Paradigm shit

Rather close to my house, far closer than I’m comfortable with, is this shop, “Paradigm Shift”.

If you were to walk down the street and look into the window, you would probably notice a number of things there: telescopes, microscopes, magnets, home chemistry sets, crystal growing and simple electronic kits — all sorts of things that kids beginning an interest in the various aspects of science might find fun or useful in their initial investigations.

What isn’t so apparent is that this is simply a front for a hard-core creationist boutique: one needs to step into the shop to see this aspect.

The web site of this bastion of ignorance introduces itself thus:

A paradigm (pronounced “paradime”) is a world view. We all look at the world around us in accordance with a certain paradigm. The paradigm we use depends on what we believe is reliable and true. Scientific materialism is a very powerful paradigm that many people use today to find answers to some of the issues that face humanity.

But does this paradigm really explain our world?

We believe that it cannot and hope that this web site will help you to experience a paradigm shift that will change the way you look at the world.

and describes its purpose:

The shop is dedicated to selling items that show the grandeur, beauty and complexity of creation. Wherever we look we see that the natural world is fantastically beautiful. We also find that everthing is well designed to suit the purpose for which it was made.

A telescope reveals the vastness of space where we find objects of breathtaking beauty. If we examine the living world through a microscope we find incredible complexity, contained within a cell no bigger that 0.1mm. When we dig into the ground we discover beautiful rocks, minerals and gems.

I find it ironic that on the one hand the owner of this shop (or, at least, the author of the web site, with which the owner doubtless agrees) is selling bona fide scientific investigation materials, while at the same time denying the values and conclusions of the investigations that these materials imply.

It’s also disturbing to see that the principle concept to justify this outlook is the idea that that everthing is well designed to suit the purpose for which it was made. Does this mean that a banana is perfectly designed as food? That wood is perfectly designed as a combustible material suitable as a fuel for fire? That a large rock is perfectly suited to providing shelter from the elements? It seems so.

The author here has made the prime mistake of assuming a purpose, probably a “god-given” purpose, for things when it’s not at all obvious that such is the case.

I don’t think it’s a huge stretch of the imagination to think that a primitive hominid would find wood unsuitable for food, large rocks unsuitable for burning and bananas unsuitable for providing shelter, and adjust a survival strategy based on these simple conclusions.

This is simply a circular post hoc rationalisation, and is completely fallacious.

One of the most telling things about this shop is the open commingling of creationism and intelligent design, which, I suspect for legal reasons, the US equivalents are quite vocal in their attempts to distance ID from creationism. Should it be that ID indeed has nothing to do with creationism (and only an idiot or a liar could say that they are separate and distinct) then the management of this shop appear to be breaking one of the cardinal tenets of ID: do not associate it with creationism.

Of course, we all know that ID is simply creationism in new clothes, but it would be interesting to see what the Discovery Institute, which produce some of the materials sold here, would say about being purposefully aligned with the simple bronze-age myths of creationism.

The shop also produces some simple books for christian home “education”, which they describe as:

designed to help Christian parents who are teaching their children science. It is the first in a series of primary science teaching books that have a biblical foundation.

Here are a couple of examples of this “science education”:

Animals:

and plants:

As you can see, both of these boil down to the very appealing yet completely unsupported idea that “a god did it” or, in christian parlance “God did it, the bible says so”, or to quote Robin Ince a magic man done it.

To be frank, although this material appears to be aimed at a pre-school or primary school level, there’s no reason why this can’t be considered as the entirety of a biblically supported education into plant or animal study: any other evidence has to come from other avenues, and that unfortunately (for the creationists) means science.

Using the paradigm of “scientific materialism” to investigate the world, one doesn’t come to the same conclusions that the bible claims as explanations. In fact, the christian scripture says absolutely nothing about the mechanisms of just about any aspect of our understanding of the universe. To teach that the bible provides explanations is to explain nothing, and simply furthers ignorance to the detriment of those children exposed to this type of “education”. It does them no favours whatsoever, and I am almost hesitant to label this as a form of child abuse, but label it thus I shall.

One thing that has consistently amazes me is that this shop seems to manage to sell enough merchandise, either of the real science or of the pseudoscience variety, to maintain a high street presence on one of the busiest streets in Edinburgh. I hope, for a reason not completely unrelated to Schadenfreude, that this establishment is losing money hand over fist, although we all know how much hoping for something affects reality.

At some point, I will venture into the shop and attempt to take photographs (using a camera, a result of the combination of the scientific understanding of optics, electronics and mechanics) and report back. If possible, I’ll also try to talk to the proprietor and garner any more information as to why he thinks this emporium of ignorance is justified in a world that has all but put to rest the dogmatic unenlightenment he sells.

Bonus: If you have chosen to study botany or zoology and have successfully completed the home study materials above, I am pleased to be able award you with an unaccredited Bible Home Study Degree. Download and print your certificates (for botany, for zoology), fill in your own name and proudly hang them on you walls. Don’t forget to add this worthwhile qualification to your CV or resumé. :-)

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