Vol. XIV • 1992 http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v14n4p28.htm
They Created Their Own Monster
Paul A. Bartz
Creationists have always said that evolutionists would get science into trouble. One potential trouble area was identified in evolution's claim, in the name of science, that human beings were simply another animal in the chain of life.
Animal rights extremists have tried to end all uses of animals in research claiming that "all species are morally equivalent and we have no right to use animals in biomedical research." That doesn't leave biomedical researchers who accept evolution with much of a defense.
The assault of animal rights extremists on medical research was a hot topic at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). According to Frederick Goodwin, administrator of the alcohol, drug abuse and mental health division of the U. S. Public Health Service, the biomedical community is demoralized and some researchers have even left this field of research because of the attacks. He said that animal rights groups knowingly use false arguments.
Goodwin said that animal rights groups are taking advantage of the fact that most Americans are scientifically illiterate. As one example, he cited the claim that all research done with animals could be done today with tissue cultures or computer models. I agree with Goodwin. Most people have no idea of how crude our best computers are and how limited our understanding is, especially when compared to biological realities.
But evolutionists are going to have to come up with a better justification than "public consensus" in defining the relationship between humans and animals.
To be sure, creationists don't condone cruelty to animals. But it wasn't the animal rights people who invented "be kind to animals week." Decent people have always been concerned about animals.
At the same time, it was God Himself Who killed the first animals to provide clothing for Adam and Eve. Animals are qualitatively distinct from human beings.
Reprinted from Bible-Science Newsletter, Minneapolis, MN 55432, Vol.28, No.4, April, 1990.
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