Why Smart People Say Stupid Things
As I grew up and attended elementary school, high school, and one year of college, I became accustomed to hearing the evolutionary worldview expounded throughout our culture. Occasionally I became aware that a few did not agree with this view, but they really didn’t make enough noise to capture my attention. Those who taught evolution as fact were not that convincing either, but they were the ones taking center stage in our society, so I just figured that I wasn’t smart enough to understand what they were talking about and kept listening, hoping that one day someone would explain it all in a way I could understand. I truly thought that evolutionists “must” know what they are talking about since it all sounded so complicated and complex. It really did not occur to me at the time that a few of them “could” have ulterior motives for teaching and believing what they were so fervently proclaiming.
After becoming a Christian, I soon found out that there were others teaching another worldview, also based on science. Of course, I was very skeptical of what this group of “so-called” scientists had to say, because I had been programmed my whole life to believe that all creationists were bumbling idiots who had no idea what they were talking about. But as soon as I read my first creationist book, I knew something was up. One of the first creationist authors I read, who I instantly knew was a credible scientist, was Dr. Henry Morris. Along with Dr. John Whitcomb, they wrote a book about the Genesis Flood. Finally, here was something that made sense, and was even interesting – though much of it was still over my head. It took quite a few years for me to become completely convinced that the creationist worldview is, in fact, in line with the true facts of science. I have found that there are some creation scientists that I trust and read more than others, and I have also found that there are a few evolutionists who are more honest than others. But the evolutionary worldview still has a stranglehold on most of the civilized world. However, if you listen very carefully, you will discover why it is that they WILL NOT even discuss creation.
As I first began writing this article as a question about why smart people sometimes say things that really are not very smart, I also wrote the answer as follows – Because they want to be free to do as they please, i.e. they want NO authorities higher than themselves. Shortly after I wrote that, I read online something that Friedrich Nietzsche wrote. Nietzsche, who was supposedly a very smart man, had admitted exactly what I was thinking. He said, “We deny God in order to deny authority.” You don’t say!
British writer, and well-known humanist, Aldous Huxley (his brother Julian was a fairly prominent biologist and grandfather Thomas was known as “Darwin’s Bulldog”), also explained why he believed in evolution. In 1966, he wrote, “I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning…….The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do…….We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom…” Isn’t that interesting?
There is one more quote I would like to mention which shows clearly the ulterior motives of many evolutionists. Richard Lewontin was a professor of Biology and Zoology at Harvard. In a 1997 book review in the New York Review, he wrote this, “Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to understanding the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs…..because we have a prior commitment … to materialism (the idea that the material world is all there is)…..materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine foot in the door.” He is clearly saying, as many evolutionists do, that they will not even consider a creationist worldview – no matter what the facts say.
This kind of closed-mindedness is rather hard to understand until you read what the apostle Paul had to say in the book of Romans. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…” Romans 1:18-22
Just as Paul has said, there continues today to be many people who purposely suppress, deny, and reject the knowledge of God. They just will not “allow a Divine foot in the door.” Although anyone with just a little common sense could tell them that complicated things, such as the creation of all things, DO NOT happen by accident, those who want nothing to do with God continue to turn a deaf ear. The problem is, they are the ones who now wield the power in our popular culture. And they are not about to give it up, so they continue to teach as fact, things they know full well are not supported by fact – but only by their own choosing.
Another huge problem is that this group, which includes Nietzsche, the Huxleys, Lewontin and many others, have unfortunately influenced a large part of the intellectual community so that many people are now convinced that any belief other than evolution is “non-intellectual” – and the fear of being branded as a non-intellectual has caused many to give faith in God no thought whatsoever.
Of course, this paradox, of turning a deaf ear to common sense, will not go on forever. As many have now come to recognize, our universe had a beginning, and what that means is, one day, the One who began it will bring it to an end. Then, those who refuse to consider the supernatural Source of our origin will be forced to acknowledge their error. But for now, it is up to the rest of us to allow common sense and science to exist together. And when that happens, the truth is plain for all to see.
