The Creationist Believes PokÃ©mon Go Is Dangerous but Denying the Existence of Evolution Is Not

One is described as an experience that brings â€œpagesâ€¦ to life, casting characters and animals in dynamic form and placing them in familiar settings.â€ The other, an experience that uses real locations to encourage players â€œto search far and wide in the real world.â€

If you arenâ€™t sure which is Young Earth creationist and Christian fundamentalist Ken Hamâ€™s Creation Museum, and which is the popular mobile game PokÃ©mon Go, the latter is the one which doesnâ€™t feature â€œchildren [playing] and dinosaurs [roaming] near Edenâ€™s Rivers.â€ (It just features PokÃ©mon playing with children, which is arguably more realistic than children and dinosaurs roaming the earth together.)

The Creation Museum and PokÃ©mon Go have something in common, however, as reported by PatheosÂ andÂ according to Ham: neither feature evolution. (It should be noted that the mobile game, much like the history of every species on Earth, features evolution.)

â€œItâ€™s hard to spend any time on the Internet, or even watch the news, without hearing about the newest craze, PokÃ©mon Go,â€ Ham wrote on his Answers in Genesis blog. â€œWellâ€”despite three of our staff members trying to explain it to meâ€”I still donâ€™t understand what it is or how it works. I guess Iâ€™m just from the wrong generation!â€

The explanation the museumâ€™s staff offered Ham was featured on his Facebook page via a Live broadcast. In it, Ham advised that one of his staff members â€œnearly got thrown outâ€ when they used the word â€œevolveâ€ in their description of the game and its contents. â€œWhat did you tell me about PokÃ©mon and evolve?â€ he asked.

The staff member advised that PokÃ©mon do, in fact, evolve, citing that â€œapparently, you give them candy and they become stronger.â€ Ham retorted that such an act was â€œno good for the Creation Museum.â€

When the staff member asked if Ham would like to evolve one of the PokÃ©mon, offering the Creationist his phone, game at the ready, he advised he didnâ€™t believe in evolution right before asking how to proceed.

Ham pressed the appropriate buttons with the staff memberâ€™s guidance, and the PokÃ©mon (described as a â€œbirdâ€) simply became a â€œbigger, better bird.â€ This was not the act of evolving, according to Ham, as it â€œ[was still] a bird! â€¦ Thatâ€™s not evolution!â€

â€œIt should have evolved into something else,â€ he continued. â€œIt just grew up into a big bird. It definitely shows that birds remain birds. Okay, weâ€™ve figured that out.â€

The textbook definition of evolution is â€œthe gradual development of something, especially from a simple to a more complex form.â€

Ham later called the game dangerous, but advised that he â€œfound out one thingâ€¦ Â it teaches birds stay birds. I found that out. So thatâ€™s good.â€

Hemant Mehta at Friendly Atheist, who first reported on Ham’s “discovery” laments, “Hamâ€™s comments arenâ€™t a joke. He sincerelyÂ believesÂ this nonsense.”

While Ham may view the mobile game as dangerous, it is apparent that in his view, denying the existence of evolution, discriminating on the basis of religion, and promoting creationism over factual education are not.

The full video can be seen below:

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Image by Eduardo WooÂ via Flickr and a CC license