The intellectual arguments for young earth creationism are rather lacking, but YECs do have some emotional arguments that pack a bit of a punch. These revolve around moral evils that they claim result from evolution, notably racism and eugenics. In the resulting discussion any evolution proponent is typically put on the defensive and there tends to be a focus on the facts of the matter. Was Hitler’s genocide actually inspired by evolution?
As a result I think these conversations tend to miss the elephant in the room: the racism of creationism.
A key example of what I’m talking about is Dr Henry Morris’ (regarded by many as the father of modern creationism) book The Beginning of the Word: A scientific study of Genesis 1-11. This is a pro-creationism work that describes the failings of evolution, as well as the Genesis narrative itself. That last bit is where things start to get nasty.
Chapter 11 is called “Origins of Races and Nations” and opens with a discussion of how “race” is an invented, evolutionary idea. Nonetheless, Morris continues, there are certain…distinctions between groups of people. He claims that these are the result of Noah’s flood. After all life had been destroyed the earth was repopulated by Noah’s 3 sons, Shem, Japeth and Ham. Each of the resulting 3 families has different characteristics they inherited from their respective son.
Shem…with his concern for the Lord and His honor, will through his descendants lead men to
know and follow God. Japheth also, with his more serious approach to life and its meaning, will see his descendants enlarged geographically and mentally, coming to dwell finally in the spiritual house built by
the children of Shem. The children of Ham, however…will have to be content with giving service to both Shem and Japheth providing the material basis of human society
So we have the religious Shemmits, the smart Japethites and the Hamites, whose role is to be “servants” of the other two races families. But just who are the Hamites? Morris explains that….
Thus, all of the earth’s “colored” races — yellow, red, brown, and black; essentially the Afro-Asian group
of peoples, including the American Indians — are possibly Hamitic in origin
Although this is a deplorable view, Morris is careful to point out that he doesn’t just mean the Hamites were meant to be the literal servants of everyone else. Rather, they serve mankind by coming up with all sorts of inventions. Nonetheless, the Hamites are simply not smart enough to fully exploit their work.
The Japhethites and Semites have, sooner or later, taken over their territories and their inventions, and then developed them and utilized them for their own enlargement. Often the Hamites, especially the Negroes, have become actual personal servants or even slaves to the others. Possessed of a genetic character concerned mainly with mundane matters, they were eventually displaced by the intellectual and philosophical acumen of the Japhethites and the religious zeal of the Semites.
So, Dr Morris, grand-daddy of creationism, believes that the “coloured races” lack the intelligence to rise to prominence and will simply form the foundation (sometimes literally) of more developed societies. And the worst bit of all is that Morris doesn’t think that this is necessarily a bad thing, but the “inevitable fulfillment of…the innate natures of the three genetic stocks”.
You can get currently get a free copy of the book from Creation Conversations; a forum run by the publishers.
