Caleb Foundation Part 2

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Caleb Foundation Part 2

By Roger Stanyard, British Centre for Science Education

The first part of this report can be found at Caleb Foundation

Nelson McCausland - A Friend in High Places

Nelson McCausland is no doubt a very useful ally to have. Unlike so many Northern Ireland politicians, he's no bonehead with a limited education. He's in Oxford University graduate. However, none other than the Daily Telegraph has described him as a Protestant "fundamentalist" (see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1538560/Sir-Cecil-Walker.html); that seems to be consistent with him being the Northern Ireland representative of the fundamentalist Lord's Day Observance Society (now Day One) between 1983 and 1993. he's also a member of the Orange Order.

Minister of Culture Nelson McCausland, a friend in high places with a lambeg drum creating an unholy racket.

McCausland has said that as Minister for Culture he gets more letters on creationism (or lack of, it appears) in the Ulster Museum than anything else (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/26/northern-ireland-ulster-museum-creationism). That speaks volumes about how backward Northern Ireland is. Heck, this is a province that just went through a 30 year civil war, is absurdly segregated, is an unsustainable economic basket case and people put idiotic creationist displays top of the agenda. It beggars belief. But, then. McCausland believes that the British and the Irish are one of the twelve lost tribes of Israel. This is a European culture minister allegedly living in the 21st century for heaven's sake.

Banging on about creationist culture.

Here is a report concerning The Rev. Roaring Hugh Hanna (a monstrous pulpit bully if ever there was one); he is, perhaps, the man who most epitomises sectarian bigotry in Northern Ireland - http://overthebridgeni.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/carlisle-circus-is-still-empty/. McCausland is defending him. Learn nothing, forget nothing.

Nobody in the Western world outside of Northern Ireland any longer gives a stuff whether you're Protestant or Catholic. The province is now governing itself again but as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again. Shakes head and weeps.

The Giants Causeway Affair - Bullying the National Trust

The Giants Causeway Visitor's Centre is also on the target list of the Caleb Foundation. We've detailed past attempts to get creationism into the Centre and thought the matter finished until the Caleb Foundation emerged in 2010 as lobbying to get creationism there. Again the Foundation used its political network, approaching Culture Minister Nelson McCausland who in turn put pressure on the Centre's managers to open it up to creationism. Thompson also met with Arlene Foster (DUP), at the time the Minister for Tourism n the regional government of the province. She must be sick and tired of creationists lobbying her over the centre. Of course, creationism has nothing to do with religion which is why Thompson whinged "All we are asking for is that the views that we hold, which are based on the Word of God, are at least respected and taken on board," ..."A Christian politician in a position of power can make a difference." Presumably by that he means Protestant.

This being Northern Ireland, though, there is a bizarre religious twist to this. Foster isn't a fundamentalist or creationist. She's a member of the Anglican Church of Ireland. Ian Paisley has long bad-mouthed it as "Vatican-controlled apostate church" and worse.

As one wag has suggested, it would be to good idea to put McCausland and the Caleb Foundation is as centre exhibits as demonstrations of the ancient past. Chance would be a fine thing, though.

Neither DUP politicians nor Caleb determine what goes into the Causeway Centre. It is a National Trust project.

The Caleb Foundation and the Media

The Caleb Foundation has long tried to put pressure on BBC Northern Ireland; it appears that one of the main issues was (repeatedly) complaints about the no-nonsense presenter David Dunseith; the matter came up regularly in annual meetings with the head of BBC Northern Ireland.

According to a November 2009 Caleb press release, Caleb does not like the anti-creationist stance of William Crawley. In fact, they don't like Crawley at all: "A Caleb delegation met with BBC Radio Ulster this morning to raise a number of issues of importance to the Evangelical Community. The delegation discussed the forthcoming anniversary of the AV [Authorised Version of the Bible], and the recent contributors to Thought for the day. We strongly expressed our disappointment at the attitude of Sunday Sequence in relation to presenting discussions with evangelical contributors, and a perceived pro-homosexual and anti-Creation bias."

Caleb clearly doesn't like gays. That should be of no surprise; such deeply conservative ultra-evangelical organisations rarely do.

Understanding the Power Politics

Whilst the Caleb Foundation claims that it “is made up of representatives of a number of mainline evangelical denominations”, without exception, the opposite appears to be true. None of the members of its council of reference belong to mainstream evangelical churches. They are all members of tiny denominations some of which are virulently anti-Catholic (BCSE does not distinguish between anti-Catholic and anti-Catholicism because we fail to see the difference).

Whilst we can dismiss Caleb as representative of the majority of Protestants in Northern Ireland, it does not exist in a power vacuum. The organisation is exceedingly well connected in the Protestant community in the province.

Here are a couple of articles from a very Republican/Nationalist publication which provide an interesting insight into the political connections of Caleb –

1. http://lark.phoblacht.net/JC1605063g.html. This is written by Dr John Coulter. (Coulter is a well known unionist journalist in Northern Ireland.)

2. http://www.phoblacht.net/RM0506063g.html by Robert Mathews.

(An Phoblacht is the weekly newspaper of Sinn Fein/Provisional IRA. It is not noted for its liberal, non-partisan, cross-community views, to put it mildly.)

Who's Who in the Caleb Foundation

In essence, members of the Caleb Foundation are at the centre of the Protestant power structure in the province and, in particular, in bed with the province’s largest political party – the Democratic Unionist Party. The head of Paisley's Free Presbyterian church is also a member of the Caleb Foundation. The only person missing from Caleb's Council is Lord George Gordon of the Protestant Association.

Head man at the Caleb Foundation is its Chairman, Wallace Thompson.

Thompson is former advisor to DUP politician Nigel Dodds MLA and works part time in Stormont. He's a history graduate. Thompson believes the Pope is the anti-Christ. (see http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/exdup-adviser-to-lead-evangelical-group-of-lobbyists-14512725.html?startindex=20) It's almost unbelievable that someone in the 21st Century with even half a brain thinks like this. It's a view of the world resolutely stuck in the 17th century as if the English civil wars never happened. One wonders what hope there is for Northern Ireland or is it just a province that gets the politicians and lobbyists it deserves?.

Fundamentalist bigwig Wallace Thompson, chair of the Caleb Foundation, preacher, DUP member, Apprentice Boy, Orange Order man, EPS member and editor, Ulster Bulwark

Thompson has told the Sunday Times that most to the Caleb's members are “apolitical”. Wooshhhhh - there goes a flying pig. It is impossible to believe as the organisation admits it is in the business of political lobbying. It's job is to politicise evangelical fundamentalism, nothing more, nothing less. It's in bed with the Democratic Unionist Party. He has openly bragged that devolution has opened political doors for it. Thompson, of course, got the job as head of the Caleb Foundation because he is a well connected DUP member and, as a former civil servant, knows his way around the political system in the province. Clearly a sound man to look after the interests of the good 'ole boys in the province.

But that's not the only areas where Thompson's wit and wisdom are questionable. He's on record as stating that the Pope is the anti-Christ and, “that is the position of the Church of Ireland and all the main [Protestant] denominations”. (see http://sluggerotoole.com/2008/01/31/the-antichrist-is-not-a-protestant-invention) Thompson was sacked from his job in Stormont for the outburst.

One wonders where he gets this sort of basic religious rubbish from. There is nothing whatsoever in the core beliefs or doctrinal statements of either the Anglican Church or the Methodist Church which says this. Episcopalians and Methodists would be astonished as this utterly bogus claim. It is language unknown in either churches. According to Pastor Brian Kennaway (a very bright spark amongst Northern Ireland's clergy), it isn't even the position of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland or even Thompson's own church.

Nigel Dodds, his former boss in Stormont had, amongst his many responsibilities, the province's geological survey and promoting mineral extraction.. Presumably sooner or later the DUP will be questioning the survey and anyone involved in extracting minerals are not basing its work on the world being 6,000 year old. Accepting that the world is billions of years old seems, in Caleb's warped thinking, to be a breach of the human rights of Ulster Protestants. Dodds is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church but, unlike so many Northern Ireland politicians, he's got a good education and is seen as talented.

The Chairman of the Caleb Foundation until 2007 was George Dawson, an elected representative to the Northern Ireland Assembly (DUP, East Antrim). He was also Grand Master of the Independent Orange Order and a director (and Treasurer) of the Evangelical Protestant Society (http://www.ulsterbulwark.org). The latter has some bizarre views – see its web site at http://www.ulsterbulwark.org/page12.htm for example. It also displays Ulster paranoia – see here http://www.ulsterbulwark.org/page2.htm.

Here are a couple of links which provide some background on George Dawson: http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/members/biogs_03/dawson_g.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dawson_(politician) Dawson was a serious power broker within the DUP. His influence runs deep with Caleb.

Mervyn Storey, Vice Chairman of the Caleb Foundation, is a heavyweight. He is a politician (Democratic Unionist Party) and a member of Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church (Ballymoney). There’s some information on him at http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/members/biogs_03/storey_m.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyn_Storey. Storey is spokesman for Caleb.

Mervyn Storey, DUP Politician on the Council of the Caleb Foundation

We also note that several Caleb members are also members of various "public morals" committees in the province. Such committees are not something the BCSE has come across on the mainland of Britain although there were Victorian organisations with similar names. A quick Google search seems to indicate that they are now, in Britain, unique to Northern Ireland. Wallace Thompson is Convenor of the Public Morals Committee of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Caleb itself is a "public morals committee". The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland has such a committee (very active). Rev Philip Campbell (see below) is the convenor of the public morals committee of the Congregational Union of Ireland. The Independent Methodist Church also has a public morals committee.

What should really scare people is that these public morals committees clearly believe creationism is a matter of public morals rather than sound science. You're immoral if you accept that the world is more than 6,000 years old or you accept that the theory of evolution by natural selection is the best explanation today of the differences between species. It's a Northern Irish example of being called ugly by an offensive bigot.

However, the very idea of churches having public morals committees is locked centuries in the past. Most normal places nowadays accept democracy with its de facto separation of church and state, where everyone is free to hold and practice whatever religious beliefs or opinions they feel comfortable with. Not so in Northern Ireland, it appears - your business is the business of Calvinistic church morals committees. No hope there, then.

For what it is worth such blind bigotry about evolutionary biology is widespread amongst American fundamentalists. In Northern Ireland it has nothing at all to do with long standing and historical beliefs or "Protestant traditions". It's a 1970s import from the USA which only gained acceptance in the province in any significant levels in the first decade of this century, mostly as a result of clowns from Answers in Genesis and similar creationist organisations visiting Northern Ireland.

What it really is is a method of getting at "taigs". Thompson's attempts to block a visit to the province by the Pope (using his position in the Evangelical Protestant Society - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2009/10/evangelical_protestants_oppose.html) is just another variation on "Cropies lie down".

Looking through the other names who are on the Council of Reference of the Caleb Foundation, we found a number of names we had come across before in researching the creationist movement in the UK. It would be wrong to assume that all of the members are YECers even though the Caleb Foundation is explicitly a YEC organisation. However, many of them have other links to YEC organisations.

For example, the Rev Stanley Barnes was pastor at the Hillsborough Free Presbyterian Hillsborough Church. He's now retired. This is one of the churches of the Rev Ian Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church. Paisley is a YECer and YEC beliefs appear to be the norm amongst ministers within the church. Barnes' “Master’s” degree is from the European Theological Seminary, a diploma mill.

Pastor Stephen Boreland appears to have recently left the Caleb Foundation. He is Minister at Ballyclare Baptist Church (Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland) and for a while in the 1990s was on the Council of Reference of the creationist Take Heed Ministries). The latter is a one-man band outfit that is serious unhinged and obsessive.

Boreland is also involved in the fundamentalist In Focus Ministries. However, he came to our attention through his association with the European Theological Seminary, a diploma mill for theological qualifications. In effect, Boreland has been re-selling the ETS courses through his own Emmanuel Baptist Bible College. He is Principal of the latter which is openly pushed as being fundamentalist. Indeed, more than a few of Boreland’s own qualifications appear to be of the diploma mill quality – according to Emmanuel Bible College’s web site, he “is a graduate of Belfast Bible Collegeand holds a B.D., M.A., and Ph.D. from the European Theological Seminary.”

In fact, Boreland is not just re-selling the ETS courses and a “graduate” of said ETS, he is also closely involved in it as well. He is listed as one of the Adjunct Facility of the Seminary. As indeed is David Moore, Vice Principal of Emmanuel Baptist Bible College.

Moore is understood to be treasurer and a lecturer at Emmanuel Baptist Bible School. He is Pastor of Braehill Baptist Church in Northern Ireland. He holds a B.T. and M.Th. degree from the European Theological Seminary.

Emmanuel Baptist Bible College lists a Dr Rob Congdon and a Dr Graham Anderson as faculty members. Well, they appear to be involved in the European Theological Seminary as well.

Dr. Robert R. Congdon, again a name that has recently left the Caleb Foundation, is founder and director of the Internet Bible Institute and holds a BSME from the University of Illinois at Urbana; an MDiv from Grace Theological Seminary, Winona Lake, Indiana; and a Th. D. from Trinity Theological Seminary, Newburgh, Indiana. Grace Theological Seminary is where John Whitcomb earned his degrees and taught. We’ve come across Trinity before and it is detail in the section of our wiki website on Pastor Richard Turner. It’s unaccredited by any recognised accrediting agency.

It transpires that the Internet Bible Institute is another distance learning organisation in which Boreland, Congdon and Moore are involved. It appears to be run by Congdon (see http://internetbibleinstitute.com/index.html) and includes John Whitcomb (of creationist notoriety) on its council of reference.

Pastor Ed Bissett serves with Baptist International Missions in Northern Ireland and is a lecturer at Emmanuel Baptist Bible School. He holds a Th. G. degree from Tennessee Temple Schools, Chattanooga Tennessee.

Tennessee Temple Schools is accredited by the very questionable Transnational Association of Christian Colleges (TRACS). It is the agency that has accredited the Institute for Creation Research and thus its worthless degrees. The crackpot creationist Henry Morris was on the board of TRACS .

Pastor Tom Fittis is Pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Northern Ireland and a lecturer at Emmanuel Baptist Bible School. He holds a BA degree in Bible from Tennessee Temple Schools.

We raise the matter of Boreland in some depth because it shows that members of the Caleb Foundation are deeply involved in pushing diploma mill qualifications yet, at the same time, Caleb is lobbying to change the education system. We simply have no reason, therefore, to believe that the Caleb Foundation is a fit and proper organisation to be lobbying to change publicly funded education given the status of qualifications its members take as acceptable.

There are others involved in the Emmanuel Baptist Bible College that we would like to draw the reader’s attention to. Pastor Martin Wickens is listed as a member of faculty. His degree (i.e. his “qualification”) to teach is a bachelor’s degree in theology from Emmanuel Baptist Bible College. Wicken’s church, the Faith Baptist Church in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, openly endorses young earth creationism – see http://www.faithbaptist.co.uk/2.html

Also listed a few years back as a faculty member is Pastor Billy Causby of Bethel Baptist Church, Belfast. It openly endorses creationism (see http://www.bethelbaptist.co.uk/links.html). We can find no trace of the other faculty member, Pastor Ed Bisset.

Rev Gareth N Burke is pastor at Stramillis Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland. He is believed the be a young earth creationist. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church is a small Northern Irish denomination. It has a web site here at http://www.epc.org.uk but the site was not, for the most part, working at the beginning of January 2007.

Rev Philip Campbell who is a minister with the Congregational Church in Ireland. We is understood to be a chaplain at the University of Ulster and minister of the Coleraine Congregational Church. He is also governor of a school, the Coleraine Institute and (according to this blog http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2007/12/live_debates_today.html) the Rev Philip Campbell is convenor of the public morals committee of the Congregational Union of Ireland. The Congregation Church in Ireland is another very small denomination which has some 27 churches (or 29 according to Wikipedia). Individual churches within the denomination look like they have a strong tendency towards creationism. Campbell appears to be a creationist and claims there is considerable scientific evidence for his position see - http://blog.echurchwebsites.org.uk/2010/05/27/creationism-evolutionism-literalism-and-and-allegory/

The Rev Kenneth Elliot is Pastor of the Bethany Free Presbyterian Church in Portadown. Again this is one of the churches in Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church. Elliot's church is creationist, linking to the Answers in Genesis web site (see http://bethanyfpc.org/Links2.htm)

Mr Jim Irvine is a member of the Independent Methodist denomination – it openly endorses creationism on its web site. He’s based in the Republic of Ireland (Donegal). The Independent Methodist denomination in Ireland is not part of the mainstream Methodist movement either in Ireland or in Great Britain. It looks to be far more extreme. For example, it has an absurdly pretentiously titled “Public Morals Committee”. (see http://www.fimc.org.uk/News/Public%20Morals.htm)

The Rev Ron Johnstone is now moderator (head) of the Free Presbyterian Church, succeeding Ian Paisley. He claims to be non-political, a very questionable claim as he is a member of Caleb which is openly a political lobbying organisation and has very close links to the DUP. One suspects that he made this claim because Paisley was pushed out of the top job at the FPC because he was political. Johnstone is also a chaplain in the Orange Order.

Pastor Denis Lyle, a Baptist (Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland), is a very well known creationist (YEC) preacher in Northern Ireland. See http://www.denislyle.com and http://www.lurganbaptist.com/pastor.html. Lyle’s “MA” and “PhD” come from the European Theological Seminary diploma mill. His church (Lurgan Baptist Church) is openly pushing creationism.

Rev William (Bill) Malcolmson is pastor at the Congregational Reformed Church in East Belfast. Yet again, we see further (indirect) connections into the creationist movement here as Malcolmson happens to be involved in the European Theological Seminary. Malcolmson is also active in the Evangelical Protestant Society (where he is President) and the Orange and Black Institutions.

Orange Order man William Malcolmson.

Dr Trevor Maze Reformed Presbyterian Church, Ballyclare. He is understood to be a medical doctor (QUB trained) who is also a lay preacher but we cannot confirm this.

Rev Eric McComb is Superintendent Minister of the Elim Pentecostal Churches in Ireland. The Elim Pentecostal Church is regarded to be generally YEC in outlook although individual churches take different positions. McComb does not like William Crawley - http://www.calebfoundation.org/page8.htm. MCComb has recently been in the news about his position on gay rights – see http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2079537.ece

McComb is a senior person in the Elim Pentecostal movement in the UK. We understand that he still preaches virtually every week, through 40 plus churches in Ulster and more in the Republic of Ireland. He is a member of the National Leadership Team of Elim's 600 (approx) churches in the UK. The Elim Pentecostal church is the largest Pentecostal movement in Northern Ireland - Assemblies of God has only a very small presence there.

Rev Robert (Bob) McEvoy is pastor at the Albert Bridge Congregational Church, Northern Ireland – again a small denomination strongly inclined towards creationism. He's secretary of the Caleb Foundation.

Rev Colin McFarland is believed to be a retired minister in the Congregational Church in Northern Ireland but was can find no other trace of him.

Rev Phillip Millen is minister of the Free Presbyterian Church in Randalstown and founder member of Caleb.

Pastor A Mullen is a Baptist. We can find no trace of this person. He now appears to have left the Caleb Foundation.

Rev William Park is pastor for the Independent Methodist Church in Enniskillen and former Deputy Chairman of the Caleb Foundation. His church has hosted an Answers in Genesis speaker event. Park is Deputy Chairman of the openly creationist Fellowship of Independent Methodist Churches and is editor of its magazine.

Pastor David Patterson is pastor at Down Baptist Church in Donaghadee. He is believed to be (or have been) a part-time teacher and former political researcher (for Patrick Roche, Northern Ireland Unionist Party – a splinter group from the UK Unionist Party) at Stormont. At one stage he was assistant Pastor and Banbridge Baptist Church – it appears to have endorsed creationism.

Rev David Silversides is pastor at the Reformed Presbyterian Church (aka the Covenanters) in Loughbrickland. This denomination has strong YEC tendencies. His church appears to have links to the creationist Emmanuel Church in Salisbury. That in turn appears to have been the sponsoring church for the Hyde Street Chapel – a YEC church in Winchester well connected to leading creationists. Silversides was involved with the Biblical Creation Society as far back as 1980 - see http://www.biblicalcreation.org.uk/bcs_publications/bcs072.html.

BCSE is not very familiar with the specific religious beliefs of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ireland; it is a tiny denomination (about 2,500 adult members). However, from a statement on its web site, it looks to be arguing in favour for some form of theocracy:

"A distinctive witness to the nation is borne through an emphasis on the duty of recognising Christ as king, as was once done in the seventeenth century covenants. The church considers the repudiation of those covenants to be a sin, to be repented of and corrected, and Reformed Presbyterians will only support candidates for political office who promise to work for such a national recognition of the authority of Christ."

(We are experience some difficulty, btw, in figuring out the difference between the Reformed Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Reformed Church.)

However, it appears Silversides' denomination is closely link to the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) in which Maurice Roberts of Truth in Science is closely involved.

Silversides is another Caleb Foundation member who believes that the Pope is the anti-Christ - see http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~jbeggsoc/jbscatalogue2.html.

Rev Alan Smylie, Ballygowan Free Presbyterian Church. Here is the Rev Smylie sounding particularly silly - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/485259.stm. He's convenor of the Government and Morals Committee of the Free Presbyterian Church.

Rev Noel Somerville is pastor for Dromore Church which is part of the Church of the Nazarene denomination (claims to have 11 churches in NI) (See http://www.nazarene.org.uk/find.html). It is basically a deeply conservative fundamentalist evangelical church largely based in (and originating from) the USA.

The Rev Samuel Watson is a pastor with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (strong creationist tendencies). He is pastor at the Finaghy EPC in Belfast.

Pastor I Wilson is believed to be Ian Wilson, former pastor of the Grove Baptist Church (Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland) in Belfast NI. YECer Denis Lyle has spoken at the Church. He appears to have left the Caleb Foundation.

Just who does Caleb Represent?

BCSE's research suggests that the Council of Reference of Caleb has had at least 27 members over the period 2007-2010. As at November 2010 there were 23.

Of the 27, we have broken down their denominations as follows

Basically a third of Caleb people belong to the Free Presbyterian Church.

According to Wikipedia, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has some 300,000 members in some 550 congregations (96% in Northern Ireland). The 2001 census showed that 349,000 people described themselves as adherents to the Presbyterian Church. The Church of Ireland had 258,000 adherents and the Methodist Church (mainstream) 59,000. Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church had about 12,000 adherents in the province.

All the other Protestant denominations together had only 102,000 adherents and many of theses (such as the Brethren, Assemblies of God and the Mormons) are simply not represented by Caleb. All these Census figures over-estimate religious practice - it's one thing saying you a Protestant or Catholic and another thing actually attending church on a regular basis. Moreover, religious belief in the province is in step decline and near 10 year old statistics are well out of date.

The 2001 Census indicated that the population of the province was 1,685,000 (it's probably 100,000 higher than that as at 2010). About 46% identify themselves as Protestant and 40% as Catholic. That suggests there were 768,000 Protestants in the province. But we know that at least 55% of these simply do not attend church regularly. In other words there are only 350,000 practising Protestants in the province. Thus all the churches apart from the big four (Catholic, Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Church of Ireland and Methodist) represent no more than 45,000 people, including children. As we say, many of the smaller denominations are simply not represented by Caleb. If we assume that those account for half of the 45,000, Caleb, at best, represents about 23,000 people.

We also fail t see quite how Caleb Council members actually represent the churches to which they belong. The Irish Baptists (otherwise known as the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland) is a lose affiliation of otherwise independent churches, each of which is free, for example, to take its own position on creationism or gay rights.

Neveretheles, if we take at face value that Caleb represents some 285 congretaions in Northern Ireland, then to represent 200,000 people, each congregation would have a astonishing 702 members. The average number of congregants in a Protestant church in the UK is 59! The latter figure suggests Caleb represents about 17,000 people at most.

Quite how the Caleb Foundation reconciles all this with its claim to present 200,000 people in the province is beyond us.

Pastor David Silversides on Science

Pastor David Silversides has replied on the Caleb Foundation's forum to criticisms of its stance on creationism.. The replies shows that Silversides is entirely scientifically illiterate. He simply hasn't a basic clue what he is talking about.

Silversides: “There seems to be a volley of messages opposing Caleb's stance on evolution etc. and it would take some time to answer each one. Can I offer some response by stating, at a basic level, that the assertion that the evolutionary view is scientific fact is very unscientific. Any view of origins not based on Divine revelation involves speculation since no human being was there to record what took place.”

BCSE Comment: Wrong. Thus is a bog standard piece of creationist boilerplate and is idiotic. The evidence for past times is here, now. That's how organisations like the Air Accidents Investigation Board and Forensic Science Labs work. If an aircraft crashes and there are no witnesses to the crash, the air Accident investigators don't give up and write on their reports that Goddidit. Even if there were an observer, the investigators are likely to take little notice of what was seen as recall is usually pretty poor. This idiotic claim about lack of human observers in the past is child-like stuff that no scientist archaeologist, historian, geologist or whatever takes a blind bit of notice of.

Silversides: “Such speculation necessarily involves uniformitarian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniformitarianism) presuppositions and automatically assumes that the Biblical and Christian distinction between God's work of creation on the one hand and his subsequent work of providence (and the normal 'laws' by which God operates in the latter) is untrue. There is no scientific basis for this assumption that the origin of things must conform to the laws applicable to the subsequent history of those things. Indeed, it is self-evident that something existing from nothing is contrary to normal observable phenomena. The desire to assume atheism is fully explicable in terms of the Biblical teaching on man's fall and subsequent sinful nature and enmity against God.”

BCSE Comment: No; most Christians find no such problem. There is a strong scientific basis for assuming that the laws of physics, for example, have been constant over the age of the earth – parsimony of thought or Occam's Razor. Contrast the position with Silversides who suggests that the laws have changed over recoded history (6,000 years). None of those changes, it appears, have ever been noticed by anyone and, surprise, surprise, can't be seen happening today. Modern physicists don't believe something came from nothing. The comment on atheism is utterly spurious, thrown in to sound clever. Most Christians do not accept creationism. That doesn't make them atheists.

For a debunking of the creationist position on uniformitarianism see Talk Origins at http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CD/CD200.html However, Silversides isn't really talking about uniformitarianism which is basically an assumption that geological change is slow. It is not entirely accepted by geologists these days.

Acceptance of evolutionary biology and the old age of the earth have nothing to do with atheism, agnosticism or any other religious opinion. Science doesn't give a damn about anyone's religious opinions – not Christians, Not Muslims, Not Buddhists, not Hindus, not atheists, not Catholics. Science is simply not determined by religious opinions. Most Christians accept both, for what it s worth. However, it's irrelevant; science doesn't give a damn about your religious opinions, or, for what it is worth, mine or David Silversides'.

The hardliners in Northern Ireland these days have a new bogeyman to add to Papists – atheists, of which all mainstream scientists are clearly so (and stupid as well).

Silversides: “To assert that evolution is fact expresses man's desire not to retain God in his knowledge, but science it most certainly is not.”

BCSE Comment: No one claims that the theory of evolution by natural selection is fact. However speciation and ring species are fact – they are evolution happening - as they have repeatedly been observed.

Silversides' science is clearly entirely lifted off the web sites and tracts of organisations like Answers in Genesis and Creation Ministries International. It's not even a thoughtful approach to creationism. It's in you face Slugger O'Toolism. No matter how stupid and idiotic the claim is, no matter how many times it has been shredded to pieces in excruciating and painful detail, no matter how ignorant the proposer is made to look, the creationists go on repeating it as if nothing has happened.

That Silversides parrots the Answers in Genesis/CMI line there should e no doubt about. He openly states in the same forum that he “accepts” micro-evolution (without, apparently, realising that scientists don't) and thinks that there were “kinds”. It appears never to have entered his brain that there might just be something wrong with his claim of “kinds” as no one has ever defined what a “kind” is.

Remember, this is not man privately discussing his own opinions. This is a member of a public relations organisation trying to get his bogus science into public education, public museums and the Giant;s Causeway Centre. He's a pastor, a man of responsibility, one of society's leaders..

Silversides: "At the same time, I do think that there are fundamental presuppositions that need to be addressed (see other posts) and which are not the sole domain of the specialist. I do not deny micro-evolution - development and change within the 'kinds' of Gen.1. I do, however, regard the expansion of this idea to explain the development of the 'kinds' themselves as speculation rather than science. Are there any established cases of evolution across the basic divisions of Gen.1? Creation Science is not saying that you can 'prove' Genesis 1, but simply that the actually established facts are compatible with it."

BCSE Comment: There is no distinction in biology between “micro-evolution” and “macro-evolution”. The two terms are entirely the fabrication of creationists. There is no such thing as “kinds” - another creationist invention to get round the problem that they think Noah's Ark wasn't big enough to carry all the species. Creationists are unable to define what a kind is. If, as Silversides, suggests, there were kinds then we would be able to predict and show a rapid increase in the number of species after 4,400 years ago from around 17,500 to several million. We would also e able to see thousands of new examples of speciation every year. We don't. Worse still, the rate of mutation involved in his idea of “micro-evolution” would be so lethal that just about everything would have long ago been wiped out by cancer. “Creation science” is not science because it has no predictive capabilities whatsoever.

If you are still doubting whether David Silversides has a case or not, we'll point out to you exactly what he believes when it comes to science. Go in you backyard, get a lump of mud, breath on it and it can then turn into a man instantaneously. Silversides is a man who thinks mainstream scientists are incompetent.

Conculsion: The Caleb Foundation is a Theocracy in Waiting

It’s probably an exaggeration to suggest that the Caleb foundation is an Ulster equivalent of the Moral Majority or conservative right wing pressure groups like Focus on the Family. One basic reason is that American conservative evangelicals have found common cause and work with conservative Catholics. We are unaware of any such evidence regarding the Caleb Foundation.

Indeed, not only does the Caleb Foundation have nothing to do with Catholicism at all, it also has nothing to do with the main Protestant denominations, the (Episcopalian) Church of Ireland, the mainstream Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the Methodist Church.

Nevertheless Wallace Thompson’s comments have suggested that the Caleb Foundation will be lobbying across a range of issues; it sounds very like American conservative evangelical organisations.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Thompson has said that an increasingly secular society in Northern Ireland has allowed opposition to the historic Christian principles to become “more open, militant and vocal”. “There is much work for us to do. Even in the last two years Ulster society has become increasingly secular…”

There is no doubt that religious belief and church attendance in Northern Ireland is declining, as it has been in the Republic of Ireland and, indeed, throughout the Western World bar the United States. The major development over the last two years, though, is probably the rise of an affirmative atheist agenda is reaction against politicisation of evangelism in the USA, 9/11 and the rise of creationism. In that sense Thompson and the Caleb Foundation are their own worst enemies (not while the BCSE is around, though).

Thompson also reflects the paranoia and fear of the conservative evangelicals – everyone is out to get them: “…opposition to the historic evangelical faith is more open, militant and vocal.” [BCSE comment: it isn’t.}

“In that sense our cause is probably more marginalised than ever, but it is vital that we do not shrink from the challenge.” {BCSE comment: wrong as well: Hardline fundamentalist evangelicals are taking over Christianity in the UK.]

“As believers, we are called upon to earnestly contend for the faith, no matter what the prevailing circumstances are or how we will be regarded." (BCSE comment: You do so at your own risk; every democracy in the Western world has, at some time or other, had to serious curb the power of organisation religion. There’s a stark straight choice between what you want – theocracy - and what everyone wants - democracy. See Iran.)

(Quotes above come from an interview with Thompson in the Belfast Telegraph, 28th Sept 2009, see http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/exdup-adviser-to-lead-evangelical-group-of-lobbyists-14512725.html?startindex=20)

Even the Belfast Telegraph fears the Caleb Foundation. It worries that the Caleb foundation and its allies in the DUP are bad news for the latter: “The Culture Minister’s [Nelson McCausland] promotion of a literal biblical agenda risks narrowing his party’s base as it reaches out to the wider unionist family," BCSE’s translation into English is “not all Ulster Protestants are insane.” (See: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/why-good-book-could-be-bad-news-for-dup-14832896.html#ixzz14nYu9cYf”

The Belfast Telegraph sees Caleb’s meddling in the affairs of the Ulster Museum as part of “an agenda-driven campaign to hold the DUP to its Free Presbyterian roots, and use it to promote fundamentalist religious views across a wide area of civil society. “ BCSE warned about this in 2007.

It adds that “Caleb’s ruling Council of Reference is dominated by Free Presbyterian clergy, including the moderator Ron Johnston, and DUP activists. Other members identify themselves as belonging to smaller Protestant denominations or the Evangelical Protestant Society.”

“The mainstream Methodist, Presbyterian, and Church of Ireland denominations are absent. Caleb’s aims and beliefs are very similar to religious Right pressure groups in the US. “

The Belfast Telegraph has no doubt that the Caleb Foundation "is a highly politicised group of religious fundamentalists." In addition to the issue of creationism, the Caleb Foundation concerns itself with other conservative religious agendas such as abortion, the extension of gay rights, and Sunday sport. The latter is particularly contentious in Northern Ireland as it is see as a way of imposing Protestantism on Catholics. BCSE notes the connections between Caleb and the fundamentalist Lord’s Day Observance Society.

The Belfast Telegraph also quotes an unnamed member of Caleb who is also a member of the DUP and the Free Presbyterian Church as telling it that “the [Free Presbyterian] Church needs to be able to castigate the DUP when it believes it is doing something that is not consistent with Biblical views. Big issues are coming up in terms of transgender rights, abortion, the whole equality agenda, and the issue of creationism in schools”.

Translated into English - The Caleb Foundation calls the shots in the DUP in exactly the same way that Paisley and his pals scream that the Roman Catholic Church does in Dublin. The hypocrisy is staggering.

The Belfast Telegraph also details significant top level connections with the Orange Order and questions the political integrity of Nelson McCausland – “McCausland is a Stormont minister charged with administering taxpayers’ money impartially. It would be wise to maintain a line between his private beliefs, in this case as a biblical fundamentalist and an Orange man, and his dealings with public bodies which his department funds.“

It sees Caleb as the equivalent of the Militant Tendency in the British Labour Party in the 1980s.

Which is the basic point of the BCSE – is the Caleb Foundation, a self appointed lobbying organisation charged with bringing home (rancid) pork to its pastors, in the business of undermining the democratic process? If, as we suspect it strongly is, the DUP has only one option. To purge itself of Caleb, Storey, McCausland et al. It has a simple, stark choice, either it believes in democracy as its name implies or theocracy. It has to make up its mind if it is a giant fraud or not.

No matters how much it and its friends scream, invoke Lundy, Guy Fawkes, traitors, James II, Popery, the Anti-Christ, ecumenicism, "thot Jozoboll Mossis Thotcher", liberalism, secularism, Richard Dawkins, the biased BBC, paranoid political and scientific conspiracy theories or point to creationist web sites, claim that they have scientists on its side, roll out the martyrdom complex, rant no surrender, foam at the mouth, whine, bash lambeg drums, threaten, bully, bluster, bamboozle, blackmail and BS, the world is not 6,000 years old and Bishop Ussher was wrong. We're in the 21st century, not the 17th.

Friends in High Places - Westminster

The problem is going to get worse; the overall London-based Government of the United Kingdom has a policy centred on the Big Society which involves devolution of power (and responsibility) away from central government to society at large. One may (or may not) scoff at the idea but Northern Irish politicians are taking it seriously

DUP MP David Simpson has recently been pushing his Party's discussion paper on a clearly related issue - increasing '‘collaboration between the Stormont administration and the faith sector’'. The objective is to get religious organisations to get more involved in the delivery of public services. This necessarily involves public money being handed over to churches and church organisations exactly at a time when religious observance and practice are in decline.

Frighteningly, the DUP proposals appear to favour organisations who reject lottery money on religious grounds - disproportionately fundamentalist churches such as those of Caleb Foundation pastors. It's not just money being handed over, its power, responsibility and accountability.

Simpson himself is a creationist - specifically he supports Intelligent Design and also homoeopathy despite, apparently, having no qualifications in science. Simpson is a member of Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church and, as a member of the regional assembly, pushed to get "pupils who answer GCSE examination questions outlining creationist or intelligent design explanations for the development of life on Earth, will not be marked lower than pupils who give answers with an evolutionist explanation." (See: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education/tussle-of-biblical-proportions-over-creationism-in-ulster-classrooms-13479246.html#ixzz14nrTEDRy)