Can someone tell me some good questions to ask to the creationist side.?

Question

I'm having a evolutionist vs.creationist debate at school and i was put on the evolutionist side.

Answer 1

With dating methods, a lot of creationists like to bring up an experiment involving a recent volcano eruption and Potassium-Argon dating. The experiment used the Potassium-Argon dating method to date a recent eruption (I think it was Mt. St. Helen, but I can't remember), supposedly to test the method to see if it was reliable since they already knew the date if the eruption. The test was way, WAY off the mark, and creationists like to use this example to say that ALL dating methods are unreliable, so the earth really is only 6000 years old.

If that gets brought up, the reason that the test didn't work is because Potassium-Argon dating can only test things that are extremely old, like australopithecine fossils, which are millions of years old. If you use the dating methods outside of their context, then you are going to get the wrong date, so if you try to date something that has happened in the past century with Potassium-Argon, you are obviously going to get the wrong date.

Also, creationists like to say that the world is only 6000 years old. They use the generations of people in the Bible and count backwards, and most agree that the world was created around 4004 bce. Well, different areas of science have proof to the contrary. Geology has dated rocks that are billions of years old, Anthropology has dated skeletal remains that are milions of years old, Archaeology has dated artifacts that are thousands of years old (BEFORE 4004 bce). Examples of this are  ÃƒÂƒÃ‚‡atalhöyük, dating from around 7500 bce, and well before that was that Natufian culture, which dates as early as 14,500 bp.

You can point out that even one of the popes backed evolution. Pope John Paul II called evolution "an effectively proven fact."

For more on that, I'll put a link for it under sources

For debates like this, the best offense is a good defense. Try to figure out what they will say against evolution so that you will be able throw something right back at them in defense, and what they will say in favor of creation so that you can show scientific evidence that they are wrong.

Answer 2

My sociology professor says you can't prove anything you can only disprove things.  He says that is how research is done.   If that is so, then theories are just that:  theories.  

You should think about switching sides in this debate.  The Creationist side is much more interesting AND entertaining.

Answer 3

We now have very powerful evidence that the universe is about 13.5 billion years old.  I don't know the most precise number off the top of my head.  In all the universe there are over 100 billion galaxies with sometimes hundreds of billions of stars in a single galaxy.  Considering that we appear to be a totally ordinary star that didn't have humans for the first 4.5 billion years, why did he wait so long to create us. Why would he create such a vast universe and place us in such a nondescript location.  We seem to be just one of billions if you look at the stars as solar systems.  Why has the fossil record indicated a steady progression of life getting more complex and radiating into new types of organisms throughout that time.  Why do we resemble chimps more closely than any other animals and also share DNA that indicates we are closely related to them.  Some of the DNA like on specific parts of a mitochondria doesn't code for protein so the argument that God would make similar animals in the same way doesn't really make sense.  Those differences equate to patterns of random noise and common ancestors. It roughly corroborates the fossil record.

Answer 4

A good question is: 'Are they really conflicting?'

It sounds strange but a catholic nun, a very firm believer, convinced me that the Bible should be read as a story, and not be taken literally when it comes to origin of species.

She said: what you read in the Bible about it, is written as a story, otherwise it wouldn't convince people of God's existence (her words). Evolution is a new discovery that came later, and any openminded christian should recognize it and not take the Bible literally. Even the big bang can be recognized by christians. Only the likelihood that it started with chemical reaction, as a matter of coincidence, was a point of discussion for her. But that's the moment before evolution. Just tell them: a good Christian does not refuse to accept new discoveries.

Answer 5

Well for one thing be respectful instead of arrogant and condescending.   Nobody believes something because some pompous intellectual decided to call their  'Theory' a 'Law'.

Also, calling people stupid or know-nothings because they disagree is both impolite & bad logic.

Here's a fun question.  

If you were God, would you create a world that could not change unless you personally changed it?

OR  Would you make a world that naturally porduced new and interesting variations?

Answer 6

Ask them if the proven science of Geology, where they dig deep into the ground through different sedimentary layers, and find things that can be carbon-dated, to precise times, by the most modern scientific techniques, including the million year-old, oil levels, that run our gasoline-powered vehicles, which is based on earth studies, is just all make-believe...

As a rebuttal to their arguments, you can always say, "As science improves, history changes". Their arguments can't change, because they're stuck on one imaginary, un-verifyable premise!

Answer 7

First question: Which creationist theory do you support and why are the others wrong?

There's the young earth theory, old earth theory, punctuated earth theory and literal earth theory

New earth about 10,000 years old. Old earth, millions of years but not billions. Punctuated earth old but lots of time passed between things happening. Literal earth 4004 BC was creation (actually 23 October of that year) Then you can get into how the bible describes the earth as flat with crystal dome over it.

Second question: If it was intelligent design, why is the human body so prone to damage and disease?

Cholesterol, heart problem's, sickle cell anemia, birth defects, sprains, strains, and bad backs. Don't allow any supernatural explanation ie "God punished man..." These are design problems that weren't fixed.

Third "Who created the intelligent designer?" The ID gang goes on about some designer but where did he/she come from?

See also

Answer 8

Ask them why we should believe the myth collection of an ancient desert tribe, which is objectively really no more reliable than the Greek legends about Titans and Zeus, over the mountain of evidence that science presents us for an old Earth.

Be careful about this approach though, as pointing that the Bible is objectively no more reliable than the Illiad is very un-PC. You may want to concentrate on their claims of it being literally true.

When they retort that it's the word of God ask them to present evidence as to why you should believe this. If they attempt to do so, ask yourself if you can find "evidence" for the literal truth of the ancient Greek creation myth by the same criteria they're using, and if you can throw it in their faces.

Ask them how we can see astronomical objects millions of light years away if the universe isn't millions of years old.

Ask them to explain actual observed instances of evolution, like bacteria evolving antibiotic resistance, AIDS strains evolving resistance to various AIDS medications, and some cockroaches evolving an aversion to sugar because roach poison is made with sugar.

You'll find some good stuff on this site.

http://www.creationtheory.org/

Answer 9

ask them about all the incest that went on with adam and eve and their kids

ask them if they take medication, or would receive lifesaving medical treatment.. then ask them why they would if they dont believe what science has to offer

Answer 10

my favorite is :

If humans were created intelligently, then why do we have an appendix?

question 2

Are there no more unicorns and dragons because the didn't make it onto Noah's Ark?Go to the library and check out a book called  "Why People believe Weird Things" it has a whole chapter on this topic.

Answer 11

Go here for ammo, as these people are countering the attack from the creationist know-nothings. I hope this is not a biology class, as creationism does not have one scintilla of evidence in its support.

http://www.talkorigins.org

http://www.aboutdarwin.com

The first answer is wrong. Theories do not get promoted to fact. Theories explain fact. Fact is the lowest level in the concept hierarchy. Theory is the highest.

Tera. Your sociology professor is an idiot!! Falsification of hypothesis and confirmation evidence of theory are two different things. Theory is the highist concept in science and is a linked series of explanations of phenomenon that is well supported by many converging lines of evidence. It is obvious you do not understand that and are well out side your purview.

Creationism has not one scintilla of evidence in support of it.

Answer 12

First -remember it is no longer called the Theory of Evolution, it is now called the LAW of Evolution.

Second, ask about the fossil record.

Third, remember that FAITH is simply the Unknowable promoted to the Irrefutable.  

Carbon dating is Scientific Fact, not made up.

The classic question is' between "let there be light"  and the creation of the animals, was it a 24 hour day? or could it have been 48 hours?  or 2 1/2 billion years?   You get the idea.  Go For It!!!

Answer 13

Dendrochronology (tree ring dating), it works like a bar code and goes back 9000 years, but is only good against young earthers..

Ask them what evidence supports their side, that throws most of them. There isn't any. Any they claim generally doesn't hold up to close scrutiny.

The dating of rocks by radioactive decay. Plate tectonics. The observed evolution of a new species of mosquito in the London underground in the space of 100 or so years.

There's a really long list.

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/