Chiropractors & Christian Supremacy

I recently read a very good book by Sean B. Carroll, “The Making of the Fittest.” (1) I wanted to review more of the content later for you, because it really is one of the best treatments of the genetic evidence for biological evolution that I’ve come across in a book intended for the general public. Today I want to skip to the end, where Carroll takes up the subject of the denial of evolution by the religious right from an interesting perspective. He compares the rhetorical tactics used by Chiropractors to denounce the practice of vaccination to those used by anti-evolutionists.

Carroll tells us that Daniel David Palmer in the late 19th century theorized that most disease is caused by pinched nerves in turn caused by a misalignment of the vertebrae. This of course was in conflict with Pasteur’s and Koch’s developing Germ Theory at the time. By the early 20th century during the battle against polio, The National Chiropractic Association suggested that chiropractic adjustments should be given instead of vaccination. Because Germ Theory conflicts with the central chiropractic dogma, Palmer and his followers ever since have fought the conclusions of modern science that call this into question. Carroll provides us a list of tactics that the Chiropractic profession has used to deny the value of vaccines and the evolution-deniers have used to discredit the established central principle in biology.

1. Doubt the science. Chiropractors have tried to instill doubt into modern scientific claims that microorganisms cause many diseases. The incidence of polio decline, they say, was caused by natural patterns. They ignore controlled clinical studies that demonstrate the Germ Theory as the causal explanation of much disease. Evolution deniers continually ignore science, and claim that there is no evidence for evolution. There are no intermediate fossils that show a pattern of common decent. Mutation cannot explain adaptation. There is no mechanism to show how new genetic information is produced. In spite of 150 years of evidence that natural selection has been the primary process that has lead to evolutionary change, it can’t explain the diversity of life on Earth.

2. Question the motives and the integrity of scientists. Evolution deniers and chiropractors have alleged a conspiracy against their movements on the part of scientists. Vaccination is motivated by the greed of scientists and pharmaceutical companies. Evolutionary science is motivated by atheism. Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis (2) thinks that evolution is an assault upon the fundamental principles that made America great.

3. Magnify disagreements among scientists, and cite gadflies as authorities. Chiropractors have inflated the significance of technical disagreements that scientists have about details of the effectiveness of vaccination: timing and dosing, the need for boosters later in life, etc. Experts are trotted out, whether or not their views have been substantiated by the scientific community. Likewise evolution deniers also try to inflate the importance of technical disagreement about certain details of evolution amongst biologists (include evolutionary, developmental, cell, or microbiologists, geneticists, systematists, paleontologists, archaeologists-put your discipline here). Worse still, the “expert” evolution deniers may try to get their flocks to think that they have a real research agenda and publish in peer reviewed publications (which they don’t and don’t again, respectively).

4. Exaggerate potential harm. Those opposed to vaccination like Chiropractors over-emphasize the risks of vaccinating, while often ignoring the consequences of forgoing vaccination. Ken Ham thinks that evolution teaches children that life is about violence and bloodshed. Because of the implication that natural selection is a blind, anti-teleological process, evolution deniers often try to show that philosophically Darwinism will lead to all sorts of social ills. Carroll quotes Jerry Bergman, “If Darwinism is true, Hitler was our savior and we have crucified him.”

5. Appeal to personal freedom. Since vaccination of school-aged children has become compulsory, one Chiropractic practice in Denver has stated that vaccination is “a conspiracy aimed at the destruction of basic American freedoms.” Carroll notes that many religionists view the teaching of evolution in public schools as an assault upon the religious freedom. We have also heard about school boards like the one in Cobb county, Georgia, that have put disclaimer stickers in biology textbooks. A balanced treatment policy is often attempted to discredit evolutionary theory by appealing to the freedom to have a counter-point argument for everything, including Darwinism, no matter if such positions have any scientific merit or not.

6. Acceptance repudiates key philosophy. Among chiropractors the idea that all diseases come from a misalignment of vertebrae is not open to further scientific inquiry. Carroll quotes R.B. Phillips, “{A}bsolute truth is already known {by the faithful} and only needs personal confirmation through individual observations.” David Cloud of the Way of Life Fundamental Baptist information service argues that evolution denies the Bible, and that we must reject evolution because it denies god and salvation. My evangelical friend, Pastor Gregory Dickow, has stated that science cannot contradict the Bible. Therefore any finding of science that denies the word of God has to be flawed in some way.

If you’ve been as frustrated as I have been about the entrenched belief of mostly Christian evolution-deniers, but have been a little mystified as to how some segments of the population can basically ignore the scientific evidence, you will find Carrolls treatment of the subject enlightening for the very reason that he points out that Christian apologists think that they are at a debate in which rhetorical tactics can win the day in spite of the validity of the arguments of the opposing team. But the thing that really makes me angry is not the poor slobs that buy in to the arguments of the Christian apologists, but the disingenuous tactics of the apologists themselves. I’m personally convinced that fundamentalist Christian apologists aren’t really trying to convince anyone in the sciences, but are exercising tactics to keep their adherents quiet and subjugated , while motivating them politically to “take back” America in acts of Christian supremacy.

Oh, by the way, how many of you rationalists out there swear by the chiropractic treatments you receive?

1. Carroll, Sean B. 2006. The Making of the Fittest. New York: WW Norton & Company
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Fittest-Ultimate-Forensic-Evolution/dp/0393061639

2. http://www.answersingenesis.org/

The Homosexual Agenda

There’s something insidious that’s festering at the core of our society. It’s likely to take away all of our God-given rights in America and elsewhere. It’s the Homosexual Agenda. Our country is sliding to hell on a greased pole as we let those reprobates take over. They are trying to proselytize our children in the public schools in the guise of diversity and sensitivity training. It’s not about teaching tolerance, it’s about homosexual power. Before you go to sleep tonight, you had better look under your bed. Next to the demon that’s trying to convince you to masturbate, there’s probably also a homosexual that would just love to poison your mind. The LGBT community wants to create a culture of moral relativism and decadence. And you gay Christians had better watch out. If you think that God’s going to give you a pass because He’s supposed to be about love and forgiveness, you can forget about it.

If you’re wondering WTF ChucK the AtheisT is going on about, you well should. This is the nonsense that I heard (except for the masturbating demon), when I flipped on the Christian talk radio station, WYLL AM 1160 in Chicago last Saturday night. The program was called (and sponsored by) Americans for Truth (AFT), “a national organization devoted exclusively to exposing and countering the homosexual agenda (1).” Read on, but later you should check out these folks. This den of radical fundamentalists tries to cloak their intolerance and paranoia in the guise of patriotism, nationalism, and the hopeless desire to return to the bygone days of Christian supremacy. But I think there’s more. For me the AFT and their ilk are projecting their own motivations onto gays and lesbians. The AFT accuses the LGBTC of a grab for power and thirst for cultural privilege that they wish for themselves as the chosen people of God.

The guest that was interviewed for the show was Robert Gagnon of the Pittsburgh Theological seminary. I haven’t done the work to investigate if this “scholar” has any financial ties to the AFT (campaigning, writing, or lecturing for fee), but I did surf a little and found the website for his book, The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (2). This was at the top of the Google search. So minimally if you were to look this character up, the first thing you’d find promotes his book.

He started by warning us that gay and lesbian Americans have infiltrated public schools with literature and teaching programs that are designed to normalize the gay lifestyle in our society in the guise of promoting diversity and tolerance. Gagnon is disgusted that the LGBTC provides children’s stories that promote the gay agenda, which he asserts is part of a growing mandatory curriculum in the public schools. Then he blasts moderate Christians like Warren Throckmorton, a psychologist at Grove City College, for advocating that the faith community should not discriminate against the LGBTC in the public sphere, and not try to derail attempts for at least a minimally humane recognition of civil unions. It’s easy to see where this is going. Gagnon blames moderated gay-friendly Christians like Throckmorton for contributing to the delinquency of minors and the discrimination of Christians.

Gay Christians are also targeted by Gagnon, because homosexuality is an abomination to God. If gay Christians persist in their sin, they will not inherit the Kingdom. This is somewhat in contradiction with the sort of apologetics that I’ve heard from my friend, Pastor Gregory Dickow, a mainstream Evangelical. Dickow avers that it is the belief in the atonement of Christ that results in salvation. People can accept biological evolution and be gay, and be no more of a sinner than the gossipy backbiters you might find at any local church. Sure Dickow believes that a transformation will eventually occur that will lead to conformity, but for him there is an acceptance of imperfection. Of course ChucK the AtheisT and I dare say most of you will have none of it, but you have to have sympathy for the confusion of Gay Christians, obviously not for their sexual orientation but their religious delusion. To be Christian and gay must be an incredible weight to bear. I think most atheists may hesitate to single them out

And saving the wacky bit for last, Gagnon makes a preposterous claim about some nonsense he calls “the scientific argument from disproportional harm.” He says that same-gender sexual behavior, like bestiality, incest, and polyamory, leads to an apparently exceptional amount of detrimental health and psychological effects. Of course there is not reference to any specific claim by anyone in the scientific community. Gagnon. His title at the Pittsburg Theological Seminary is “Associate Professor of New Testament.” I thought it was a typo, but I saw this title in a few places on his website. Apparently the seminary, a bastion of higher learning, has trouble knowing when to provide a noun with an article.

You’ve all probably heard of the Discovery Institute’s agenda and their Wedge Document (3). I submit to you that this is just another manifestation of fundamentalism thirsty for power. It’s so intellectually dishonest to resort to emotional manipulation to advance your agenda. You can appeal to the fear that your children will be brainwashed and your country will end up in ruin. If that doesn’t work at least you can keep Christians in line by threatening them with everlasting torture because of unrepentant homosexual sin in contradiction to what seemed to be the main message of Christianity, that the atonement of Christ pays the debt that your just god expects. No one, not even in the faith community, should have trouble seeing this sort of bull shit for what it is, a cynical grab for power and a return to Christian supremacy in America.

References:

1. Americans for Truth. http://www.americansfortruth.com/

2. Gagnon, R. 2002. The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics. Abington Press: Nashville.

3. Anonymous. The Wedge Document: Intelligent Design Exposed. http://libcom.org/library/wedge-document-intelligent-design-exposed