Point-counterpoint

Posted by Josh Rosenau on September 9, 2011
(6)
More »

David Klinghoffer of the Disco. ‘tute wants to draw links between evolution and 9/11 conspiracies. In his usual long-winded way, he makes a lot of efforts to link evolution to anything evil, but doesn’t offer much beyond hand-waving to back the claim up. This must be the best he can do for the 9/11 memorial week, since I doubt even he can find a way to link al Qaeda to Darwin. After all, Islamic fundamentalism isn’t known for its love of Western science!

It’d hardly be worth noting, if not for the fact that the only 9/11 “truther” I’ve seen pop up on either side of the creationism/evolution blogosphere is Bilbo, formerly of the pro-ID Telic Thoughts blog. Bilbo defended his regular postings about how 9/11 must’ve been an elaborate plot by whoever, writing:

My excuse for posting this thread is that it is relevant because it is rejected by the mainstream establishment and because it attempts design detection without knowing who the designer is.

And in an earlier post (promising not to raise the issue again):

both 9/11 truthers and ID proponents try to base their design detection on physical evidence. Even Michael Shermer likened 9/11 truthers to creationists.

These, frankly, are more compelling arguments than anything Klinghoffer has on offer. If he objects so strongly to 9/11 truther arguments, perhaps he should take it up with Bilbo before he tries baselessly tarring others.

(6)
More »

Comments

  1. #1 Neil Craig
    September 9, 2011

    Thechnically no expansive trend can go on forever but the amount of mass and energy in the universe should be good for millenia and I suspect wealth will not be a problem for human beings long defore that happens.

    With known technology we can certainly make the entire planet richer than the richest countries now. The only thing preventing it is the ecofascists who hate progress.

    Current world growth rates are around 5% which is higher than they have ever been, indeed growth rates have been accelerating since we discovered fire.

    This strongly suggests that we are still on the lower end of the S curve for growth.

  2. #2 nice_marmot
    September 9, 2011

    “[T]he Darwin Lobby.”
    Hilarious!
    I want that on a t-shirt: Darwin Lobbyist

  3. #3 GregH:
    September 9, 2011

    Dear Neil Craig,

    Take a petri dish filled with yummy agar. Put some bacteria on there and watch them grow. Watch what happens when they reach the edge of the dish. Now keep watching as they run out of resources and start drowning in their own wastes.

    Unless you know where there’s another planet where we can continue our “S curve” growth, I’d suggest you start looking for ways to use existing resources more efficiently, and figuring out how we can avoid wrecking the ecosystems that support us now. If that’s not clear to you, try to imagine how we’re going to feed 7 or so billion people when world agricultural systems are disrupted by increased global temperatures and population pressure.

    Oh wait, you’re not allowed to think about that stuff because it’s “ecofascism”. Do you honestly think that name-calling is going to help us understand any of these issues?

  4. #4 rork
    September 9, 2011

    I nitpick: “western science” instead of just “science” was painful.

  5. #5 Composer99
    September 9, 2011

    Neil Craig: Any explanation for why you’re blathering off-topic about growth rates on a blog post about a creationist attempt to link evolution to 9/11 ‘Truth’ conspiracy theories?

    —–
    On topic:

    Klinghoffer needs a few extra steps in his argument to justify his inferences. Something about scientific evidence…

  6. #6 Neil Craig
    September 10, 2011

    GregH as i had already said the “petri dish” is the size of the universe. I do happen to know of a number of other planets is it. I also happen to know that the resources within the Earth and enerhy resources in orbit are many thousands of yimes greater than anything we have touched.