Dispatches from the Creation Wars

I really like this post by PZ Myers debunking the frankly silly claim of creationist Rob McEwen that mutation can’t create “new DNA structures” (what is it with creationists and their obtuse language?). His answer is a good one and I especially agree with the ending:

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that Mr McEwen is a decent, sincere person in addition to being a fervent believer in his religious dogma. However, he has been consistently misled. His sources have lied to him. And he is working hard to propagate those same lies to more people. That’s the real tragedy of creationism, that it is a fabric of outright dishonesty that persuades good people to do wrong, all in the name of their religion.

I agree with that completely.

Comments

#1 Stuart Coleman
March 30, 2007

Maybe you can PZ can be friends now?

(I’m joking)
#2 David du
March 30, 2007

Dogs and cats, living together – 40 days of night, fire falling from the sky… Did I miss any other signs of the end times
#3 Russell
March 30, 2007

I’m hesitant to disagree with such a pleasant sentiment. Nonetheless, I don’t buy it for one moment. No one over the mental age of 16 falls for creationist pseudo-arguments, or for that matter, much of the rest of religion, except that they want to fool themselves. The ideological phenomenon is not, at core, about a few glib and clever con men who manage to fool the masses. It’s about the masses wanting to believe, and fooling themselves. Yes, this creates a great environment for the con men. But the mass of believers are no more innocent of self deceit than the mass of people taken in financial cons are innocent of looking for a quick, and often illegal, buck.
#4 Ed Brayton
March 30, 2007

Good lord, someone who thinks PZ is an appeaser? LOL
#5 kaz gnik
March 30, 2007

ask yourself if you leave a animal in a field and nothing disturbs it (no animals or people) what will happen
A. rot away
b. slowly get covered by dust that form layers over millions of years

why is there fossilization around the world from the highest moutain to the lowest valley, and how do jelly fish fossilize over millions of years ? and why is 97 percent of animals found on the earth now , have been found in the fossil record fully formed , why has there not been any record of diffrent spiceations, why arent animals evolving today? because evolution is a faith based religon with no repetable scientific method, listen to “scientist” and all you will hear them say is maybe proballyu could have been , it pure speculation
darwins thoughts came from midevil times when they thought frogs came from mud , flys magicly appeared from rotting ( animals food etc.) and rats came from trash
they litteraly believed they spontainously generated from these materials, which was disprooven in the late 1800s
life begets life , horses have horses, monkeys have monkeys, at the rate of evolution these days you would need trillions times trillions times trillions of years for evolution to even have a chance, but instead you see the bibical models and predictions from genesis
these are the times Jesus spoke aboout
and even in peter it says fools will say i came from a rock or a tree, Read the bible for yourself let no man convince you, take no mans word at his word for all men are lyars and thiefs
#6 Ed Brayton
March 30, 2007

And we have another idiot creationist who can’t write a coherent sentence offering up a laundry list of stupid arguments. Go away, kid, you’re in way over your head here.
#7 Jeff Hebert
March 30, 2007

kaz gnik said:

all men are lyars

I don’t think you’re a lyar. I think you’re a lyre. No, really, go pluck yourself and you’ll see.
#8 Chris
March 30, 2007

Whelp, he converted me. Now I know that evolution is a LY!
#9 Alison
March 30, 2007

Oh, very funny. All this time we thought scientists were really doing stuff with all those colored liquids and powders and bones and bunsen burners and whatnot, and really they were just makin’ mudpies an’ askin’ each other “whaddaya think? ‘Repetable’ enuf?” “Shur, ‘probally’, dude.”
#10 jufulu
March 30, 2007

Whoa people, be easy on this one. It’s illegal to fish with dynamite.
#11 Russell
March 30, 2007

Well, now, Ed. You knew I was no appeaser.
#12 Robert
March 30, 2007

I was going to write something witty (well, probably not) but I’m too busy laughing at Jeff. Ok I like puns, yes I know theres something wrong with me.
#13 Leni
March 30, 2007

LOL. I love Jeff’s pun too. Funny.
#14 Lorri Talley
March 31, 2007

Oh, someone help me; who said “I’m in a war of wits with an unarmed man”?
#15 Trinifar
March 31, 2007

I haven’t looked but I wonder when was last time PZ linked to one of your posts? Good for you for taking the higher road. The two of you together is a far more effective force than both of you separately.

(Apologies to all for pointing out the obvious.)
#16 Wes
March 31, 2007

why has there not been any record of diffrent spiceations

Because spicey foods give the fossil record indigestion.
#17 JS
April 1, 2007

*Whistles tunelessly*

why is there fossilization around the world from the highest moutain to the lowest valley, and how do jelly fish fossilize over millions of years ? and why is 97 percent of animals found on the earth now , have been found in the fossil record fully formed , why has there not been any record of diffrent spiceations, why arent animals evolving today? because evolution is a faith based religon with no repetable scientific method, listen to “scientist” and all you will hear them say is maybe proballyu could have been , it pure speculation
darwins thoughts came from midevil times when they thought frogs came from mud , flys magicly appeared from rotting ( animals food etc.) and rats came from trash
they litteraly believed they spontainously generated from these materials, which was disprooven in the late 1800s
life begets life , horses have horses, monkeys have monkeys, at the rate of evolution these days you would need trillions times trillions times trillions of years for evolution to even have a chance, but instead you see the bibical models and predictions from genesis
these are the times Jesus spoke aboout
and even in peter it says fools will say i came from a rock or a tree, Read the bible for yourself let no man convince you, take no mans word at his word for all men are lyars and thiefs

Spelling and grammar mistakes in original.

What was that? 10 to one by the end? Although the jellyfish fossilisation process should go into the indexcc sometime. It’s actually not a bad question, and one gets tired of typing out the details after a while.

- JS
#18 J. J. Ramsey
April 1, 2007

Maybe he had some tainted peanut butter?
#19 Eamon Knight
April 1, 2007

I should point out that the Pharyngula post is a repost from two years ago. I think PZ’s been getting angrier in the interval since.
#20 windy
April 1, 2007

ask yourself if you leave a animal in a field and nothing disturbs it (no animals or people) what will happen
A. rot away
b. slowly get covered by dust that form layers over millions of years

C. It will probably just bugger off?