Comments | chrastan: "The Jury Is Still Out On The Question of Evolution."

chrastan

"The Jury Is Still Out On The Question of Evolution."

May 07, 2005 00:36

Okay, so I don't know how many people have been following the KS school board controversy (yet again) over evolution, but the state school board once again has a 6-4 majority of Bible-thumping extremists (they lost a few seats in, I think, 2002, but regained strength after this year's elections). This means that the forces of religious extremism ( Read more... )

Comments 28

livarot May 8 2005, 03:30:42 UTC

i'm proud to be a creationist.

chrastan May 8 2005, 04:37:34 UTC

Why, though? Especially in the face of people that would change the definition of science to force their dogma on the rest of their state. You took the same biology classes at the U of C that I did - and probably more. Evolution is the most well-supported theory in all of science - there is more evidence for evolution than there is for gravity. You can see it in action today - even in humans. Witness the slow loss of the 3rd molar thoughout mankind.

I just don't get it...

livarot May 8 2005, 17:29:14 UTC

why not? can you prove that creationism did not occur?

you can also start by trying to prove the evolutionism did occur.

fresch May 8 2005, 17:48:49 UTC

fred rocks.

Thread 23

agatia May 8 2005, 22:33:10 UTC

Wow - you go sweetheart! Everything you've said is right on the money, and certainly correlates to my understanding of evolution and scientific theory. I haven't read the article Judy referenced yet, but your argument certainly seems strong.

trespassing jatsu13 May 19 2005, 03:37:15 UTC

Rimbicano sent me here to find your list of potential Prezzies in 2008. I couldnt help but stumble on this one. This has been a rather expansive discussion and I'd just briefly add a few things that no one touched on ( ... )

Re: trespassing chrastan May 20 2005, 21:28:24 UTC

Welcome! I usually rant more about politics, but LS has been (up until this week) sapping most of my free time. I hadn't heard that about the social origins of Creationism, but I would love to know more. Is there a good book on it you can recommend?

Re: trespassing jatsu13 May 21 2005, 05:12:41 UTC

Hmmm...I think the problem is that there aren't any good books on this. I've gotten most of this from my history of science professor and his course on science and religion. We used a lot of primary texts that are out of print, and not a lot of people have picked up on these thread--at least none I've found.

It's a familiar story, though. Fear, poverty and backasswardsness stoked by hoardes of immigrants who are clearly improving their lot in life ahead of you. So a second more "liberal" clan is formed to not only attack carpetbaggers and all those uppity coloreds, but those filthy catholics and treacherous jews and well just about anyone else who makes you feel uncomfortable with your manifest inferiority. The latter of course taken care of by the invention of a new religion building on the sola scriptura fallacy and utterly impervious to intellectual examination. Fundamentalism and from it Creationism and other spectacular new things. Basically all their tenents and core beliefs can be traced as a direct rejection of ( ... )

livarot June 13 2005, 13:07:10 UTC

the miller-urey experiment has flaws, which if you weren't a fanatic, you would accept.

fred's point is that evolutionism is argued with religious conviction and fervor. on par with fundamentalist christians, as shown above.