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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— June – July 2013
W
HEN out for a walk I sometimes
come home heavier than when I
left, weighed down by a pocket-
ful of stones and a fistful of sticks.
Little stones might stay as comforting pebbles
in the bottom of my jacket pocket, to be rubbed
smooth for many months, until a pocket clea-
rout when they are randomly re-deposited like
tiny erratics. The sticks are for kindling. Larger
stones with unusual colours or fossils get the hon-
our of inclusion in the rock collection at my front
door. Occasionally, I notice that these carefully-
curated stones have been moved, perhaps by an
opportunist looking for a handy secret key. There
isn’t one.
Geology’s timeframe is so vast that myths and
legends evolved to span the gap in our under-
standing; intruding into belief systems and often
becoming as fixed as the rock itself. Unlocking the
chronology and sequence of climatic, sedimen-
tary or metamorphic processes is a fascinating
investigative journey, and many an amateur
geologist wanders around at weekends seeking
exposed quarry faces and rock outcrops. Because
of geological folding and faulting, older layers
often end up above newer ones. Time comes back
up to the surface, exposing what was hidden away,
and as fossils time is sometimes dug up.
Fossilisation is the replacement of what was
living tissue with minerals in bedded layers of
rock. The earliest, fractal fossils display life-
forms from m years ago. Rangeomorphs
were neither plants nor animals, were fixed to
the ocean floor, and seemed to reproduce by
dropping fronds to the floor which then formed
new organisms. The branching and repeating
archetypes of these rangeomorphs are like the
patterns found in fractal geometry. Fractals are
based on very simple forms, and by repeating
the same sequence over and over again complex-
ity can be created. The rock star of fractals, the
Mandlebrot Set, where the image can be mag-
nified forever with infinite precision is created
by inputting complex numbers into an itera-
tive equation. By repetition, fractals eventually
become irregular and fragmented shapes, but
retain the same shape or pattern at all levels of
scale. The Mandlebrot Set which can help explain
how nature works and is infinitely complex has
been called the thumbprint of God.
In , I received a very heavy book. The
massive ‘Atlas of Creation’ was posted to me in
the expectation that it would end up in the public
library. Beautifully produced with stunning pho-
tographs and images of fossils, the book set out to
discredit the theory of evolution with some very
On the
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dubious but, on the face of it, authoritative state-
ments. According to the book, evolution is an
“imaginary process”, and organisms have never
undergone evolution, they were simply created
as they exist now. At the time, I could find out
little about the book’s own genesis and its jour-
ney to my desk, but now a Google search for ‘The
Atlas of Creation’ will identify Turkish Islamist
creationist and author Adnan Oktar. Under the
name Harun Yahyar, he sent thousands of these
books unsolicited to libraries and institutions all
over the world, including somehow to me. It must
have cost him a small fortune. Needless to say,
the tome never found its way into the carefully-
curated public library in Monaghan.
Young Earth Creationists believe that the
earth is , years old and that the fossil record
is evidence of the “great flood” witnessed by
Noah , years ago, rather than a remnant of
evolution. Their timeline was worked out with
reference to the Bible’s Old Testament.
Last summer, Northern Ireland’s National
Trust sought to reconcile paleontology, Finn
MacCool the Giant, and creationism at the new
visitors’ centre at the Giant’s Causeway World
Heritage Site, for the thousands of visitors who
go each year to marvel at the ungodly basalt col-
umns. The new interpretation referenced the
Young Earth Creationists’ belief that the earth
is , years old and invited visitors to “join
in the debate”.
Surveys have found that % of people in
Northern Ireland believe in some form of cre-
ationism, and % chose the Young Earth
creationism views. These views are also preva-
lent in political circles. DUP health – formerly
environment – minister, Edwin Poots, is a self-
declared Young Earth creationist. DUP minister
Nelson McCausland caused controversy in
when he asked the Ulster Museum to include cre-
ationist displays.
The TV-star-gazing Professor Brian Cox who
is firmly in the Old Earth camp that expands
this planet’s past to the conventional if intrigu-
ing, .bn years tweeted: “I don’t mind creation
stories presented as mythology, but to suggest
that there is any debate that the Earth is .m
years old is pure shit”. The National Trust had to
re-word the controversial section following com-
plaints and a petition.
Language itself evolves over time, words
become fossilised through usage, and dialects
become fragmented and lost. But, it seems
bizarre that an almost flat-earth belief is so
much to the fore, despite advances in scientific
methods, understanding and dissemination. We
rely on our culture to protect nature: the age of
the earth and how biodiversity has evolved is a
scientific question, not a religious one. But reli-
gion and its faiths guide and frame so much for
humans, including apparently modern humans,
at important times. Perhaps for even you and me,
dear reader.
When it comes to dismissing the nonsense of
creationism, I’ll let religion have the last say, this
once: “He that is without sin among you, let him
first cast a stone at her”. John 8:7.
20% of people in Northern
Ireland believe in some
form of creationism
“
