Biblical Creationists Facing Opposition in Scotland

Dr. Terry Mortenson (AiG–U.S.) recently returned from the UK, where he spoke in a number of churches and was able to share the truth of God’s Word with the extremely secular British culture. Dr. Mortenson shared with me some of the encounters he was able to have with people in the UK. We sincerely pray that God will use Dr. Mortenson’s ministry and the AiG resources in the UK to bring people into the knowledge of the truth of the gospel.

Sadly, we’re seeing increased opposition in the UK to biblical creation. A recent article in the Scottish Herald titled “Call to Ban Creationism” explains, “Campaigners are also pushing for stricter rules to keep the teaching of creationism out of schools.”

Professor Paul Braterman founded the British Centre for Science Education, which is, according to the article, “a campaign to keep religion out of science classes.” Braterman doesn’t want biblical creation presented as a viable scientific idea.

The article then goes on to quote Dr. Nagy Iskander. Now, Dr. Iskander is a good friend of AiG and one of Europe’s most active creationists. Originally medical doctors from Egypt, Nagy and his wife Nashua now reside in Scotland. They formed the JAM (Jesus and Me) Trust, a British charity meant for evangelistic purposes. They have a special shop outside Glasgow where they have activities and give presentations, including teachings from Genesis and the rest of Scripture. There’s even staff present to answer questions. (For a more detailed article on Dr. Iskander, read my blog post from earlier this year.)

Well, the Herald’s article quotes Dr. Iskander on his views about biblical creation in classrooms:

My view is that we should mention everything—we should examine all the evidence and all the facts and have an open and civilised discussion about all of this without excluding one or the other.

Of course, we at Answers in Genesis don’t advocate for government-mandated teaching of biblical creation. But we do support critical thinking—the type of thinking that requires students to look at all the facts and to be able to criticize the assumptions underlying evolutionary (or any other) ideas.

Often, after an article like this, I’ll read the comments section, to see particularly how secularists react. And as I expected, their comments weren’t civil at all. Below are some of the nasty comments about Dr. Iskander and biblical creation:

You have to be a very special kind of moron to be a creationist.

It shouldn't be taught anywhere except the indoctrination and control centers (I believe they are called churches)......it is palpable nonsense, utter drivel for the hard of thinking.

Creationists typically believe in a 6,000-year old flat earth which has the sun going around it every day. At what point does such scientific illiteracy become laughable ignorance?

As a Christian and a scientist, I consider that Creationism is utter nonsense and should not be allowed near any schools, whether in science lessons or in extra meetings. It also has no place in any churches.

This is the kind of “civil” conversations that secularists engage in with biblical creationists. This kind of character assassination, intolerance, close-mindedness, misrepresentation, and ignorance of the views of biblical creationists show us that these people don’t know how to defend their views civilly in the free marketplace of ideas.   And one of the reasons is that there is no evidence they can point to that confirms their evolutionary ideas.  They usually cite an example of speciation (which has nothing to do with molecules-to-man evolution—in fact it’s really the opposite of such a belief).

I urge you to pray for Dr. Iskander, his wife, and their ministry in Scotland, that God would use them to reach many people with the truth of the gospel. And I urge you to pray for the UK in general, that this proposed ban on creation wouldn’t be successful and that the people there would receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and repent of their rebellion against God.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken