Asator: "Face it, you're too stupid to be an atheist."

Excuse me?!?! I didn't come here to be ridiculed. Being an atheist means that you are perfectly willing to admit that you don't have all the answers. That's exactly what I did when I came here to ask my question. So excuse me for being open minded and seeking to better understand. You're just as judgemental as a TBM.

To everyone else, thank you so much, especially raptorjesus! I wouldn't be able to call myself open minded if I wasn't willing to hear and examine the arguments against evolution. I was sure they all had answers, but all the searches I did came up with stuff I wasn't looking for. You've all given me plenty to read and think about for now.

You're welcome. I used to teach secondary education for a short period of time. One of the areas that I was certified to teach in was Physics. However, with the way Utah education is-- if you teach one area of science, you may have to teach others.

Evolution is a big deal to me. It is extremely well researched and documented. The quote, "nothing in modern biology makes sense without evolution" is more than just a witty quote. It is completely true.

Learning about evolution turned into a hobby of mine because I knew that there was a possibility that I would have to teach it in Utah. A lot of TBM parents arm their children with arguments like the ones in the videos, so I felt it necessary to take a look at shit like this in order to understand where the "criticisms" were coming from.

Unfortunately, the "criticisms" are complete and utter shit. In physics, you have legitimate concerns with certain advanced theories like string theory because of actual lacks of evidence that scientists are trying to still research. But the "creationist theory" is really just a complete mock of true science and is on the same level as "flat earth theory," "young earth theory," or if someone wanted to argue that Aristotle's theory of "physics" were true.

Creationism is just not at all correct. And don't worry about the haters. You now have a whole new world to explore and find answers to big questions for. It seemed like you just wanted more knowledge rather than to push the idea.

However, I would like to encourage you to post your findings on your blog as to why your previous video posts were scientific tripe.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2010 01:00PM by raptorjesus.

I hope you're being honest and sincere with that commitment to being open-minded...

Incidentally, I went ahead and reported a couple of posts for the personal attacks within them--particularly if they involved language--but I see they weren't pulled. I suspect they will be at some point. I felt they were over the top even if I agreed with the substance of their claims...

I did this even though I veiled my own charges in slightly more nuanced innuendo that had the potential to be nearly as offensive...

I noted, though, that it is difficult not to holler "Liar!" when confronted with what amount to obvious lies and distortions, at least from our educated perspectives... Those of us with experience in studying this subject--and for me it's been forty years since I first read Desmond Morris's "The Naked Ape" and Robert Ardrey's "African Genesis"; both works are dated, but still excellent-- have often reached the point where we either have to refuse to debate or reach for our six-shooters, and the resulting gunfights are always noisy and bloody...

I was particulary incensed by the claim in the first video that described Darwin as an "amateur naturalist"; that's a seriously ignorant charge that was leveled at someone who possessed one of the three or four greatest scientific intellects ever to emerge from the British Isles. And he wasn't even a Scotsman...

Feel free to look at the Pennsylvania decision on "Intelligent Design," and how the judge there commented on the supreme dishonesty of the ID proponents...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10545387/ns/technology_and_science-science/



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2010 01:12PM by SL Cabbie.

I'll add my thanks to raptorjesus and to SL Cabbie for provided facts to put the pseudo-science where it belongs, in the trash bin.

I have seen videos like the one discussed being shown in churches, and to church-related youth groups. Where I live, these intelligent design videos have been shown not just to mormon audiences, but to Baptists, Catholics, and evangelicals.

People who are not evolutionary biologists think its a good idea to pay to have the videos distributed and shown to audiences all over the U.S.

This is really galling. As if we need to dumb down even further the population of the U.S. As if we need to sacrifice even more progress and knowledge on the altar of anti-knowledge.

He couldn't believe that it has become necessary to spend time on "vocal, superficially plausible, and adept at seeming learned" evolution deniers. He says it is like having to prove Latin existed to someone you are teaching Spanish to or trying to deal with the noise from Holocaust-deniers.

"The plight of many science teachers today is not less dire. When they attempt to expound the central and guiding principle of biology, when they honestly place the living world in its historical context-which means evolution; they are harried and stymied, hassled and bullied, even threatened with loss of their jobs. At the very least their time is wasted at every turn. They are likely to receive menacing letters from parents, and have to endure the sarcastic smirks and close-folded arms of brainwashed children. They are supplied by state-approved textbooks that have the word 'evolution' systematically expunged or bowdlerized into 'change over time'. Once we were tempted to laugh this kind of thing off as a peculiarly American phenomenon. Teachers in Britain and Europe now face the same problems, partly because of the growing Islamic presence in the classroom-abetted by the official commitment to 'multiculturalism' and the terror of being thought racist."

The quote above from Dawkins in "The Greatest Show On Earth" is part of his frustration and discussion about how we should deal with uneducated "opinion" about scientific facts. He expresses the problems in the first chapter then explains that he never thought he would have to write a book at that level to explain the obvious.

I highly recommend his book. I don't know anyone who can put that book down after reading it and not get it. Every Spanish teacher should not have to spend time proving Latin existed.