Misrepresenting Science in God’s Name
The Smithsonian magazine online has an article Dinosaur Shocker, talking about the work of Mary Schweitzer who has found preserved soft tissues in fossilized dinosaur bones. The topic has been picked up by young earth creationists and used as an evidence for a young earth. This has already been discussed on the web, but if you have not read it, here are a couple of key articles:
- Still soft and stretchy (from Answers in Genesis)
- Dino Blood Redux
- Creation Science Issues-T-Rex Soft Tissue
Though I was interested in the article, I was more interested in the way in which the material had been used and I want to comment on that briefly, because I have seen it done very often.
The Smithsonian article made the follow comments on this use of Schweitzer’s material:
Young-earth creationists also see Schweitzers work as revolutionary, but in an entirely different way. They first seized upon Schweitzers work after she wrote an article for the popular science magazine Earth in 1997 about possible red blood cells in her dinosaur specimens. Creation magazine claimed that Schweitzers research was powerful testimony against the whole idea of dinosaurs living millions of years ago. It speaks volumes for the Bibles account of a recent creation.