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The History of Creationist Thought

By pharyngula on March 16, 2007.

Trust me, this is really good — it gets it all exactly right.

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creationism

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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.

By Richard Harris, FCD (not verified) on 16 Mar 2007 #permalink

You know, I never would have considered using the two words "creationist" and "thought" next to each other like that...

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?

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.

I never would have considered using the two words "creationist" and "thought" next to each other like that...

The juxtaposition of conflicting ideas is one of the oldest tricks in comedy. That, and the word "pants".

"Magic man did it".

Love it.

"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.

Now that's how you "teach the controversy"!

Classic.

"What kind of force?"

"A forcey force!"

By Foster Disbelief (not verified) on 16 Mar 2007 #permalink

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.

...

...

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."

...

...

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!

By CalGeorge (not verified) on 16 Mar 2007 #permalink

Magic Man? Wasn't that a song by Heart? You know, with the foxy Wilson sisters.

By Crudely Wrott (not verified) on 16 Mar 2007 #permalink

It wasn't that funny.

I think this one takes the cake on Evolution. They even take on Cosmology to boot.

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.

By Eamon Knight (not verified) on 17 Mar 2007 #permalink

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.