A creationist trip to the Galapagos

DVD review: ‘The Mysterious Islands.’ Provident Films, 90 minutes.

Creationists now have their own documentary about the Galapagos Islands with The Mysterious Islands. Not to be confused with Jules Verne’s 1874 novel, this film looks at a trip by a team from the Institute for Creation Research to the famed Pacific islands in 2009, on the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species.

This visit, however, changes little. In this documentary, the Galapagos are still full of beauty and wonder — but mainly a stage for creationist teachings.

Marine iguana "sneezes" excess salt in 'The Mysterious Islands.' (Photo by Joshua Phillips)

Focus and narrator of the film is 16-year-old Joshua Phillips, son of team leader Doug Phillips, who snaps pictures and asks questions. It’s a good decision: The rest of the team are rather colorless, despite the cowboy hat on another member, John Morris of the Institute for Creation Research.

They tramp around the islands, dive the waters and paddle through a mangrove swamp. They marvel at the creatures, including giant tortoises, cormorants, sea lions and white-tipped sharks. Want to play a drinking game? Take a swig every time someone says “amazing” or “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Truly, the Galapagos Islands pack more than their share of wonders. The Erwin Brothers film outfit aptly captures cavorting seals, basking iguanas and diving blue-footed boobies. Music composers Paul Mills and Ben Botkin match the visuals with adventure-music orchestrations, echoing tribal drums and “Ooooh-ing” choral pieces. They should release a separate CD.

But it’s all just window dressing for the real theme of The Mysterious Islands: that all the life forms at the Galapagos were created, rather than evolved. Take the famous Darwin finches, whose beaks vary greatly by the island. Morris and other creationists argue that the genetic “information” for the feature, rather than being acquired through mutations, was already embedded in the birds’ DNA all along.

Similarly, they look at the marine iguanas’ talent for “sneezing” out excess salt absorbed from the ocean. The creationists argue that the lizards are a good example of “mediated design,” a variation of existing characteristics. But hold on. If the iguanas have traits that other iguanas don’t have, how can the creationists say the traits were always there?

Seal seems to pose for remote camera. (Courtesy, Provident Films)

The film then drifts from the islands into territory familiar to anyone who knows ICR material: All creatures have appeared suddenly, rather than evolving; there are no intermediate forms; each animal reproduces “after its kind,” as the Bible says; the Earth was created “not very long ago,” not the billions of years that evolutionists say; and if you believe in evolution, you can’t believe in God.

The creationists go into some length on that last point. Not only does evolution serve atheism, they argue; it’s also responsible for racism, Marxism, Nazism and eugenicist theories that led to abortion. This is guilt by association on a massive level: If you’re for evolution, you’re in bed with the biggest villains of the 20th century.

“There’s no way to reconcile the Bible and the Word of God with evolutionary thinking,” a team member says. He doesn’t try to account for Christians, like Francis Collins or John Polkinghorne, who do so.

The Mysterious Islands DVD has a subtitle mode, apparently to help you absorb the teachings. But the subtitles are full of embarrassments, like “it’s” instead of “its,” “who’s” instead of “whose,” “loose” instead of “lose” and “lightening” instead of “lightning.” Apparently a copy editor wasn’t part of the team.

A final irony hits as The Mysterious Islands flashes a quote from Darwin: “A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.” This after 90 minutes of one-sided propaganda.

If creationism does interest you, the film’s website is worth checking out. It has a free, downloadable discussion guide in .pdf form. It offers a rundown on 20 kinds of animals around the Galapagos. There’s even a bio of Darwin — as a misguided theorist.

Science and religion: mates or mismatch?

What beautiful designs — one from a church, one from our DNA — and how similar. Why do so many people think we have to choose between them?

That’s the question posed in the article that the pictures illustrate: Can Science and Faith be Reconciled. Part of the Pew Research Center, the article gathers an eminent scientist and a perceptive journalist to sort out the issues.

First up is Francis Collins, former director of the Human Genome Project. He discusses the basic questions of “why there is anything at all,” and, in the words of Eugene Wigner, a Nobel laureate in physics, why mathematics makes sense. He goes on to explain the unlikely fact that many “constants,” like gravity, are independent yet work together to make existence possible. His conclusion: God is more likely than not.

That would be a consolation to conservative Christians, but Collins’ firm belief in evolution might not be. He says that genetic findings of the last few years alone make the evidence for evolution overwhelming. He also calls the Intelligent Design idea both bad science and “questionable theology.”

Geneticist Francis Collns

The rest of the article has NPR correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty discussing her research into spirituality and brain science. She notes that scientists have pinpointed the temporal lobe as a source — or perhaps a conduit — for mystical experiences. They can even create transcendent experiences by stimulating the brain, electrically or chemically.

What’s happening there, she says, depends on “whether you think of the brain as a CD player or a radio.” But she asks: “Why are we wired for mystical experiences in the first place?” After all, she suggests, if there were a God who wanted to communicate, wouldn’t he build in a mechanism to do it?

Pregnant thoughts, all. But Pew has other food for thought.

According to a new study, most Americans like science but don’t rate American scientists as among the best. More disturbingly, a third can’t think of anything outstanding that the United States has achieved lately.

Finally, you can test your own Sci-Q with a 12-question Science Knowledge Quiz. that compares how well you score against the general American public. How’d I do? Well, I don’t like to brag, but . . . (grin).

An Islamic creationist?

Creationist Christians may have a new Muslim ally: a literate but quietly fierce Turkish writer named Adnan Oktar. He’s working on the fifth volume of Atlas of Creation, a 14-book opus against evolution. The books have stoked a firestorm of controversy, in his homeland and elsewhere.

Wall Street Journal reporter Andrew Higgins maps that storm in a long, 1,244-word essay that provides breadth but little depth. Most of the piece is about Oktar himself: his background, his influence, his friends and enemies. It also notes the scorn he’s drawn from uber-evolutionist Richard Dawkins.

But exactly why does Oktar reject evolution? Oddly, you won’t find much about that in the WSJ story. Of the 25 paragraphs, only three toward the end mention any content in Atlas of Creation, focusing mainly on errors. Since those are bundled with a snark from Dawkins, the reporter probably got them from him, rather than directly from the books.

Higgins says the Quran “leaves more room for acceptance of evolution than does the Old Testament, which states that the world was created in six days.” How does the Quran do so? He doesn’t say. Nor does he explain why a Muslim like Oktar would oppose evolution.

Interestingly, Oktar’s verbal jihad has had little effect on science in Turkey, but considerable influence among wealthy business leaders. They’ve helped bankroll his books, including translation into 57 languages.

So you may have a chance to read them wherever you are. Or perhaps to use them as doorstops. Each is said to weigh more than 13 pounds.

The facts on evolution

Before you have one more quarrel with a creationist — or an evolutionist, if you’re on that side — click The Debate Over Evolution. This extensive story gallery, by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, may not settle all arguments. But it will equip you for more intelligent ones.

The seven articles give an overview, then a rundown on social and legal dimensions of the debate. There’s a piece on Charles Darwin and his theory. There’s a timeline on developments and counter-developments — such as the creation of the Institute for Creation Research in 1970, and the National Center for Science Education 11 years later.

A graph shows the percentage of people in 11 religious groups who believe evolution is the best explanation for the origins of life. Another article summarizes the religious standpoints — and, in a true reader service, provides links to the denominational Web sites for you to see for yourself.

If you’re in America, you can see how the controversy shakes out in your home state. Finally, you can read some fascinating findings and opinions on evolution and related topics. You’ll find the famous (notorious?) cases like the Scopes Trial and the battle over Intelligent Design in Dover, Pa.

Also click the refreshing Q&A interview with Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project. An evangelical Christian as well as a first-class scientist, Collins argues both for faith and evolution. His is a rare voice for theistic evolution, and for respectful discussion.