Not too long ago, conservative philosopher and millionaire playboy Matt Walsh chose to take to the Social Medias to explain to the world that Young Earth Biblical Creationists are mouth breathing, science-hating, inbred morons. I’m not sure what motivated this series of videos and Tweets. I suppose he wanted to do something special for the Thanksgiving Holiday other than the traditional “Historical Origin of Thanksgiving” which Rush Limbaugh contents himself with every year at this time.

Admittedly, this was a refreshing change of pace.

However, what Matt Walsh (good intentioned as I am sure he was) failed to explain in any detail is WHY Biblical Creationists are wrong. On the contrary, it SEEMS that he managed to prove with his various arguments and examples that he is- at least on this one topic–  a Big Idiot.* 

Now, I don’t say this merely because I disagree with his position. I say it because his main point, from what he said on his videos, was that he doesn’t know ANYTHING about Biblical Creationism outside of the profanity-laden rants made against it by drunk atheists on YouTube. It seems he watched several of those on a binge one night and then stopped in his car in the parking lot the next day outside of his office after stewing about it all morning and said to himself, “I have to tell the WORLD about these Creationists! They have to be put in their place for the good of all humanity!”

And so he did.

Matt argued that he doesn’t understand how people can believe that the Bible intends us to think that Creation week was a week long. He points out that The Hebrew word for day, YOM, doesn’t HAVE to mean a literal, 24 hour day. It can mean other things!  And then, for some reason, he asserts the idea that Creationists, like Ken Ham, believe it HAS TO MEAN a literal 24 hour day, when it CAN mean other things! Yup, old Walshy here really said that. But is this true? Does Ken Ham insist that the ONLY way YOM can be translated is as a literal 24 hour day?

Well, let’s search “YOM” at the Answers in Genesis web page to see what they have to say about it.

The very first article which comes up- What a Difference a Day Makes!
by Dr. David Menton  First published in St. Louis MetroVoice 4, no. 12 (December 1994), says this in the very first paragraph:

“Like our English word “day,” yom can be used to mean an ordinary 24-hour day or an indefinite period of time (such as “in the day of Abraham”). In both English and Hebrew, the intended meaning of “day” is generally obvious by the context in which it is used.”

Huh! Would you look at that. It seems that- according to the Young Earth Biblical Creationists over at AiG- YOM can mean something other than a normal 24 hour day.

Also, the context of the word’s usage makes a difference in determining how it should be translated into English.

And it seems that AiG has been saying so since at least 1994.

Not only did Matt Walsh not even search THIS deep into the archives, but he didn’t have much to say about the context of Genesis 1, other than his bewilderment that people can somehow come to the conclusion that it means what it says.  This is often the Old Earth- or, Anti Biblical Creation- position; “YOM can mean something OTHER than a normal day, depending on the context! Now, let’s talk about something OTHER than the context in Genesis 1 and continue assuming that Ken Ham is an idiot! And let’s make fun of him on social media!”

Naturally, having been named by dear Mr. Walsh here, Ken Ham replied with a brief blog explaining why Mr. Walsh needs to do a little more research and a little less Straw Manning. A seasoned journalist (or something) Walsh replied with the kind of intellectual vigor which we all expect of our media personalities on either side of the isle, with comments like this:

“It’s Ken Ham who says his interpretation of the Bible is the only correct interpretation. So I ask, on what basis? Where did you gain this authority? . . .

It is you I disagree with, not God. Are you God? Let me ask you, are you God? Because if you’re not, stop saying that I disagree with God because I disagree with you. The arrogance of such a statement is mind-boggling.”

So after a long and unprovoked rant about how Ken Ham and the whole YEC crowd are science hating idiots, he apparently decided that the proper response to being told he has misrepresented the YEC position is to pretend that Kem Ham’s position is, “I AM THE VOICE OF GOD! To reject MY teaching is to reject the very WORDS OF GOD! TREMBLE IN FEAR!” Etc.

I have not read everything Ken Ham has written in his 40 years on the job but, I can say with some confidence that this is not his main persuasive tactic.

Also, Matt somehow misses his own hypocrisy in having started a conversation where in he explained why a group of people are idiots for thinking the Bible says what it actually says and then also somehow have the lack of little grey cells to also believe it MEANS what it says- but now that he’s been called out on his ignorance, he’s playing the victim of the BIG BAD Creationists who are mindbogglingly arrogant for making a statement which- in 40 years- they have NEVER MADE.

Also, is Walsh REALLY asserting the idea that he is NOT claiming that “his interpretation of the Bible is the only correct interpretation”? Are we really expected to believe that his position is, “I could be wrong, and maybe the earth really is 6,000 years old, but Ken Ham is an idiot who should NEVER teach that to anyone ever again!” ? REEEEEALY?

Once again, if you are among those who are so ignorant as to think Answers in Genesis has ever argued that the Earth is 6,000 years old BECAUSE THEY SAID SO… then you too are a big idiot like Matt Walsh.

I don’t know what else to tell you.

You have joined hands with the feminists who argue that “Republicans don’t want us to murder our babies because they hate women!” or the various CNN correspondents who argue that “Trump doesn’t want middle aged men to linger in women’s bathrooms because he’s a Nazi!” or… well, anything CNN has ever said about Trump actually.

Because Ken Ham actually said

..the fundamental point that Mr. Walsh is making is that he is more willing to rely on man’s fallible word than to trust God’s infallible word. He repeatedly cites “science” as the reason the earth cannot be young. Yet, when observational science is performed, there are mountains of evidence from geology, astronomy, physics, archaeology, and so on that the earth is indeed young.

But somehow Matt Walsh read

“I AM THE VOICE OF GOD! Either agree with the many publications of AiG in print or in various forms of digital media OR SUFFER THE ETERNAL TORMENT OF HELL (or possibly Detroit, depending on how much you disagree with the all knowing HAM).”

And then Matt said in response:

So I am a compromised Christian? No, Ken Ham. You are lying and you know and again you need to apologize because to misrepresent one of your brothers in Christ . . . for your own selfish reasons is shameful.

So in summation, Matt Walsh says OF Ken Ham that he claims Yom HAS TO MEAN a 24 hour day, when he’s never said that, and then he says to Ken Ham, “stop saying that I disagree with God because I disagree with you.” Which Ken Ham has never said. And then calls Ken HAM the liar and demands an apology.

If I may quote a sincerely confused Catholic blogger: “The arrogance of such a statement is mind-boggling.”

To hear about more of this discussion, check out the kids at AiG addressing Walsh’s comments in depth:

 

* PS: Before any of you get to giving me the schoolmarm scolding I very much deserve (Jo, Cheri, I’m looking at the two of you), let me say that I know very little about Matt Walsh, and I sincerely believe that he may be smarter and more educated than I am on a host of important topics. Why I have chosen to call him an “idiot” is because, on this one topic and of his own volition, he has chosen to make a fool of himself in public by acting like the very idiots I am sure he spends all day refuting on his web site, or wherever he does business.

We are all idiots on some topic some time, and it is to our edification to be called out on it so we can learn. When it comes to the topic of Genesis, I find a lot of people CHOOSE to be idiots instead of using the kind of common sense they may use every day. Thus my frustration. I don’t get angry at idiots for being idiots, and I don’t get angry at people for holding a different view than I do. I get angry at smart people- ESPECIALLY self professing Christians- who CHOOSE to be ignorant, especially when they have taken it upon themselves to tell the rest of us how stupid we are for believing something they have failed to even adequately understand. In short, when a Christian starts thinking and talking like an atheist, they are being an idiot.

Also, the title is a reference to two book titles I found funny and I like to plagiarize.

OK, if you still feel I need to be scolded, you may proceed to the comments section.