been capable of proof.’ In other words, the theory of evolution is a theory based on faith, rather than scientific fact.”
But they have twisted Matthews’ words. Evolution theory cannot be proven because scientists do not have a time machine to travel back and observe the process, but there are mountains of evidence that make the case for life evolving from simple organisms into the complex states in which we find it today. Anyone who opens a biology or anthropology textbook would learn how the fossil record clearly shows different species living at different times, and how human remains have been found pre-dating the 7,000 years of existence purported by literal interpretations of the Bible.
Over the years, creationists have tried to prove the seven-day theory of Genesis by inventing the field of “creation science,” which has sought evidence supporting creationism. This past Tuesday we were subjected to such “evidence.”
“They found human footprints at the same layer as dinosaur footprints,” we were told. I assume they are referring to the 1970 documentary “Footprints in Stone,” which claims to have found human tracks alongside dinosaur tracks. The “Glen Rose Formation controversy,” as it’s come to be known, began in the 1970s and was mostly settled back in the 1980s.
As it turns out, these “human” footprints are 19 inches long, far bigger than any human, and only appear human because they are not the stereotypical three-toed shapes of other animals. Massimo Pigliucci, doctor in genetics and botany, theorized these footprints may have belonged to a dinosaur with a metatarsal foot, which means it did not walk on its toes. Glen Kuban, another biologist who visited the site, stipulated that while elongated footprints like these are commonly associated only with humans, they are also common among birds as well as several other bipedal creatures in the fossil record. “Creation Science” can’t stand up to the facts, but facts don’t discourage the Consuming Fire Fellowship.
I repeat, science does not require atheism. Many of our country’s religious individuals have felt threatened by science because its findings are often contrary to what is said in the Bible. Many events once thought to be miracles have been explained by science as natural processes or complete hoaxes. But there is plenty of room to accept the discoveries of science and still love God and all of his creation.
The Consuming Fire Fellowship commonly asks, “Who are you to deny what is written by God in the Bible?” Concerning evolution, who are they to deny that an omnipotent and omniscient God could not create a complex universe that allows for natural processes like evolution?
Their answer might be loud, but it will just be noise.
—Contact Michael Schouest at [email protected]