The bomardier beetle and me

My first recollection of an encounter with a specific creationist argument was the bombardier beetle, as a sophomore in college.  This beetle has a unique chamber that squirts gasses out at an enemy, and the claim was that this could not possibly arise by evolution.  I do not remember where I read it, but I was intrigued.  Now, I am very familiar with all creationists arguments and I would just roll my eyes at an old one like the bombardier beetle.  It is instructive to remember a time when that was not the case.

At the time, I didn't even recognize this as specifically creationists.  I did not have enough experience to know that all such arguments fail easily on inspection, so I thought there might be something to it.  I tried to do some research on it, in those pre-internet days, but I could find nothing.  I now know that is because it is a non issue in real science and the only place to find references to it would be obscure creationists publications.  The NCSE was just getting started and it would be 10 years before I discovered the Talk Origins archive.

I was unable to find anything about this beetle in my searches, and it remained a mystery for about 5 years, in graduate school.  Again, I am not sure where I stumbled on the answer.  I think it was in an essay by Stephen J Gould.  When I found the answer, I saw that what I thought was a fascinating mystery was in fact just a silly misrepresentation.  I have now come to expect that deflated feeling.  There is never even anything close to really interesting behind the creationist argument.  They are not even wrong in an interesting way.

It was in my first year as a professor that I debunked something on my own for the first time.  I was given a creationist article on the evolution of horses and asked to comment.  I knew that creationists often misquote, and there was a suspicious quote in there.  Fortunately, I found the book in our small library, read the original quote, and had a wonderful "ah-ha" moment when I saw what they had done and had the victory of figuring out an error myself.  I also found other mistakes in the article.

It was about a year later that I first discovered Talk Origins on this new thing called the world wide web.  There I immersed myself in creationists arguments and answers to them, and it was only then that I truly became able to recognize all creationists arguments or variations, so that I can now roll my eyes at once intrigued me.

I guess there are several points in this story.  First, it is good to remember that even educated people are usually not versed in creationism and evolution, and silly arguments can seem convincing.  Second is that it took a long time and practice to recognize the methods of creationists.  If you are only familiar with good scientific scholarship, you might not expect to have to look up every quote.  It takes a different, specific training to recognize the style of creationists arguments.  And third, the internet sure makes life easier.