This is good but, I've learned that if someone doesn't even believe in evolution you should just not even try and go do something productive/makes happy. Clever things like this don't change the mind a creationist it makes them angry because it makes them think and makes them conflicted and they default to some type of religious platitude.
This definitely adds to the ammo cupboard when dealing with people. Same to you Jewelz. Thanks to both for posting. However I do agree with amg500 that with apologists and ethologist philosophers, who in my opinion are simply delusional, even these simple and straight forward points don't help. In the video Jewelz refered to, after a very simple explanation the caller then says "I've know god since blah blah 3:30 am in the morning etc...." I mean it's just nuts.
Actually, I rather enjoy an irrational "out of the blue" reaction from a Christian friend during an otherwise completely civil religious conversation. It means something I've said has broken through the delusion and forced them to think, if only for a split second. That reaction is their defensive shield going up immediately to prevent the seed of doubt I've just planted from sprouting. Plant enough of them and one find its way through a crack.
I do agree that some people, like professional apologists, are probably too far gone to bother. Even if they did eventually manage to break free from delusion, they'd probably keep pretending to believe because they've dedicated too much of their lives to it and their livelihoods often depend on it.
I find myself not being able to keep my cool when creationists are stubborn. After a while of bringing up basic facts and them refuting it I tend to get angry also. How do you guys keep your cool? For example I was watching The atheist experience episode 702 and just that was enough to make me emote out loud inadvertently on several because I was so bothered by the ignorance.
As for keeping cool in the face of ignorance... I live in the deep South and took recently an online biology class at college. I wish I could post the discussion posts we had there. I felt almost embarrassed that grown people with children could actually believe the irrational creationist things they were going on about. It pretty much became two discussion groups, the "flat-earthers" and the ones who think the evidence for evolution is pretty darn convincing.
Anyway... I do not know why so many of us (Atheists, I mean) spend so much time engaging in fruitless debate and getting angry. The only exception to this for me is when those who are irrational try to force their beliefs on me or my country with ludicrous laws etc. I have learned, being here, that I choose my battles wisely... otherwise I would be endlessly in frays. I prefer to live my life.
One cannot reason with someone who is irrational. We cannot convert to reason. It is like faith: either one believes or one doesn't. If someone is truly open to the possibility of another point of view based on evidence as opposed to religious teaching and personal feelings, they will appreciate the merits of the rational evidence. If not, they are not worth my time and expenditure of anger.
Well Mark, welcome! Glad to see you're curious, or at least interested in contesting. I would like to point out that that is a somewhat red-herring argument. http://www.logicalfallacies.info/relevance/red-herring/
Nowhere in the above paragraph does it mention a deity being necessary or not. I'ts just pointing out the difference between what people like myself where taught about evolution vs. what it actually is, means, and does. Now, that being said, when you realize that for one thing someone, like myself, was taught a manipulative, absurd, crackpot version of the theory rather than an accurate, open, and completely genuine version of it it makes one wonder. why?
Again, I'm glad to see you here and would like to be the first to say welcome. I hope you enjoy your time here and that everything you set out to accomplish, whatever it may be, is a success or at least you walk away satisfied.
This is a concise analogy that explains one facet of evolution. Unfortunately, it does not address the ignorant creationist refrain: "Yes, but if monkeys changed to humans, why are the monkeys still here?" To explain that, you would have to show that some of the "more robust"-colored letters persist among the others throughout the entire "paragraph." That being said, this certainly does depict one difference between microevolution and macroevolution vividly. Microevolution is the difference between any two adjacent letters; while macroevolution depicts the difference between any two widely separated letters. Put another way, microevolution IS the process, while macroevolution is a SNAPSHOT of STAGES in the process.
Reggie
Excellent. Now, give people an appreciation of geological time scales and we are getting somewhere!
May 2, 2011
Walter Maki
May 2, 2011
Akshay Bist
May 2, 2011
Coe Parker
May 2, 2011
Sophie
May 2, 2011
James
May 2, 2011
Derek
May 2, 2011
WoljaIlpapa
May 2, 2011
lloydleroimiller
May 2, 2011
Jake W. Andrews
May 2, 2011
Natalie
May 3, 2011
IEatDinosaurMeat
hehehe.
Awesome though, think I'm gonna make this my facebook profile picture :P
May 3, 2011
kelltrill
May 3, 2011
Daniel
May 3, 2011
Jewelz
I love this! My other new favorite is Matt Dillahunty's latin spaniduck example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyzF8SMQOxU#t=29m07s
May 3, 2011
Robert Karp
May 3, 2011
Jewelz
Actually, I rather enjoy an irrational "out of the blue" reaction from a Christian friend during an otherwise completely civil religious conversation. It means something I've said has broken through the delusion and forced them to think, if only for a split second. That reaction is their defensive shield going up immediately to prevent the seed of doubt I've just planted from sprouting. Plant enough of them and one find its way through a crack.
I do agree that some people, like professional apologists, are probably too far gone to bother. Even if they did eventually manage to break free from delusion, they'd probably keep pretending to believe because they've dedicated too much of their lives to it and their livelihoods often depend on it.
May 3, 2011
Daniel
May 3, 2011
Anne
I really love this! Thanks for posting it.
As for keeping cool in the face of ignorance... I live in the deep South and took recently an online biology class at college. I wish I could post the discussion posts we had there. I felt almost embarrassed that grown people with children could actually believe the irrational creationist things they were going on about. It pretty much became two discussion groups, the "flat-earthers" and the ones who think the evidence for evolution is pretty darn convincing.
Anyway... I do not know why so many of us (Atheists, I mean) spend so much time engaging in fruitless debate and getting angry. The only exception to this for me is when those who are irrational try to force their beliefs on me or my country with ludicrous laws etc. I have learned, being here, that I choose my battles wisely... otherwise I would be endlessly in frays. I prefer to live my life.
One cannot reason with someone who is irrational. We cannot convert to reason. It is like faith: either one believes or one doesn't. If someone is truly open to the possibility of another point of view based on evidence as opposed to religious teaching and personal feelings, they will appreciate the merits of the rational evidence. If not, they are not worth my time and expenditure of anger.
May 3, 2011
Arcus
May 3, 2011
Chris Green
May 3, 2011
William C. Walker
May 3, 2011
Mark
May 6, 2011
IEatDinosaurMeat
http://www.logicalfallacies.info/relevance/red-herring/
Nowhere in the above paragraph does it mention a deity being necessary or not. I'ts just pointing out the difference between what people like myself where taught about evolution vs. what it actually is, means, and does. Now, that being said, when you realize that for one thing someone, like myself, was taught a manipulative, absurd, crackpot version of the theory rather than an accurate, open, and completely genuine version of it it makes one wonder. why?
Again, I'm glad to see you here and would like to be the first to say welcome. I hope you enjoy your time here and that everything you set out to accomplish, whatever it may be, is a success or at least you walk away satisfied.
May 6, 2011
Miss Montoya
May 8, 2011
Dale Headley
May 8, 2011
William C. Walker
May 8, 2011
William C. Walker
May 8, 2011
Shawn Murphy
May 9, 2011