Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Object Permanence

Ken Ham the guy who is behind Northern Kentucky's Creationist Museum where kids can learn that 6,000 years ago men rode on dinosaurs just like in the Flintstones posted on his blog how proud he was that a 9 year-old followed his brain washing techniques.

Here is his post.

I received a letter from a nine-year-old girl who has been brought up on AiG resources. She wrote to me the following:

I went to a NASA display of a moon rock and a lady said, “This Moon-rock is 3.75 billion years old!” Guess what I asked for the first time ever?

“Um, may I ask a question?”

And she said, “Of course.”

I said, in my most polite voice, “Were you there?”

Love, Emma B

When she got home her older sister said, “Mom's birthday is coming up.” Guess what she asked for the second time ever?

“Um, may I ask a question?”

The sister said, “Of course.”

She said, in her most polite voice, “Were you there?”

For a thoughtful and respectful response to Emma B. I refer you to Blue in the Bluegrass

On this site I don't do respectful very well so here is my response to Ken Ham.

Ken,

You might not be aware of this but between the ages of three and a half months and two years old children develop something called Object Permanence.

I guess you never developed this skill, Ken, so let me describe it to you. At some point a child realizes that if they see something and it is taken away so they can no longer see or hear it, the object still exists. Have I blown your mind yet Ken?

Knowing an object still exists when you can't see it is a very useful skill as it means if you search for it there is a chance you can find it.

Now building on this concept of Object Permanence it is logical to assume that the object may have existed BEFORE you saw it! Now Ken I'm sure that the concept that things have existed in the past has your mind rattled, so take a deep breath before reading on because here is where it really gets mind blowing.

If you accept that something existed before you saw it, then there is a chance that that there are other things that you haven't seen yet, and that they exist! Imagine that places like oceans and cities and pastures that you have never seen actually exist.

Now Ken I realize this is a lot of information to process, but here is the really wild part. If you know how something happens you don't actually have to witness it for it to have occurred. So in Emma's case the fact that she or her sister didn't see her mom being born doesn't mean that it didn't happen. In fact I will wager any amount of money that her mom was actually born.

Now Ken, I realize that your head must be hurting realizing that there is a whole world out there that exists even if you have never seen it. You'll want to reject this whole concept of Object Permanence and say that everything was created by God at the exact moment you saw it. In that case since you have never seen me or this post before feel free to assume I don't exist and it is God telling you to, “Shut-up Stupid.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE