jeffrey dahmer and answers in genesis

Jeffrey Dahmer and Answers in Genesis

(I've had this in draft since June 21, but forgot about it--I was

making an effort to verify that Dahmer was actually raised as a

creationist or Christian, but didn't find anything to indicate when

Lionel Dahmer became either one. I raised the question in comments at

Ed Brayton's blog, and one commenter, Kristine, replied that Lionel

Dahmer says he only became a creationist after his son was arrested.

That undermines the specifics of the case below. There have certainly

been serial killers raised as Christians (such as Ted Bundy), but I've

not heard of any that have been specifically raised as creationists. I

don't think police departments look at Christianity or creationism as

a relevant factor in a serial killer profile, the way they look at,

say, possession of a copy of the Satanic Bible, except in extreme

cases, which is probably as it should be.)

Ken Ham likes to argue that evolution is the cause of a variety of

social ills--teen pregnancy, pornography, drugs, abortion, racism, the

Holocaust, etc. His book The Lie: Evolution argues that evolution is

responsible for all of these things.

I just learned (thanks to Ed Brayton's blog) that Jeffrey Dahmer, the

cannibal serial killer, was raised as a creationist, and his father,

Dr. Lionel Dahmer, is listed on the Answers in Genesis website as an

analytical chemist who accepts the biblical account of creation.

If evolutionists used Ken Ham's technique, they would argue that being

raised as a creationist causes cannibalism. Answers in Genesis

specifically suggests that it was belief in evolution, rather than

issues from his upbringing, that caused Jeffrey Dahmer to kill,

quoting a 1994 statement from him that "If a person doesn't think

there is a God to be accountable to, then--then what's the point of

trying to modify your behaviour to keep it within acceptable ranges?

That's how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution

as truth, that we all just came from the slime. When we, when we died,

you know, that was it, there is nothing..."

The Wikipedia entry on Dahmer observes that he "dissected already dead

animals as a child" (he collected and sexually interacted with

roadkill), began abusing alcohol at 14, had extremely low self-esteem,

and his parents divorced after "constant fighting" when he was 18. His

father "forced him to enlist" in the Army for six years, but he was

discharged after two due to excessive drinking. He built an altar of

candles and human skulls in the closet of his apartment that was found

when he was arrested. In prison, he declared himself a born-again

Christian (which he was when he made the above statement), and was

beaten to death in prison in 1994.

Psychiatrist George Palermo testified at Dahmer's trial that he killed

his victims because he hated his own homosexuality.