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August 01, 2005

Ignorance on Parade, A Continuing Series

From the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, an ensemble of ignoramuses. First up, a model extraordinaire of scientific ignorance, Bill Nitardy:

Dr. Joseph Mastropaolo, a world-class scientist, has challenged the world's 45 leading evolutionists and 16 leading organizations, universities and the ACLU that support evolution. He has asked them to present their case before a superior court judge. They were challenged to present scientific evidence that supports evolution against the scientific evidence supporting creationism, with each side putting up $10,000. Scientific evidence is limited to that which is objective, valid, reliable and calibrated.

He has had no takers. The people and organizations that support evolution won't even stand behind their position.

Leaving aside for the moment that the "world-class scientist" in question has degrees in kinesiology and human physiology, it might be more important to point out that scientific truths are not decided in the courtroom (or on government websites, despite the best attempts of the Bush administration, but that's an argument for another day).

There is no reason for scientists to show up for a dog-and-pony show in which a non-expert judge will be asked to decide the truth of a subject about which his knowledge is, most probably, far less than that of those defending evolution. Asking a judge to decide the scientific truth of evolution would be like asking your dry cleaner to surgically install your head in your ass (a condition which it would appear has afflicted Bill Nitardy since birth).

Up next, Ron Melquist, Sr.

Now here's a challenge for you: If you took a perfectly created Swiss watch apart and put the pieces in a box and shook it, how many times would you have to shake it for it to become a perfectly created watch again?

Three.

Happy?

How many times do you think you'd have to knock Ron Melquist upside the head to give him even the most basic understanding of how evolution works?

I'm betting it's more than three. Now on deck, Richard McMahon:

Yes, many scientists still cling to evolution by natural selection because it is a naturalistic explanation. But naturalism is an unproven scientific dogma.

Whereas supernaturalism is just a given. Oh wait, since anything supernatural is, by definition, outside of nature, it lays beyond our ability to sense it, identify it, measure it, or otherwise know anything about it. Why, it's almost the same as if it simply didn't exist.

It might make you feel better to believe in Ooga Boogas from Dimension X, but that doesn't mean you're not kind of dumb.

Now, walkin' up the street to expose her lack of scientific edumacation is Elizabeth Austin:

Here is one sound scientific reason why the theory of evolution should be dismissed. Isaac Newton (who was an avid Bible reader) said that objects don't organize themselves without a force acting on them. The question evolutionists fail to answer is, "What is the force that has organized the universe?"

Elizabeth Austin (who is an avid Bible reader) (who doesn't know the difference between evolution and cosmology) (whose grasp of science apparently stalled somewhere around the 18th century) isn't worth the bother, really.

Of course, neither is John Cook, who - while pulling out all the stops on the creationist nonsense bandwagon - closes with this death blow to evolution!

Evolution runs counter to established laws of science. For example, the law of entropy, also known as the second law of thermodynamics, states that everything runs inexorably from order to disorder and from complexity to decay. Obviously this runs 180 degrees counter to evolutionary theory.

Obviously, in John Cook's world, snowflakes don't form, buildings don't get built, children don't grow into adults, and the human brain never achieves its majestic complexity (at least within the confines of Mr. Cook's head, as evidenced by his inane statements).