James Roche wrote:Heh, well, you certainly seem to have your panties in a bunch.
I don't like ignorance. Sue me.
What gaping holes in the theory? Well, the misssing link for one, obviously. You'd think that someone who tries to pass themselves off as a scientist would remember a household term.
And you figure that by virtue of being a household term, that must make it correct? ESP is a household term too. So what? The only "missing link" is the one in your logic. Many pre-human fossils have been found by archaeologists since the 19th century when Darwin wrote his book.
That and many evolutionary links are based on the unproven Pangea theory.
Of course the Pangea theory is "unproven". ALL scientific theories are unproven; didn't you know that? But continental drift has been observed, tectonic plate theory is highly reliable, and the possibility of land bridges between currently separated continents in the distant past is hardly as unreasonable as you want to make it seem.
By the way, evolutionary links are never "based" on continental drift. They are invariably based on inter-species homology, with continental drift only coming into play in situations where an animal and an obvious evolutionary descendant (by homology and timeframe) live on opposite sides of a body of water. It's simple a matter of putting two and two together; if you see an animal in one region and then you see an almost identical animal shortly
afterwards just across an adjacent body of water, it doesn't take a genius to see that they might have migrated. If continental drift theories help make such migration possible, that merely lends additional support.
Theory AND fact? That's like saying 'opinion and fact', it simply can't be both, any more than it could be hypothesis and theory at the same time.
Wrong (but thanks for reminding us all of how ignorant the average creationist is). You draw a false dilemma, thus brilliantly demonstrating yet again that you haven't got the foggiest grasp of science.
Gravity is both a fact and theory: we can observe that objects fall, and we also have a theory we can use to predict the nature and rate of gravitational attraction. Similarly, We have observed evolution in nature. We also have a working theory as to how it works. It is both fact and theory.
A serious discussion of scientific validity? Your hubris amazes me, THIS IS THE FUCKING INTERNET, not the goddamn New England Journal of Medicine or what have you.
The Internet is a perfectly valid venue for serious discussions. The fact that you are seemingly incapable of such discussions is your problem, not mine.
Also, if you had actually paid attention, rather than immaturely looked for ways to attack a non-aggressive letter, you'd realize I was in no way packaging it as a 'serious debate'.
So it's "immature" for me to respond to a series of arguments which are clearly wrong by pointing that fact out? How is that "immature?"
You are being dishonest. You claim that you were not attempting any kind of "serious debate", but from where I sit, it looks like you take this much more seriously than you're willing to admit.
If you don't like having your mistakes pointed out, too bad. As you say, THIS IS THE FUCKING INTERNET, and if you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Don't whine or cry foul; YOU sent ME unsolicited E-mail, and I can respond to it however I damned well please.
A creationist lie? Please. It's well documented. And 'deathbed' is a dramatization, really, he contradicted it well before he was actually dying.
Show me this mysterious documentation of Darwin rejecting evolution. And I notice that you quietly ignored the part of my message where I pointed out that even if it were true, it would have no bearing on the validity of the theory.
You're quite enamored with the term 'scientific method'. It's nice to see you hung onto your 7th grade earth science book. It seems to be the basis for most of your arguments. I remember a similar passage from mine.
Mockery doth not a logical argument make. The fact is that you ARE quite obviously ignorant of the scientific method (you make no distinction between observation, theory, or even resulting technology, for example), and while YOUR scientific education seems to have ceased in Grade 7, mine didn't. This may come as a shock to you, but the REST of us have considerably more advanced science textbooks than the stuff we got in Grade 7.
I'm a creationist? Thanks for telling me, I'll be sure to incorporate that into my world view ASAP. By the way, you can look this up in your argument handbook (or webpage, probably). What you're doing is attacking the person, rather than the argument.
Wrong. I am pointing out that you are a creationist because your arguments are all creationist arguments. You foolishly confuse "criticism of a man based on his arguments" with "criticism of an argument based on the man". The former is what I have done; the latter a fallacy and it is what YOU are doing, since you "refute" many of my points by attacking me and ignoring the point. Keep trying; someday, you'll figure out what a logical fallacy is.
Darth Wong wrote:By the way, I challenge you to provide one example of the scientific community permanently rejecting a scientific theory which can be shown to be scientifically valid and superior to an existing theory ...
The Acambaro figurines. While many of them ( The aliens and so forth) are probably hoaxes, a great number of them have stood up to any testing science has cared to throw at them.
You obviously don't know how to read. An archaeological dig is NOT a scientific theory! Don't you know the difference between evidence and theories? Scientists have carbon-dated those figurines to be thousands of years old. That's good enough for most scientists, and it's good enough for me. The problem is the CONCLUSION you draw from those figurines, not the figurines themselves.
And yet, the archealogical community has dismissed the entire site, and anything from it as a hoax. The burden of proof lays on the accuser, yet science hasn't deemed fit to even attempt to prove, and rather, simply ignore. It's a favorite rant of cryptozoologists, I'm sure you can find something on it.
I don't see any scientific organizations attempting to pretend that these artifacts don't exist; all I see are creationists trying to take an interesting anthropological and archaeological discovery and pretend that it means something other than what it does. And when the scientific community does not share their conclusions, they call it a "cover-up" even though it is nothing of the sort.
The fact is that the Acambaro figurines are interesting and creative, but creationists wish to use them as proof that dinosaurs and man co-existed 6000 years ago. This is simply moronic; let me educate you on one particular aspect of the scientific method, since you apparently stopped learning science in Grade 7, as you boast so proudly: a theory which can explain one particular piece of evidence but only at the cost of ignoring everything else is not a good theory.
The depth of dinosaur fossils and the separation of said fossils in time from modern civilization is uniform all around the globe. In Acambaro, we find some figurines of what appear to be snakes and lizards with arms and legs
artistically added, as was common in certain forms of prehistoric art and religion, particularly the more animistic styles. The rational explanation is simple: some of the many thousands of figurines at Acambaro bear a striking resemblance to certain types of dinosaur, but this is obviously coincidental, as indicated by the many thousands of sculptures which bear no resemblance whatsoever to any dinosaur which ever lived.
Think about it: these figurines may look pretty good for sheer coincidence, but even the best ones are pretty awful renditions for people who have supposedly seen living dinosaurs with their own eyes. In fact, most of them are quite OBVIOUSLY non-vertebrate snakes with legs attached, as demonstrated by their elongation and arching bodies (except for the ones that look like exaggerated crocodiles). Look at the structure of the bodies, with their thin, flexible torsos. They are artistic creations, quite fascinating from an anthropological standpoint but hardly disproof of the fossil record. All ancient cultures invented fanciful animals for worship; the Chinese invented dragons, the Greeks invented Satyrs and unicorns, and in Acambaro, they
obviously made various combinations of crocodiles and snakes (this is much more obvious when you see examples of the figurines they choose NOT to put pictures of on creationist websites), not knowing that someone would someday interpret their creations as sculptures of something they MUST have seen walking around with their own eyes.
Darth Wong wrote:Your ignorance of both science and history astounds me. it was CHRISTIANS who threatened to kill people for declaring that the Earth is round or that it resolves around the Sun, not scientists.
...it was pre-industrial era Europe. EVERYONE WHO WASN'T A MOOR WAS A CHRISTIAN. The idea that you're either a scientist or a christian is a relatively new one, you know.
Too bad. The point is that they weren't scientists, since they weren't practicing the scientific method (you know, that thing you don't understand, so you try to make fun of anyone who mentions it). Your shameless attempt to claim that scientists have thrown people out of towers for heresy is a lie, and you have proven yourself unable to defend it.
The fact that you've responded to a letter that would
have best decribed as 'bemused' with a rather laughable level of venom and virulence prooves my point
Style over substance fallacy. You are trying to claim that you're a really nice guy and I'm being rude, as if this "prooves" your laughable arguments correct (ironically, in the midst of a series of personal attacks, which is how you will conclude this message).
and the fact that you attempted to out of hand label me as a creationist to rationalize away any arguments as nonsense doesn't hurt.
Strawman fallacy. I have addressed every one of your arguments directly. The fact that I pointed out your obvious dishonesty is merely icing on the cake.
Kudos on misusing the term 'logical fallacy' by the way.
Show me an example of where I misused it.
And thermodynamics debunk the book of Genesis? Hunh? If you say so.
I notice you forgot to mention geology and astrophysics; I said they ALL debunk Genesis. In any case, perform a simple energy balance on a 1 kilometre thick global layer of water (not enough to cover the mountains or even the continents, but I'm being generous to the Biblical inerrantists' sad cause) falling from, say, 10km up. Better yet, perform a simple energy balance on the gravitational potential energy that would have to be released if a planet was formed in one day. For that matter, try to rationalize the six-day creation with the timescales of the universe (for the first two thirds of the universe's existence, this planet did not even exist; yet 4 of 6 "days" would have passed). Or better yet, explain how the Earth was created before the Sun, or the Sun created before all of the other stars.
Just to make it easy on you, I'll forego all of the challenges except for the first one: if you can figure out how to do the elementary energy balance for a 1km thick global flood, you will realize that yes, thermodynamics does
indeed debunk the book of Genesis.
Simplicity and elegance... that explains the billions
of species of all different sorts all over the world, and how one species brought into an alien environment can totally demolish it. (around 30% of Australia is fenced off because of garden variety jack-rabbits) Calling nature simple is ludicrous.
Strawman. I never said nature was simple and elegant. I said that INTELLIGENT DESIGN tends to be simple and elegant. Nature, on the other hand, is not simple and it is not elegant, ie- it is not intelligently designed. Do I need
to explain this to you a THIRD time, or do you get it now?
And don't be a jack-ass. Natural adaption and evolution aren't the same. Evolution takes millions of years, I don't think scientists can sit still that long.
Actually, natural adaptation and evolution ARE the same. Your ignorance is not a valid argument. And evolution can take place over very short timescales; see the South American guppy experiments. Small changes over small timescales, huge changes over huge timescales. What part of this do you not understand?
Religion wants to censor science? When, since the Scopes trial?
You forgot to mention every educational battle to censor evolution theory and sexual education from the public school systems in North America for the last hundred years.
Are you are aware that there's a scientific movement on-going to ban any scientist, no matter whom, who has any religious affiliation from public debates?
Name the major movers and shakers behind this "movement", and name any successes they've had in advancing their agenda. Explain how they would go about "banning" religious scientists from public debates which anyone can hold anywhere they please.
Of course you wouldn't, because you're just some fat kid huffing behind a Dell computer with a Carl Sagan booked clutched in his stubby fist.
So you'd like to think, wouldn't you? It would make you feel so much better to pretend that you're intellectually superior to me or that I'm just some kid rather than an adult who obviously knows far more about this than you do.
Cute. A simple reading of a Crusades history would
make you realize how stupid you sound, but seeing as you don't listen to anything but the sound of your own voice, que sera sera.
Yet again, you crow that I'm wrong, but you don't provide a shred of evidence or even a flimsy attempt at explanation.
Darth Wong wrote:That is TECHNOLOGY, not science. You obviously don't even know the difference between science and technology. How sad.
What are you, fucking retarded? Are just obnoxiously coy? If science, and scientists, don't create technology, who does? Elves? The Sith?
Technology is created by ENGINEERS, you idiot. I know, because I AM an engineer. Scientists don't create technology; they create theories which engineers use in order to design technologies. Get it? Scientists make theories and engineers apply theories. You seem to have that wonderful creationist combination of arrogance and ignorance; you haven't got a clue how anything works, yet you have the utmost confidence that you can run around telling people that they're wrong about subjects which they've studied and you haven't.
Darth Wong wrote:"Appeal to consequence" fallacy; you are trying to claim that science cannot claim to be accurate because the technology derived from science can be harmful.
Who says that? (Another nice misuse of a term, by the how) All I said that science's overall 'gifts' to mankind have been dubious as best. Ask Czar Nicholaus II.
You said that in support of your ridiculous argument that creation science and evolution science are on equal footing, which is an appeal to consequence fallacy as I said before. Don't try to evade the inevitable criticism that comes from relying exclusively upon fallacies.
As disproof of science? Who said anything about disproving science, you mouth breater? Stop inventing ghosts and defeating them, you're not impressing anyonee but your mom, perhaps.
If you stop using fallacies, I'll stop criticizing you for them.
By the way, no, I haven't read anything else on your
site. Why would I?
Because the relevant sections at
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Creationism refute your ignorant arguments. But of course, that's PRECISELY why you DON'T want to read it, isn't it?
You claim that it's simply a hobby, but there's ream after ream of pseudo-science gibberish, so you obviously care, way too much.
Yet again, you make criticisms but you fail to provide examples, logic, or evidence. All you have are a stream of endless personal attacks, made while PRETENDING not to be taking this too seriously.
who's tiny model ship hung by string in a panorama has a more powerful red flashlight. Obviously this is your only avenue to success in life. But you should probably stop to think...you're arguing, in detail, with months of work who INVENTED a more powerful FICTIONAL army, using WEAPONS THAT WILL NEVER, EVER EXIST. If George Lucas came out with that 7th movie and said 'All the Sith ride magical dragons, and have pistols that can blow up planets. The End. Oh, and they're invisible, too.' Then the whole thing would automatically become moot. And considering what a hack writer Lucas is, I wouldn't put it past him.
Ah, so you try to attack the accuracy of my creationism critiques by making fun of the fact that I also run a science fiction website? I see you still haven't the foggiest idea what's wrong with the ad hominem attack.
Yes, it's a silly hobby to analyze sci-fi. Almost as ridiculous as analyzing Shakespeare for hidden meaning, or studying the collected works of Hemingway in search of revelations about human nature. So what? At least I don't
pretend it's anything more than a hobby, which is why I have a regular job to pay the bills. Do you really think that I plan to achieve "success in life" with this NON-PROFIT website of mine?
And in any case, none of this has any bearing whatsoever on my critiques of creationism, and your pathetic attempt to equate my creationism critiques to my science fiction hobby is the most transparent ad hominem fallacy I have ever seen.
Now if you'll excuse me, while you're off saving the world for Ray Bradbury, I'm off to an actual,important job. As we say in Boston 'WAAAANK!'
Lemme see ... so far, your feeble attempt to shore up your ignorant attacks on evolution theory consist exclusively of:
- Creationist claims without a shred of evidence (and I note; you repeatedly cite claims which are common in creationist literature but nowhere else, yet you deny that you are a creationist).
- Mockery of the scientific method (ie- mockery of that which you don't understand).
- Personal attacks; accusing me of having no scientific education despite my degree, being a "fat kid huffing behind a Dell computer with a Carl Sagan booked clutched in his stubby fist", or pretending that my authorship of a science fiction website somehow invalidates my critiques of creationism.
- Style over substance fallacies in which you dismiss my arguments because I'm not being very nice to you (a rather ironic attack in light of your increasing use of virulent personal insults).
Is this really the best you can do?