BILL NYE VS KEN HAM: TONIGHT AT 7 PM

[DeistPaladin]

This makes me sad, and frustrated:

22 Messages from creationists to people who believe in evolution

OK, just because I feel the compulsion to imagine the answers...

DISCLAIMER: My education in biology consists of what I learned in high school and still none of these questions were hard to answer.

1. Yes, teaching science and critical thinking is influencing children in a positive way.

2. No, I'm not scared of a divine creator.

3. Kinda makes your god into a trickster, doesn't it, deceptively making us think the universe is older than it is? If so, how can you trust your god's salvation message if you can't even trust your god's creation?

4. No. The sun takes care of that. The world is not a "closed system", since the sun provides new energy.

5. Um, the earth spins on its axis and the sun's "rise" and "set" is an optical illusion. OK, too fast. You see, the earth is actually round...

6. Thermodynamics again? They don't. See #4.

7. That's philosophy, not biology. We'll get back to you when we understand consciousness but, until then, filling in the blanks with "it's magic" or GodDidIt isn't helpful to the search.

8. What does "objective meaning" actually mean? Can I plug numbers into a spread sheet that measure meaning? Are there units of measure to determine meaning? If you're talking about philosophical values, they must almost by definition be subjective.

9. That's abiogenesis, not evolution, and we're working on that. Just because we don't yet know doesn't mean you can fill in the blanks with GodDidIt. It's an argument from ignorance to do so and it stops the search.

10. OK.

11. Stop getting your science education from Ben Stein. That quote from Dawkins about aliens planting life was a quote mine deceptively wrenched out of context. Take a remedial biology class and get back to me.

12. Actually, we've found plenty of transitional fossils.

13. "Metamorphosis"? Do you mean mutation? Gradual mutations are what drive the change in life over time, which is what the science of evolution studies.

14. Germ theory is "just a theory". Atomic theory is "just a theory". Gravitational theory is "just a theory". You can see the word "theory" means something different to science than it does to you.

15. Um, no, theories ARE testable, observable and repeatable. That how they pass the process of peer review and get to be called "theories". Otherwise, they wouldn't be called "theories", at least not in science.

16. "Information"? No, these are mutations that gradually change over time. This is how dogs were bred from wolves or we breed horses to run faster. These are examples are artificial selection, where humans direct the process, but natural selection works the same way except it takes longer.

17. Why is "salvation" necessary to feel a sense of purpose?

18. Because fossils are rare. They're rare because normally living things decompose and turn to dust. Something has to stop that process and neatly encase the corpse in order to preserve remains that can be found hundreds of thousands of years later.

19. Yes. Faith is belief without reason and against all reason. The Big Bang has evidence. Science is not faith. Science is not religion. Science is not a belief. Science is not a god.

20. Yes, the world is amazing. And...?

21. Did you watch the debate. I already told you we don't know what was before the "Big Bang". That's called starting with what we know and looking for the answers to what we don't know, as opposed to creationism which is starting with the answers and looking for reasons to believe it.

22. How about this: "If we bred dogs from wolves, why are there still wolves?" If you can answer that, you can answer your own question.

Seriously. High school education. That's all I had in biology.