The Curse
From EvoWiki
The Curse is a catch-all excuse for many aspects of the world creationists find difficult to reconcile with their conceptions of an omnipotent, loving god and, to a lesser extent, with evidence arrayed against creationism.
The Curse is generally regarded to have been placed upon humanity at the time God punished Adam and Eve for original sin. Aspects of the Curse vary from author to author, but tend to include:
- Thermodynamics (especially entropy)
- Predation/meat eating
- Disease, parasitism, infirmity
- Aging
- Degeneration of "kinds" from perfect original archetypes
- Physical death
Creationist Use of the Curse
In attacks on evolution or defense of creationism, creationists use The Curse in various arguments. One of the most common uses is to explain the existance of suboptimal design as degeneration. The Curse is also sometimes invoked to defend creationism against the charge that extinction shows that creation is imperfect.
Problems with Creationist Claims
None of the elements presented as originating with "The Curse" actually makes sense as such.
- Thermodynamics: Creationists associate entropy with decay, but thermodyanimcs underlies much of the physics of the world. Everything from digestion to simply the friction it takes to walk around would be impossible without thermodynamics and entropy. A world without it wouldn't be paradise, it would be unlivable.
- Predation/meat eating: See Animals ate plants before the Fall.
- Disease, parasitism, infirmity: Pretty much the same logic as above.
- Aging: Reproduction is part of the Genesis creation story from the beginning. If so, aging must also have been part of the process.
- Degeneration from perfect created kinds: Many of the suboptimal elements of life include patches of various sorts. For instance, the inverted retina of the vertebrate eye leaves a blind spot, which the human brain is specifically programmed to ignore. If the inversion is "degeneration", then the patch must be improvement through evolution, which creationists deny is possible. This type of arrangement (suboptimal, with patches) is common in biology, and creationists cannot account for it.
- Physical Death: The Bible states Adam and Even had not yet become immortal by eating from the Tree of Life. Thus, death was part of creation from the beginning and creationism, as usual, runs afoul of it's own sources.
