Creation science club reaching out to SEMO students

Members of the SEMO Creation Science Club want to get their voice out.

Eric Lynch, an engineering physics major at Southeast Missouri State University and a member of the organization, feels that creation science isn't represented on campus.

"The university has their scientific thinking based in evolution," he said. "We want to provide an alternative to that thinking. We want the group there to provide information and materials, to let people know they don't have to believe in evolution."

The club has only been a university organization since last fall. Previously, it was a community group known as REACH, or Revealing Evidence and Answers for Creation using Hermeneutics. For about a year the group met at the Cape Girardeau Public Library or Capaha Park. Sara Bohnert, coordinator of the group, decided that the club should attempt to reach college students as well.

Creation science attempts to reconcile the Bible's account of creation with scientific data and observations. It rejects evolution and argues there is evidence to support the idea of a creator.

"Creation scientists and evolutionists use the same data," Bohnert said. "It's how we use it that matters." She also stressed that there is no way to prove either theory: "We can use evidence to support what we believe."

Greg Watts has spoken to churches and in a public school about creation science. He said he was a "person of science" who "struggled with evolution."

"For years I tried to use science to disprove a creator," he said. "Now I use that knowledge to prove one exists."

Watts believes the group's importance is in getting equal representation. "The instant you include the Bible in anything scientific, it's bound to get dismissed," he said. "People don't think science and religion mix."

Lynch agreed. "Somehow people got to thinking that Christianity is anti-science. A lot of creationist positions are misrepresented ... the idea is that creation rejects science or technology, and that's wrong."

The club usually meets on the third Tuesday of each month in the Mississippi Room of the University Center. This month, the group will meet from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday. Members will show a DVD called "Dynamic Life: Changes in Living Things" and hold a discussion. The club has literature that due-paying members may check out from a library. Members have handed out tracts at events and had floats in the Jackson and Cape Girardeau Christmas parades.

nstanfield@semissourian.com

335-661, extension 127

WANT TO GO?

* What: SEMO Creation Science Club meeting

* When: 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday

* Where: The Mississippi Room at the University Center