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POPSUnintelligent Design At this point, 30 years after the Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman and his late collaborator Amos Tversky started documenting a rash of fallacies in human reasoning, the idea that the human mind would be "perfect in His image" is as outdated (and narcissistic) as the idea that the solar system would revolve around the planet earth. The only theory that can really make sense of these needless imperfections is Darwin's theory of natural selection, which holds that humans (and all other life forms) evolve through a blind process known as descent-with-modification, in which new life forms represent random modifications of earlier life forms -- with no central overseer to guide the process. Such a random process can, over time, lead populations of creatures to become more adapted to their environment, but it is also vulnerable to getting stuck, in the sort of good-enough-but-not-perfect solutions that mathematicians call local maxima.
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POPSLogical Fallacies of Creationists and How to Spot Them THE ACHILLES' HEAL FALLACY They carbon-dated a snail and it turned out to be 25,000 years old! Carbon dating is totally unreliable! THE AD HOMINEM ATTACK You have been blinded by Satan, and you are a creature of the devil. Neither you nor what you say can be trusted. You will rot in Hell for your ways THE RED HERRING Evolution is impossible because the Big Bang is a totally unacceptable theory because it defies the word of our loving Creator, He who sent His only Son, our Lord to...
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POPSThe blog post that wouldn't die I want to talk about atheists and anger. This has been a hard piece to write, and it may be a hard one to read. I'm not going to be as polite and good-tempered as I usually am in this blog; this piece is about anger, and for once I'm going to fucking well let myself be angry. But I think it's important. One of the most common criticisms lobbed at the newly-vocal atheist community is, "Why do you have to be so angry?" So I want to talk about: 1. Why atheists are angry; 2. Why our anger is valid, valuable, and necessary; And 3. Why it's completely fucked-up to try to take our anger away from us. So let's start with why we're angry. Or rather -- because this is my blog and I don't presume to speak for all atheists -- why I'm angry.<< http://gretachristina.typepad.com/
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POPSIt's Only a Theory!!!!! Link to the original if you think any of the clip is true. And please link to the original if you feel compelled to post creationist drivel in the comments. This is a public service clip so you don't have to make a fool of yourself and post a comment telling the world how you believe Jesus told you evolution was ungodly.
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POPSEvolution:24 myths and misconceptions It doesn't matter if people do not understand evolution "Survival of the fittest" justifies "everyone for themselves" Evolution is limitlessly creative Evolution cannot explain traits such as homosexuality Creationism provides a coherent alternative to evolution Creationist myths: Evolution must be wrong because the Bible is inerrant Accepting evolution undermines morality Evolutionary theory leads to racism and genocide Religion and evolution are incompatible Half a wing is no use to anyone Evolutionary science is not predictive Evolution cannot be disproved so is not science Evolution is just so unlikely to produce complex life forms Evolution is an entirely random process Mutations can only destroy information, not create it Darwin is the ultimate authority on evolution The bacterial flagellum is irreducibly complex Yet more creationist misconceptions Evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics
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POPSEvolution: What the Fossils Say ? (a book recomm) Michael Shermer - is a science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and editor of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating and debunking pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. since April 2004 has been a monthly columnist for Scientific American magazine with his Skeptic column. Shermer was once a fundamentalist Christian. Shermer is now a professed atheist, but prefers to use nontheist, and an advocate for humanist philosophy.
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POPSPalin, aside from being a woman... Obviously a lot has been said about the fact that McCain picked a woman as his VP. That is no doubt an interesting fact that can be interpreted in a few different ways. But putting that aside, i think the facts that matter most are those in this clip. These come from a comment by debbyski and i think they represent the reasons people will or won't support her. I would certainly be shocked if anyone who voted for Hillary would support Palin based on these specific differences in beliefs and policies.
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POPSCreationism, the New Virus of Education Look for new lies from Creationism/ID as it adapts to criticism and unveiling of its distortions and frauds. Make no mistake, these people at the Discovery Institute are ruthless in their quest to insinuate religion into the curriculum. They will use any method to accomplish this goal. These are not simply people gathered together to "give another perspective". They are organized to force their agenda to teach religious myths to our children. The last sentence of the clip is chilling considering High Priest Bush has used the same language. No one considers Bush to be versed in science, given his record. The dangerous part is that he does hold the power to cause real harm to education and that is a problem that will last long past his failed administration.
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POPSTeachers 'fear evolution lessons'
Many more teachers he met at scientific meetings were telling him they encountered more pupils with creationist views, he said. "The days have long gone when science teachers could ignore creationism when teaching about origins." Instead, teachers should tackle the issue head-on, whilst trying not to alienate students, he argues in a new book. His book; Teaching about Scientific Origins: Taking Account of Creationism, gives science teachers advice on how to deal with the "dilemma". The scientist, who is also a Church of England priest, adds that any teaching should not give the impression that creationism and the theory of evolution are equally valid scientifically. I agree with the Professor views in that Creationism must be faced head on. His views on Christian students however are only relevant to the UK, the U.S. is faced with a monumental battle on this issue. I really dislike this new wave of religious fervour sweeping the planet in many bastard forms. It must
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POPSEvolution: 24 myths and misconceptions So here is New Scientist's guide to some of the most common myths and misconceptions about evolution.Everything is an adaptation produced by natural selection Natural selection is the only means of evolution Natural selection leads to ever-greater complexity Evolution produces creatures perfectly adapted to their environment Evolution always promotes the survival of species It doesn't matter if people do not understand evolution "Survival of the fittest" justifies "everyone for themselves" Evolution is limitlessly creative Evolution cannot explain traits such as homosexuality Creationism provides a coherent alternative to evolution
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POPSStupid Christians Navigate to the website and watch the video if you've got the stomach for it. I found it to be revolting. If this isn't child abuse, I don't know what is. How could rational people be so ignorant? Religion is how!
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POPSDon't Know Much Biology This attitude has enormous political—and educational—implications. What happens if scientific truth conflicts with a politician's "spiritual truth"? This is not a theoretical problem, but a real one, as we see in debates about stem-cell research, abortion, genetic engineering, and global warming. Ignorance about evolution may be widespread, but it's not nearly as dangerous as dogmatic certainty about the real world based on faith alone.
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POPSTextbook Disclaimer Stickers Wording for the first disclaimer (top left) is taken verbatim from the sticker designed by the Cobb County School District ("A community with a passion for learning") in Georgia, which actually plagiarized Alabama's evolution disclaimer ( view ). Really, I'm not making any of this up. The other 14 are mildly educational variants that demonstrate the real meaning of a scientific "theory" as well as the true motivations of the School Board members and their creationist supporters. Ideally, the above stickers will deter other districts from using textbook disclaimers as a way to undermine the teaching of evolution.
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POPS15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense (Please follow the link to this article and read it completely before you comment on it. Thanks) It is funny how religious people will demand proof of evolution while they have no proof nor will ever have proof of any aspect of their beliefs.
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POPSEvolution in a Bottle Over time the bacteria evolved to better suit their environment, adapting to replicate faster on the all-glucose diet. But one colony suddenly took off, consuming the previously indigestible citrate - a molecule that literally would not fit through the original bacteria's membrane. A new breed of E. Coli had evolved to consume the available resources and, over a multi-generational evolutionary battle, came to outperform the original glucose eaters. Because of the daily samples, there is now a complete genetic paper trail of the changes (although full identification and understanding of the changes will take a little longer). This is an incredible breakthrough in evolutionary research, and a pretty nice argument to break out in the creationism 'debates' ("Prove evolution!" "Okay, I've got it right here IN THIS BOTTLE!")
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