Comments on: Was Darwin Wrong? (Part 2)

By: PeteS

PeteS — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:44:30 +0000

Got here via Engineer-Poet. Nice blog.

To answer Liew above, people reject evolution because they a) aren’t that well acquainted with the scientific arguments ( - there’s a lot of water under the bridge between Darwin and the neo-Darwinian synthesis where many of the more compelling arguments are fleshed out), b) they perceive Darwinism as a direct contradiction to a literal interpretation of the Bible which, no matter how perverse and ahistorical, they see as foundational to their ideas about God, morality etc., c) on the other side of the fence, dogmatic atheists and supremely unqualified philosophical lightweights like Richard Dawkins make it their business to make overreaching claims about the metaphysical implications of Darwinism, ratcheting up the stakes in the creation-versus-evolution war.

Fortunately this tension is a largely American phenomenon, although to some extent it is being exported along with the evangelical Protestantism to which it owes most of its underpinnings.

By: dogdayafternoon

dogdayafternoon — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:15:29 +0000

I enjoy all the bantering on your blog St. Elmo, I agree with you a hundred percent the “Creationists” take on evolution is almost humurous, I am glad they exist, it is a funny circus they run and therefore proof of evolution we have evolved and they are just a few more genes closer to our primate ancestors. You are a well written individual keep it up;

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:08:08 +0000

This is huge!

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religionandtheology/1374/the_ponzi_prosperity_gospel/

By: God

God — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:26:04 +0000

Of course Darwin was wrong, we were just sharing a laugh about it at last week’s poker game. The fact is, any time a species engages in homosexual activity, I zap ‘em with lightning. As an unintended consequence, it seems to alter bits of their DNA in EXACTLY the same way in every individual. Peace out minions.

By: Aoede

Aoede — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:50:31 +0000

@Devysciple:
Well, the alternative phrasing would be “I know what I believe”, but I don’t think it’s altogether appropriate to apply that verb to evolution.

@Saint Gasoline:
I see; that makes more sense. I asked because I also consider myself a creationist in the God’s-somewhere sense (which is where the verb “believe” is more appropriate; no rational basis).

And now I will hightail it out of here because I know I’m not welcome. Your tests are fun, though

By: Saint Gasoline

Saint Gasoline — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:54:37 +0000

Creationism is basically the belief that a deity created each “kind” distinctly, Aoede. More subtle forms tend to focus less on that aspect and go into more of a denialist attitude toward evolution, but in the end you pretty much have to be a creationist of some sort to not find the evidence for evolution highly convincing.

By: Devysciple

Devysciple — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:28:15 +0000

@Aoede: “since I know what I know”

Wow, that’s way more than I do. I only know that I know nothing

I don’t want to anticipate St. Gasoline’s answer, but mine would be:

Pick one of these!

By: Aoede

Aoede — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:30:07 +0000

Hallo, I strayed here as a testmonkey from OkC; what follows is a general comment not specifically pertaining to this post.

I took your Evolution vs. Design test more out of curiosity for the test than anything else, since I know what I know. What I noticed was that (at least in the all-science result!) you chose to portray “creationism” as at odds with a scientific attitude. So I’m curious: what’s your definition of “creationism”?

By: cj

cj — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:35:50 +0000

@ Liew:

NIMH — “An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.”

ARIS — “… Significantly, 38.6 percent of mainline Protestants now also identify themselves as evangelical or born again.”

‘Someone’ is you. Get started!

@ St. Gas — excellent blog (just found you). Keep on writing!

By: Ziztur

Ziztur — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:19:53 +0000

Hey, I need the omnibrain this weekend, it’s my turn to use it.