Find yourself defending Evolution?

[DarkPhenyx]

maybe this page will help.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000D4FEC-7D5B-1D07-8E49809EC588EEDF

Believe it or not I actually pulled this off of FreeRepublic. I know, I know...frightening isn't it?

[Dookus]

1. That's a great article...

I bought that issue, even though SciAm is usually over my head. But I saw that headline on the cover and just had to have it.

[ComerPerro]

2. I rarely have to do this

Mainly because one of my best friends is a geology major. So he takes any attack on Evolution quite personally.

You said you got this from freeperland? Was it in the dinosaur thread? Because there was one guy there, Physicist, who had been a member since 1998 and was actually quite rational.

[Dookus]

4. Actually...

Freeperland can be quite entertaining whenever they discuss this issue. There really are a number of "rationalists" there who are simply very conservative. They fight with the xtians.

Similarly, I enjoyed the Supreme Court sodomy case discussion there. The libertarians were all for it, and again, the xtians were the target.

There really is a little more intellectual variety there than most people think. Of course, they're still all nuts ;)

[ComerPerro]

7. LOL

"Of course, they're still all nuts"

[DarkPhenyx]

5. Yeah, it was on the Dino thread.

Didn't catch the poster though.

I was having a hard time following the thread as it was. is that not the worst interface?

I've always said that there are sane and rational people on both sides of teh fence, just as there are some real loons. Just wouldn't have expected to find them at FR considering mmost of the crap I see coming out of there.

[Friar]

3. I would no more defend evolution

than I would defend the sun shines in the morning, rain falls from the sky or jumping off a ten story building will kill you. It needs no defense. Let the detractors support their contentions.

Great article though. I forgot to mention that. :)

[Jacobin]

16. Very well put

It's not a "belief system" but observation of natural phenomenon without a guiding agenda. There is no 2000 year old collection of ancient parables to try to fit into geology.

It's frightening to see school board electing wingnuts insisting that children be taught mysticism as fact.

The Dark Ages Beckon once again......brought to us once again by the soothsayers.

[Jacobin]

6. Scopes Monkey Trial Redux

Time for another one.

[Friar]

8. they've never stopped

Crationists have been fighting continually, and temporarily winning depressingly often since Scopes. They will never give up, never surrender.

[DarkPhenyx]

9. And they won't let us shoot them...

...thus proving Darwin right with an object lesson in survival of teh fittest.

[TreasonousBastard]

10. They must, then...

be torn up and shredded like weeds, plowed into the soil and ground under our thick boots to fertilize the seeds of rational thought.

[DarkPhenyx]

12. OK, just cuz I gotta and my thought was funny.

"Crationists"? Are these the people who think all life was created from a big box of crayons?

[Bozola]

21. Scopes lost.

....

[Old and In the Way]

11. I read that thread last night.

I don't know, but one or 2 could have been DU'ers....I mean they had the creationists pretty well tied up in knots.

Of course, when you are that the Earth is 6000 years old and a busted dam created the Grand Canyon, I'm not sure how seriously you can expect to be taken.

Maybe 20 intelligent posts out of the 600 or so.

[SayitAintSo]

13. You must have seen 'Inherit the Wind' yesterday... Huh ?

It was on TCM (I think) on Sunday ... and for a movie made over 40ish years ago, the issues, positions, and rhetoric are still as real today. Scary huh ?

[sujan]

14. Another recommendation:

Read Finding Darwin's God by Kenneth Miller.

[comradebillyboy]

15. check out "talk origins"

http://www.talkorigins.org/

this site has an exhaustive discussion of the topic as well as excellent rebuttals to the creationist nonsense.

most skeptic web sits also have good links to real science on evolution and rebuttals to silly arguments.

if religion were more like opium, i would consider using it.

[lizerdbits]

17. My regular response to "intelligent design" is

show me scientific evidence of the existence of this designer, then we can talk. Still waiting......

[sujan]

19. Kenneth Miller has done excellent work in debunking that theory

I'd recommend to read his book. Read my post above.

[lizerdbits]

20. Thanks, I will definately be putting that one on my list.

:)

[sujan]

22. here's one you can read online

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/grand/

Be sure to bookmark this link:

http://www.pbs.org/evolution

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

18. This is a keeper thanks

It must be hard for actual scientists on Freerepublic...you'd think that alone would appeal to their greater senses.

[John_H]

23. I used to have a friend who taught biology in Mississippi

she used to nail the creationists by asking them whether dinosaur bones were:

1) a trick of satan. (if they choose this one, you're never going to change their minds because science is out the window)

2) proof that carbon dating is a fraud (this is a "trick" choice because if they choose this one she pulls out all the articles by christian "scientists" who use carbon dating to prove the existence of various boblical characters) or

3) indisputable proof that a literal reading of Genesis is impossible.

[donco6]

24. No, but there's quite a few on this board who don't believe . . .

. . . we landed on the moon.

Sigh.