Archive for the ‘evolution’ Category
Discovery Institute vs. Dawkins
It seems that the Creationist organisation Discovery Institute is attacking Richard Dawkins over his involvement in the Louisiana “academic freedom bill” which allows teachers to discuss theories that oppose Evolution. Simply put, it is allowing Intelligent Design into the classrooms.
The Discovery Institute reported that Barbara Forrest, leader of LA Coalition for Science has written an article on the Richard Dawkins website, pleading people to contact the Louisiana Governor and stop this bill being passed. The Institute rather snobbishly remarked:
Newsflash for Richard, we’re not a British colony anymore.
Well pointed out, but of course they forget that Richard Dawkins runs The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, a charity registered in both the UK and the USA. They also seemed to overlook the fact that his website isn’t tied to any specific country and as such has a large majority of American visitors. Forgetting as well that the article in question wasn’t even written by Dawkins but by a citizen of the United States, and their accusation that Richard Dawkins is somehow trying to “dictate education policy” to the U.S falls completely apart.
Conversations with the deluded
Firstly, let me apologize for yet another absense on the blog. I’ve only just worked out how to post-date articles so it shouldn’t happen again in the future. During the past 2 weeks I’ve finished university (first year anyway), passed all my exams (yay!), gone on holiday, got badly sunburnt, and then had to pack my entire room into a transit van and move back home.
Onto the topic of this article. I was contacted a week ago by a muslim named “Abu” who opened his email like so:
right in this moment in time I’d love to lose my rag bang the computer and
scream infernally! But I’d like to alter your skewed views on life and the
pointless, deity-less movement that is atheism. Why verily only the arrogant,
proud, the incessently stupid believe in atheism…
He outlined what he thought were good arguments against atheism, including the “There are no atheists in foxholes” argument and Pascal’s wager (both easily refutable). The ongoing discussion has covered about 6 emails now and they are a pain to read all at once, so I’ve chosen the best bits for you:
Book Club Discussions - 30th May 2008
On 30th May 2008 at 23:00 GMT we will hold the first book club discussion of the chosen book this month: “Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design“.
There are quite a few sites for working out your timezone compared to GMT, but I have found an easy and accurate one: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
The discussion will take place on MSGPlus, in the temporary channel #atheist-book-club. If you already know how to use IRC, you will need to enter the following details into your IRC client:
Server: irc.msgplus.net
Port: 6667
Channel: #atheist-book-club
If you have never used IRC before, I have set up a Java Applet on the forums. It requires you to have Java installed on your computer (most people do) and for JavaScript to be enabled in your web browser.
You can either register / log into the forums or join the chat as a guest. It’s open to all.
http://atheistblogger.com/forums/chat.php
After the discussion, I will create a forum thread so that other people who couldn’t make the IRC chat can voice their opinions of the book. Speaking of which, I’d better get it finished!
Evolution vs Creationism
What’s the best way to support the theory of Evolution? Make a 2 hour Creationist propaganda film packed with every lie every told about the theory. You may think you have heard all the idiotic arguments that try to undermine Evolution, but I bet there are still some in this documentary that have eluded you.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2783773121996810582
The movie is quite old so you may have seen if before, or seen parts of it (the Peanut Butter bit on YouTube), and if you haven’t yet seen Expelled, this movie is probably just as funny.
Answering the ignorant - Evolution
Matt’s Notepad has a great article in which he debunks some of the most well known Creationist / ID arguments concerning Evolution.
The arguments can be found here: http://mattcbr.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/repeated-ignorant-creationistid-arguments-a-solution/
Some similar arguments that debunk Creationism have been written by Talk Origins, and Richard Dawkins has a list of “Debate Points” that cover Evolution, atheism, and faith that you might find interesting.
