Ken Ham vs. Zack Kopplin

Our friend, Zack Kopplin, has been getting some terrific press coverage lately. For example, see Activist says creationism is taught in 20 Louisiana private schools that could enroll voucher students in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. It says:

Louisiana anti-creationism advocate Zack Kopplin has launched a national database of 300 schools that are partly publicly funded and teach creationism, the belief that all living organisms originate from divine creation, as in the biblical account. The site, Say No to Creationist Vouchers, lists 20 such schools in Louisiana.

Kopplin, a college student, runs the state’s most prominent anti-creationism group, Repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act.

Here’s another at the MSNBC website: Creationism spreading in schools, thanks to vouchers, in which Zack says:

We must to speak out to prevent funding these creationist schools with our public money. We must speak out and end these existing creationist voucher programs. As Americans, we must do the right thing and teach our students evidence-based science.

All of this is too much to bear for Ken Ham (ol’ Hambo) — described in the Cast of Characters section of our Intro page. He’s written a long, furious, foaming-at-the-mouth rant at the Answers in Genesis (AIG) website: The Legacy of Brainwashing. Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us:

Students are being brainwashed with evolutionary ideas in almost all public schools and museums, and they are expected to accept it uncritically. We’ve made this point many times over the years, but a recent news story has made the brainwashing even more obvious. In 2008, Louisiana passed a bill …

We know all about it. Back in 2008 Louisiana disgraced itself by being the first state in the US to pass an anti-science, anti-evolution, pro-creationism “Academic Freedom” law modeled after the Academic Freedom Act promoted by the Discovery Institute. It encourages the use of unspecified “supplemental materials” — wink, wink — in science classes. The law was enacted notwithstanding a landmark decision from the US Supreme Court striking down Louisiana’s earlier creationism law (see: Edwards v. Aguillard). Let’s read on:

Well, a 19-year-old student at Rice University, Zack Kopplin, is on a mission to repeal that law. He is being praised by the secular world for his ambition, as evidenced in a recent article about him. Atheistic evolutionists do not want any talk of “critiquing” or “thinking critically” about evolutionary ideas, because evolution is their way of explaining life without God, which is why we call evolution a religion. Despite their claims to the contrary, atheists use evolution as their religion to replace God. … Atheists blindly hold to evolution because of their rejection of Christ. Zack Kopplin has seemingly declined to talk about his personal beliefs about God, but many atheists have basically claimed him as one of their own … .

Poor ol’ Hambo. Then he goes on at great length, paragraph after paragraph, blasting away at Zack and evolution. There’s just too much of it. The best we can do is give you a few choice examples:

First, Kopplin makes the assumption that science has to be “naturalistic.” Now, there’s no reason that science must be naturalistic — this is simply an assertion made by Kopplin and atheistic evolutionists!

Right — why can’t science be supernatural? After all, creation science is supernatural, and we all know how successful that’s been. Hambo continues:

What’s more, Kopplin—like almost all evolutionists — confuses historical science with operational (observational) science.

We’re not going to bother debunking that one again (see The Lessons of Tiktaalik). Then he quotes Zack about the damage creationism does because creationist kids can’t get decent jobs in the real world of science. Hambo doesn’t like that. He says:

We’re now seeing this sort of claim more and more from evolutionists. They, like Kopplin, believe that if a student is taught or believes in biblical creation, he will never be able to understand or achieve anything in the realm of science. And yet, here at Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum, we have a number of researchers on staff with earned PhDs in their respective fields of science.

Yes, and the best that Hambo’s staff can do is become creationist apologists and tour guides at Hambo’s creation museum. That’s a great use for their science degrees. Here’s more:

… Kopplin is also attacking state government school voucher programs across the U.S., claiming that because of vouchers, belief in biblical creation is being promulgated.

[…]

Kopplin may be offended at the very thought of government money from school vouchers going to schools that teach biblical creation, but we find it equally offensive that tax dollars go to fund the teaching of the religion of evolution. Why should Christians, who want their children educated in biblical creation, be forced to fund public schools and secular museums that teach evolution?

Uh, maybe because it’s the job of public schools to teach science, and not creationism? Then, in a desperate bid for publicity, Hambo challenges Zack to a debate:

Would Kopplin, obviously an intelligent young man, consider a debate with one of our scientists to look at the question of whether God’s Word, starting in Genesis, is true? However, we suspect he will use the same rhetoric used by most evolutionists when responding to such an invitation, and claim creationists should not be debated because they are not “real scientists.” We could probably even draft his refusal letter for him based on what other secularists have written when they have refused to debate a creation scientist.

We’ve long maintained that no one should ever debate a creationist. See Debating Creationists is Dumber Than Creationism. We’re skipping a lot of Hambo’s rant, but we’ll give you this from his conclusion:

What a sad state of affairs to see a young man who desires so strongly that generations of children and teens would believe they are just animals who developed by natural processes. If we really are just animals, why is violence, murder, cheating, or lying wrong?

Is Hambo suggesting that Zack is a lying, cheating murderer? Sounds like it. Here’s the last sentence:

This example should be a warning to parents. Kopplin is a product of the secular education system — a system that is also indoctrinating generations of children from church homes. We urge parents to recognize that their kids need to be rescued from this evil age.

There’s not much we can say, so we’ll end with this: Keep up the good work, Zack!

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