Teach Creationism?
By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~
The following is my letter-to-the-editor which was published Oct. 13, 2010 in a local weekly newspaper here in Maine. I offer it here as it may provide some of you with useful ammunition in the evolution debate, and to show how I use letters by others as a jumping off point for my main message. My message, which always gets into every one of my letters, no matter what the surface topic, is simply that the bible is primitive bullshit. Libby Mitchell (Dem.) and Paul LePage (Rep.) are candidates for Governor.
Image via Wikipedia“Teach Creationism?”
This is written in response to Connie Cooper’s letter of last week titled, “How Does Mitchell know what Maine is all about?”
In her letter, Ms. Cooper takes Libby Mitchell to task for her TV ad in which, “she states Paul LePage supports teaching creationism in public schools and that is not what Maine is all about.”
I think Libby Mitchell made that ad because it demonstrates that LePage is out of touch with modern science and voters need to know that. He apparently has no appreciation of it, and so he appears to prefer his bible stories as explanations of how the world works. I agree with her implication that a Governor lacking an appreciation of modern science could do great harm.
Ms. Cooper and LePage have fallen for the “teach the controversy” argument of the creationists. In fact, there is no controversy concerning the truth of evolution among the real experts in this field, the biologists. None! All current research in the field concerns the fleshing out of the details. “On the Origin of Species” was published over 150 years ago, and biological research has since amassed a literal mountain of published, peer reviewed works which support the theory, over and over and over again. The creationists speak of “Darwinism” as if no one but Darwin had noticed the fossil record or the DNA code in the last 100 years.
The creationists (and “intelligent design” people) complain about missing “transitional” fossils and supposed “irreducible complexity.” In fact, since 99% or so of all species that have ever existed are now extinct, EVERY fossil (except of current species) represents a transition from an older species to a newer one. And every argument for “irreducible complexity“ has been refuted. One needs only do a web search and be willing to read non-Christian sites to find those explanations.
The creationists have claimed that scientists are colluding in a vast conspiracy to exclude their views (remember the movie “Expelled,” with Ben Stein?). How could this possibly work? If any scientist could disprove evolution, fame and fortune would be his in an instant. The Nobel Prize (worth a million-plus) would be a cinch, and he would be considered as great a scientist as Einstein and Newton. Now how do you hold together a conspiracy against that type of pressure, and do it for 150 years?
The sad truth is that the authors of the bible were primitive people who knew no science to speak of. If they didn’t have an explanation for something, they just made a guess. This explains why the bible speaks of four legged fowl, a flat earth, the demon theory of disease, and that incredible story about cows in a pasture with striped posts giving birth to striped offspring (Genesis 30:37-39)?
I think Libby Mitchell is right. A man who takes his science from 2,000-year-old texts with dozens of proven errors would be a poor choice for Governor of Maine.
The following is my letter-to-the-editor which was published Oct. 13, 2010 in a local weekly newspaper here in Maine. I offer it here as it may provide some of you with useful ammunition in the evolution debate, and to show how I use letters by others as a jumping off point for my main message. My message, which always gets into every one of my letters, no matter what the surface topic, is simply that the bible is primitive bullshit. Libby Mitchell (Dem.) and Paul LePage (Rep.) are candidates for Governor.
Image via WikipediaThis is written in response to Connie Cooper’s letter of last week titled, “How Does Mitchell know what Maine is all about?”
In her letter, Ms. Cooper takes Libby Mitchell to task for her TV ad in which, “she states Paul LePage supports teaching creationism in public schools and that is not what Maine is all about.”
I think Libby Mitchell made that ad because it demonstrates that LePage is out of touch with modern science and voters need to know that. He apparently has no appreciation of it, and so he appears to prefer his bible stories as explanations of how the world works. I agree with her implication that a Governor lacking an appreciation of modern science could do great harm.
Ms. Cooper and LePage have fallen for the “teach the controversy” argument of the creationists. In fact, there is no controversy concerning the truth of evolution among the real experts in this field, the biologists. None! All current research in the field concerns the fleshing out of the details. “On the Origin of Species” was published over 150 years ago, and biological research has since amassed a literal mountain of published, peer reviewed works which support the theory, over and over and over again. The creationists speak of “Darwinism” as if no one but Darwin had noticed the fossil record or the DNA code in the last 100 years.
The creationists (and “intelligent design” people) complain about missing “transitional” fossils and supposed “irreducible complexity.” In fact, since 99% or so of all species that have ever existed are now extinct, EVERY fossil (except of current species) represents a transition from an older species to a newer one. And every argument for “irreducible complexity“ has been refuted. One needs only do a web search and be willing to read non-Christian sites to find those explanations.
The creationists have claimed that scientists are colluding in a vast conspiracy to exclude their views (remember the movie “Expelled,” with Ben Stein?). How could this possibly work? If any scientist could disprove evolution, fame and fortune would be his in an instant. The Nobel Prize (worth a million-plus) would be a cinch, and he would be considered as great a scientist as Einstein and Newton. Now how do you hold together a conspiracy against that type of pressure, and do it for 150 years?
The sad truth is that the authors of the bible were primitive people who knew no science to speak of. If they didn’t have an explanation for something, they just made a guess. This explains why the bible speaks of four legged fowl, a flat earth, the demon theory of disease, and that incredible story about cows in a pasture with striped posts giving birth to striped offspring (Genesis 30:37-39)?
I think Libby Mitchell is right. A man who takes his science from 2,000-year-old texts with dozens of proven errors would be a poor choice for Governor of Maine.