A while back, I responded to a post on Bad Astronomy when the author decided Republicans were destroying science. I got plenty of hate mail over my rebuttal. He then went at it again not too long ago, citing a…

Hmm .. I always thought Lotus made cars not pushbikes!

(Not that I can talk when it comes to typos I know – just amusing that’un..)

Textguzzler your last post is so spot on all I can add is ‘Amen” or rather ‘Hear hear!’

If only you could in America vote on ideas rather than candidates – you wouldn’t be at war in Iraq for one thing – a majority of Americans disagreed before the invasion was launched. Most of the American people are actually I think alot better (read more liberal, more tolerant, more imaginative,compassionate and open) than their government a few powerful nutcase lobby groups make them appear.

Finally here’s a few quotes that have some resonance here :

“Although it is true that not all conservatives are stupid, it is also true that most stupid people are conservative.” – John Stuart Mill

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
- Plato

“There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.”
- Isaac Asimov, Pages 419-421, ‘ I Asimov : A memoir’ chapter 7 ‘anti-Semitism’, Bantam Books , 1995.

” ..the United States is neither omnipotent nor omniscient. We [the USA] are only 6% of the World’s population – we cannot impose our will upon the other 94% of mankind.”
- John F. Kennedy. (Quoted by Phillip Adams, Page 11, ‘Weekend Australian’ magazine. Dec. 13-14, 2003.)

&

“There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies against despots – suspicion.”
- Demosthenes, Phillipics-2. [Collins Concise Dictionary of Quotations, P.108.]

Thanks to the BA and others who have the courage, intelligence and democratic instincts to be suspicious of the powers that rule and say so. That’s one of the best aspects of America – freedom of speech, freedom to criticise, freedom to think. Don’t let them take that from you as seems from a distance to be happening now. If only your nation was more like you and less like the Daskotan Republian party and neo-conservative, fundamentalist zealots. If your lot ran the place instead not only would America be far better off but so would the world.

We’re closed minded for evaluating the evidence, not going by feelings?

>The fact that you are so worried about the consequences YOU will face if creationism is the true start of life that you want to shelter the growing minds of our country from making their own decision.

No, that is inaccurate. We are not worried about consequences we would face if Creationism were true. We are comparing evidence to see if it is true. The evidence fails to support the premise.

>Creationism has not and can not be disproved any more than evolution can and has been proven.

You seem to be making the exact same failure I and others have been pointing out. Creationism is not equivalent to Belief in God. Belief in God does not require belief in Creationism. “Creationism” carries a specific meaning. It is not just that God is responsible, it is a declaration of the way life originated, developed, distributed, and continues to interact. Creationism declares that each species (or “kind”, with kind conveniently undefined and left broad) independently arose. Fish are fish and amphibians are amphibians, and oops, now there’s that pesky tiktaalik ( tiktaalik ) that can’t make up it’s mind. Creationism declares there’s no common descent – darn that DNA! Creationism says that life forms are static. They misrepresent what Evolution actually says and how it defines processes in order to ignore or refute the conclusions drawn. But the act of misrepresentation negates their own arguments.

Evolution is a description of the means and methods of diversification. It is entirely acceptable that Evolution is God’s means and method.

I don’t know, those other ‘theories’ don’t seem to fit a science class very well.

It’s not being narrow minded to teach only that 1+1 = 2, instead of both 1+1=2 (let’s call this one evolution) and 1+1=11 (creationism). 1+1=11 is freaking retarded, and if you teach this in school you definately aren’t being open minded.

Even the Vatican has claimed that evolution and the bible are compatible, and many in the Vatican support evolution. Yet somehow, the (southern) United States seems to have reached the conclusion that Texas and George Bush are now the highest religous authority, and that the bible is a literal and infoulable tomb. Evolution is facing the exact same thing that Galileo faced when he said that the Earth wasn’t the center of the universe. However, he had science, evidence, reason, and fact on his side, and while the religious right was able to momentarly silence him, his theories ultimately won out. I have little doubt that the same will prove true with evolution.

I’m not trying to pick on religion, it can be, and has been proven to be, a good thing for many people. However, when people think that metaphorical stories in the bible are true and absolute beyond reason, evidence, and fact, the problem becomes evident.