The Atheist Blogger

What I would have given to have had Clifford Stoll as a science teacher back when I was at school! The man seems to bask in his hyperactive mind, constantly switching from subject to subject in this 18 minute presentation he gave at TED a few years ago. The whole thing is bizarrely easy to follow given the format (or should that be non-format), and is highly entertaining.

Dave Gorman is a British comedian who rose to fame after he travelled the world looking for people who shared his name (literally asking people “Are you Dave Gorman?”). This video is from a show he did covering another wacky idea of his, where he went in search for various Googlewacks (a two word search term that returns only one result). In it, he recants how he got a rather unusual tattoo after a night out drinking in Austin, Texas.

Finally, two videos from Eddie Izzard, a famous comedian and atheist. Parodying religion is a regular occurrence in his shows, and in my opinion he is second only to the great George Carlin at this. The first video covers religion in general, especially the formation of the Church of England.

The second video is a hilarious take on the Genesis story, starring James Mason as God, and Sean Connery as Noah.

Time again for another YouTube Thursday, and we start with 2 videos from YouTube user Thunderf00t; the first is a short but funny comparison of the old VenomFangX and the new VenomFangX (Shawn recently closed his channel due to “death threats” and gave it to another creationist). The tag-line is a kicker though: “Creationism: when being naturally stupid just isn’t good enough”.

The second video of his is part of the fantastic series “Why do people laugh at creationists?”, which involves the elegant destruction of popular creationist arguments. This is part 30, and if you want to see the other 29 (highly recommended) then check them out here. In this video, Thunderf00t points out the hypocritical nature of the Discovery Institute, and one of its prominent spokespeople, Casey Luskin.

Jesse Ventura (ex-Governor of Minnesota) has been on a campaign recently against waterboarding, and he should know all about it, given that he himself was waterboarded as part of SEREs (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) training. He says it’s torture, but Elisabeth Hasselbeck of “The View” disagreed with him. Hilarity ensued as Ventura hit back with some great points, ending with the great line
“You give me a waterboard, one hour, and Dick Cheney and I’ll have him confessing to the Sharon Tate murders”. Jesse Ventura once said of religion “[it] is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people’s business.”

Finally, I end with some wise words of wisdom from the legendary Steven Fry. His advice on being happy? Stop feeling sorry for yourself.

Ray Comfort’s latest stroll into the land of irrational thought has produced yet another blog post that attempts to link the theory of evolution with Adolf Hitler. It’s common knowledge that Hitler was a creationist, at most believing in some form of “micro-evolution”. Hitler never mentioned Darwin in any of his books, and the mentions of “evolution” that Ray gives us are almost all references to social evolution. Hitler can be accurately described as a social Darwinist, a political theory that has no relation to Darwin or to the biological theory of evolution that is studied today ^[1][2]. With this in mind, after reading through the 5 or so quotes in the post, the rational thinker is left with the resounding question “Ok, so what?”.

Let’s leave the fact that Hitler was a creationist, that his politics were not based on science but on racism and white supremacy. Instead, I want to examine the “so what?” that often gets ignored, yet is actually very important in analyzing Comfort’s argument. We shall begin by assuming that Ray Comfort is completely correct; that Hitler was a believer in the theory of evolution. We shall also assume that Hitler was so devoted to the theory, he decided to use it through social Darwinism in order to justify genocide. What does this tell us about the theory of evolution? Nothing. A theory is not defined by how people use it, but by what it tells us. The theory of evolution says nothing of “higher species” or that organisms must systematically wipe out all those who are “inferior”. In fact, the theory of evolution gives us no help in pinpointing which species are “more evolved” than others, or even what that would entail.

For instance, human beings are considered to be more evolved because of our consciousness, yet some bacteria have genomes hundreds of times larger than our own. So how do we calculate inferiority when we have two opposing lines of measurement, one based on evolved attributes, the other based on number of mutations. I don’t think one could make a good argument for either, especially given the further problem of how to compare attributes (is consciousness a better attribute than metabolizing citrate for example?). This all points to the conclusion that most would agree on; that science tells us about the universe in which we live by describing and explaining it, but it does not tell us what to do with this knowledge.

Science told us how to make the nuclear bomb, but science did not tell us to drop these bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. If science was responsible for these actions, then you could easily justify Newton as responsible for the deaths of everyone killed by projectiles. The reason creationists like Comfort do not extend their argument to include men like Newton is that they accept the theory of gravity (and yes, it is just a theory Ray). By holding Darwin and his theory as responsible for the actions of men he never knew, yet not doing the same for other scientists like Newton, Nobel, Einstein, etc reveals Ray’s dishonesty and unwillingness to discuss evolution on an intellectual level. Instead, he prefers to launch a thinkly veiled ad-hominem attack in the hopes that people will focus on the supposed “link” and not the attack itself. This may have worked well for him in the past, but not today, and not on this blog.

Yes, it’s time for another YouTube Thursday, highlighting some random videos I thought were pretty cool on YouTube this week. The first is a collection of Christian fundamentalist quotes, read (word for word) by a bunch of guys (I guess from a secular student group). Amazing how some of these people actually think…scary too.

The next is a playlist created by YouTube user lordhathor, documenting the fall of YouTube fraudster and fundamentalist Christian VenomFangX, who conned hundreds of people out of money meant for the sick kids hospital charity. Certainly a good watch for anyone who doesn’t know about the story, but also for anyone who has seen it play out on YouTube and wants to know some more information. Very well presented, and a great effort.

Finally, a short interview with Dawkins on the 5 people he would have to dinner, science, and philosophy. An excellent 5 minute video that you should watch when you have a spare moment!

That’s all for now. More next week!

With the recent discovery of Ida, also known as Darwinius masillae, it was only a matter of time before Ray Comfort got on the case and started spouting his usual rubbish. The cartoon provided with the post is rather amusing, and also quite ironic. There are no doubts that Ida is “definitely ape”, but then there are also no doubts that homo sapiens are “definitely ape” either! You only make this kind of statement if you believe (as Ray does) that apes and humans are completely different “kinds” and not related to one another.

Ray responds to a commenter’s challenge to come up with characteristics that one would “expect to see in a transitional reptile/avian fossil?” by dismissing the question outright, claiming that such thinking is mere “speculation”. Well of course it is speculation in Ray’s eyes! We know he doesn’t accept the theory, so any hypothetical question about the theory is going to be speculation for him. The point was for Ray to imagine a world where evolution were true, and then imagine what characteristics he would expect to see in a transitional fossil. It’s a very easy question, and it’s actually how science works. We come up with a hypothesis: “I think twins can communicate telepathically with one another”, and then make some predictions which are speculations based on the idea that the hypothesis is true: “If my hypothesis is true, then twins under controlled conditions should be able to communicate”. We then do experiments, and if the prediction remains true throughout the experiments, we are able to confirm the hypothesis. Ray’s rejection of the question is just evidence that he rejects science, yet he claims in his post: “I believe in true science, not in the pseudo-science of evolution.”. No Ray, you do not believe in true science. One cannot believe in true science and yet reject outright the scientific method.

I think another tell-tale sign of Ray’s rejection is this statement:

I have said that there is no scientific evidence of any species “evolving” into another species. That’s the evidence that is still missing.

Of course, the evidence is not missing, and every time we show it to Ray, he simply rejects it. He has said on his own blog that there is no evidence that would convince him of evolution, since evolution contradicts the Holy Bible. This kind of closed-mindedness reveals Ray as the hypocrite he is; always asking for evidence but never accepting any of it because of his presuppositions.

You have your own definition of evolution, but ask the average person on the street what they believe it is, and they will say that Darwin said that man evolved from primates–that our great, great, great grandfather was an ape.

The definition of something is based off the people who know the most about it, not the “average” person on the street. The average person on the street in countries like Sweden thinks that Christianity is ridiculous; does that define Christianity as ridiculous for you Ray? Darwin never stated that our great, great, great, grandfathers were apes; only creationists did that. It is not surprising that people disbelieve in the theory when most people are taught complete lies about it.

You believe in a common ancestor (like a branch on a tree of common descent), they don’t. They believe we are direct ancestors. That we are apes.

The common ancestor of modern apes and humans was (not surprisingly) an ape. We are direct descendants of these ancient apes, just as modern apes are. We are not direct descendants of modern apes. Just in the way both myself and my cousins are direct descendants of my grandmother, but not of each other. The only difference is that with evolution, it takes much longer than 2 generations.

It is very clear that there is no empirical evidence for Darwinian evolution.

Fossils aren’t the only empirical evidence. Now that we know how DNA functions, we can see evolution in action. We have told you this, but you never listen. My only hopes are that some of your followers will read this and explore science for themselves, and hopefully rid themselves of your lies and misinformation.