Evolution, Evolution, Everywhere, What Is A Fanatic To Think?
3 January 2010 by KA
Humanity’s penchant for denial is no exaggeration, as Stardust’s recent post illustrates. But, as the old X-Files TV show’s motto said, “The truth is out there”, and I’m not talking about left field either.
A ten-year-old study from Harvard illustrates speciation in the E. Coli bacteria, for one example. Ten years later, another study on E. Coli not only verifies this, it lists the mutations as…beneficial. (Collective gasps are heard in the revival tent.)
And along a similar vein, it turns out that bacteria can actually influence speciation in wasps, by repairing damaged sperm. (Shouts of “Blasphemy!” can be heard from the audience.) And an old hoary chestnut has been roasted on the fire – yes Virginia, there are indeed pre-Cambrian fossils of microbes. And of course, there are 29+ evidences for ‘macroevolution’ – ranging in scope from morphological intermediates to cetacean atavisms (and human babies with tails). This also extends to vestigial molecular structures. The typical creationist response is that many of these items are predicated on scale, and they scramble desperately to muddy the waters when the evidence is presented. One of the more amusing stupidities cited by the creationist, is this quote from the Origin of the Species: Darwin was no geologist: relatively little was known about the formation of fossils, how difficult it was to become one, what with scavengers, tectonic plate shifts, highly alkaline soils, erosion, weather, all the variables that prevent ‘insensibly fine gradations’. And evidence abounds. From genetics to paleontology, from anatomy to geographical distribution, it seems incredible that anyone would raise a fuss about something so fundamentally obvious. What do you call someone who rejects evidence in favor of warm fuzzy feelings and mythology? Supply a punchline, and discuss amongst yourselves. Till the next post, then. Firstly, why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?
But, as by this theory, innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?
Lastly, looking not to any one time, but to all time, if my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking closely together all the species of the same group, must assuredly have existed.
Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory.
3 January 2010, on 4:17 am
Ignorance is bliss.
While I would prefer to be knowledgable and miserable many, many people would choose ignorance and bliss.
All the while missing the fact that much evidence tends to show that ignorance is, in fact, misery and knowledge is power.
3 January 2010, on 12:53 pm
What do you call someone who rejects evidence in favor of warm fuzzy feelings and mythology?
Delusional — large masses of people on this planet have a psychotic disorder. It seems that much of the human race must delude itself in order to mentally cope with the reality of death and the problems of the world and in their lives.
(So they invent imaginary gods, angels, whatever as coping devices.)
Shared Psychotic Disorder
It’s not so rare of a condition as the article states.
Isn’t this what god-believing people do? They share this disorder of having imaginary friends, share belief that they are going to live forever after their bodies are dead, that the earth is only 6,000 years old, that a genie god zapped everything into existence? And it’s not looked upon as strange when everyone else around them believes it too. They reinforce what they want to believe by surrounding themselves with others who hold the same delusional beliefs.
3 January 2010, on 1:11 pm
“What do you call someone who rejects evidence in favor of warm fuzzy feelings and mythology? Supply a punchline, and discuss amongst yourselves.”
OK, KA…
Ummm…can you say:
“religious believer”?
Or, of course:
“Creationist”?
I dunno, though…I kinda prefer a much more snarky:
“Stubborn, ignorant, intellectually lazy…
dumb-ass Fucktard”.
Thanks, by the way, KA, for all your consistently interesting, highly intelligent, and extremely diligent (and “faithfully godless”?), weekly efforts!
As to “Ignorance is bliss”…
As you’re last sentence indicates, keddaw, that’s a somewhat popular myth…actually a bit of an out of context misquote from Thomas Gray’s proverbial sentiment:
“Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise”
Of course, without Google’s help, I wouldn’t have a rats ass worth of knowledge as to just WHO actually said the original.
As per usual…for more info on that than we all really want or need to know?…
http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-gray
3 January 2010, on 8:22 pm
What do you call someone who rejects evidence in favor of warm fuzzy feelings and mythology?
Obviously a SUCKER!
3 January 2010, on 9:30 pm
keddaw: Ignorance is not bliss. It’s a line.
With a little knowledge it is easy to see how harmful ignorance is.
We shouldn’t let this bit of folk ‘wisdom’ go unchallenged.
3 January 2010, on 10:24 pm
So here’s a little holiday tale:
I went over to my buddy’s (John) parents’ house (he’s the YEC born-again) post-XMAS. I met his sister’s BF (Steve), who’s a self professed agnostic. We were gabbin’, & I mention something about scientific consensus. He chuckles, repeats it, & mentions that he saw ‘No intelligence allowed’. Turns out he’d seen ‘Expelled’. I immediately & w/o hesitation told him in no uncertain terms that Stein is fulla shit. We have something of a long discussion (it got a little loud @ times – he told me I was full of BS, I got a little heated), but I simmered down, & walked him thru all his points & questions, & I’m pretty sure he was well-informed when I got thru. During this discussion, everybody got up & left, but John came back eventually. The topic drifted over to religion again, & John tells us he believes that the bibble is literally true. This point, Steve starts chiming in, telling him that the evidence doesn’t support a literal translation, & 1 fact completely destroys it: the world ain’t 6000 years old. John says, what? Steve & I both tell him that’s what the bibble says, it’s 6000 yo. John then tells him that the ‘author’ informed him that the book is literally true. “Oh, but I don’t hear voices.”
I look him dead in the eye, & tell him: “I don’t know how to put this w/o being derogatory: an invisible person that you can’t prove exists beams non-verbal info straight into your head.”
He turns to Steve & says, “This is why I don’t have these discussions w/Doug anymore.”
I love the little guy like a brother, but geez, it’s not so much that he’s stupid but that he’s a lazy thinker.
3 January 2010, on 10:56 pm
KA, that’s an amusing story. And so typical of an ending. When they are defeated it’s “this is why I don’t have these discussions with ___ anymore. ” Can be any one of us in that blank who have fundie friends and relatives. My sis is one of these believers that the Bible is the literal word of her imaginary friend. She wasn’t raised this way to believe that the earth was zapped into existence by a genie god 6,000 years ago. The moderate Xians in my family understand that things took a long while to come about and say they believe that some magical being set this all in motion, but billions of years, not thousands.
4 January 2010, on 8:33 pm
What’s funny about these people (well, one of the things that is funny about them) is that when you cite all kinds of evidence for an Earth that is older than 6,000 years (tree rings, ice core samples, ocean sediments, speed of light, carbon dating, radiometric et cetera, they” claim that the testing methods are flawed or unreliable, but you damn well know that if any testing method supported a 6,000 year old Earth, they would be like “You see, this proves the Bible is literally true!”
4 January 2010, on 8:51 pm
My all time favorite is the “Look, they found 1 chariot wheel in the Red Sea! Moses really DID split it!”
5 January 2010, on 1:05 pm
An asshole and a deterrent to the progression of humanity.
5 January 2010, on 4:45 pm
Jeremy?…Erm…
A New Year’s resolution, perhaps?…
“QUIT STRANGLING YOUR SERPENT!”
[Edward Current's YouTube satire.]
I enjoyed visiting your very interesting blog.
That story RE the recent Irish Blasphemy law just going into effect is really…amazing?…and what incredibly outrageous stupidity! Some great blasphemous quotes on that linked Irish atheist Site.
Yeah…and ‘picking up’, tangentially, on your above comment; that’s what happens…
“When Assholes Run the World”…? [A book title, perhaps?]
A related snarky question to that possible title, might be…
“When, if ever, HASN’T the World been (at least predominantly?) run by a bunch of relatively ignorant…and often, seriously dangerous to our species…
BIG TIME, Major League…born assholes?”
That reminds me of George Carlin’s humorous:
“…you have to stand in AWE…” in actual recognition of that ‘proposed realization’.