The History of Creationist Thought
Category: Creationism
Posted on: March 16, 2007 5:43 PM, by PZ Myers
Trust me, this is really good — it gets it all exactly right.
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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
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(Complete listing)Theology is not what we know about God, but what we do not know about Nature. In order to increase our respect for the Bible, it became necessary for the priests to exalt and extol that book, and at the same time to decry and belittle the reasoning powers of man. The whole power of the pulpit has been used for hundreds of years to destroy the confidence of man in himself— to induce him to distrust his own powers of thought, to believe that he was wholly unable to decide any question for himself, and that all human virtue consists in faith and obedience. The church has said 'Believe and obey!' If you reason you will become an unbeliever, and unbelievers will be lost. If you disobey, you will do so through vain pride and curiosity, and will, like Adam and Eve, be thrust from Paradise forver! For my part, I care nothing for what the church says, except in so far as it accords with my reason; and the Bible is nothing to me, only in so far as it agrees with what I think or know.
[Some Mistakes of Moses, Ingersoll's Works, Vol. 2 p. 53]
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Comments
Wonderful!
I've sent a copy to a Creationist (The Delusion of Evolution publisher guy) that I'm having an email argument with.
Maybe humour will work where reason doesn't? Nahhhh. They've got mental straight jackets.
Richard.
Posted by: Richard Harris, FCD | March 16, 2007 5:59 PM
You know, I never would have considered using the two words "creationist" and "thought" next to each other like that...
Posted by: Thinker | March 16, 2007 5:59 PM
I thought the universe was 13.8 million years old. This guy is just full of it! By 2.2 billion years! Scientists who study the universe clearly don't know what they're doing. If they can't recreate the energy density conditions of the Big Bang "theory", it's their goddamn problem.
Therefore, god wins by default. Now I believe the universe is 6000 years old, because those guys do get their figures right. They even gave us a date, for Jesus's gonads. Who you gonna believe?
Posted by: andyo | March 16, 2007 6:00 PM
Damn, I wrote million instead of billion, but you get me. It's so easy to confuse these, you know. That's why we creationists keep it in the thousands.
Posted by: andyo | March 16, 2007 6:01 PM
The juxtaposition of conflicting ideas is one of the oldest tricks in comedy. That, and the word "pants".
Posted by: PZ Myers | March 16, 2007 6:11 PM
How come England gets the best comedians?
Posted by: Craig Ewert | March 16, 2007 6:18 PM
"Magic man did it".
Love it.
Posted by: Alex | March 16, 2007 6:18 PM
"That, and the word "pants"."
A friend of mine has a theory that anything, anything at all, is funnier in lederhosen. I'm sadly disillusioned that this is a mere variation on an old theme.
A pretty funny one, though.
Posted by: kmarissa | March 16, 2007 6:22 PM
Any way I can get the transcripts?
Posted by: Mike Haubrich | March 16, 2007 6:27 PM
I've never seen or heard of this show before, but that was brilliant.
Posted by: pzero | March 16, 2007 6:28 PM
Now that's how you "teach the controversy"!
Posted by: Alex | March 16, 2007 6:31 PM
Classic.
"What kind of force?"
"A forcey force!"
Posted by: Foster Disbelief | March 16, 2007 6:41 PM
The real "magic man" is the guy in the background pantomiming (weren't we discussing mimes not too long ago? He's 100% better) the amino acids becoming multicellular organisms.
Posted by: Kristine | March 16, 2007 6:55 PM
...
...
Love it: "A Magic Man done it!"
If they clarified their position in this way, I'd feel more supportive of the Teach the Science vs. Magic Man Controversy.
Actually, I kept waiting for a middle explanation from the creationists to the scientists: "Well, OUR theory is that YOUR theory is totally wrong. And besides, the guy who came up with your theory believed in the Magic Man."
...
...
Posted by: Hank Fox | March 16, 2007 6:58 PM
For some reason, now I can't get the muffin man song out of my head.
Oh, do you know the magic man,
The magic man, the magic man,
Oh, do you know the magic man,
That lives in people's heads?
Oh, yes, I know the magic man,
The magic man, the magic man,
Oh, yes, I know the magic man,
That lives in people's heads.
Make it stop!
Posted by: CalGeorge | March 16, 2007 7:06 PM
CalGeorge, consider yourself lucky. This is the song that is stuck in my brain now.
Posted by: Mena | March 16, 2007 7:34 PM
You can always transcribe it yourself. But if you're not up to that, you could just ask him.
Posted by: The Science Pundit | March 16, 2007 8:15 PM
Personally, I think he gives the Intelligent Design proponents too much credit.
Posted by: Stanton | March 16, 2007 8:28 PM
Magic Man? Wasn't that a song by Heart? You know, with the foxy Wilson sisters.
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | March 16, 2007 9:21 PM
Finally, a worth successor to Tom Lehrer.
Posted by: Monado | March 16, 2007 10:27 PM
It wasn't that funny.
Posted by: Stingray | March 16, 2007 10:30 PM
I think this guy has the best creationist spoof I've seen so far on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCIkvvHaeUs
Posted by: AL | March 17, 2007 3:09 AM
I think this one takes the cake on Evolution. They even take on Cosmology to boot.
Posted by: andyo | March 17, 2007 4:12 AM
The link didn't work. I'll try again
And here the full link, just in case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Z82lm5oGQ
Posted by: andyo | March 17, 2007 4:16 AM
Hahaha, reminds of The Family Guy:
Carl Sagan's Cosmos for Rednecks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjxCp9LJLP0
Family Guy vs Christianity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBZQfAYfH7s
Peter started a Church called Fonz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SUoolRIBSk
Peter tried other religion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP-c8mf9wko
Posted by: Michael | March 17, 2007 7:06 AM
Ha! The barefoot guy with the hand motions in the background is priceless.
Posted by: mollishka | March 17, 2007 4:14 PM
Ah well, at least it isn't Agadoo.
Posted by: XPM | March 17, 2007 5:57 PM
Pretty funny, although they don't get it quite right: the ID guy should refuse to commit to any particular history (or there should be multiple IDists, quietly squabbling among themselves, while incompetently presenting a united front to the science guy).
But they got the essence right, in all the ways that matter.
Posted by: Eamon Knight | March 17, 2007 6:02 PM
First, Mena, Heart freakin' rules, so you could do a whole lot worse than having Magic Man stuck in your head...
Next, notice that the second version of the creationist argument in the comedy parody starts out the same as the evolutionary explanation, and the only differences is a claim that some aspects need a helping hand from God. This is the original version of the ID claim which still had its "Wedge" shape. The idea is to only add a little itty bit of heat to the mix as in hopes no one will much notice or care. In reality, we see now that the DI is much more fully a typical creationist group and uses, at least here in the US, completely standard creationist canards now.
What I wonder is when the parody was done, because in the US, we have moved past this earlier almost benign version to a much more lethal "anti-science" version. I warned friends in other countries to watch-out for ID when it shows-up because it will use local ideas, and will resemble a kindly stranger when it first does.
Posted by: Lago | March 18, 2007 3:23 PM
Lago: If I recall correctly, iTV is a British channel/network.
Posted by: Keith Douglas | March 19, 2007 12:07 PM