Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Evolution
This rant is going to make a lot of people very angry, and that is what it is intended to do. If you're too childish to consider different points of view, I suggest you stop reading now and go revel in your close-mindedness with the other dumbshits of the world.
Today I received this month's National Geographic, and looking at all the letters to the editor concerning the article on evolution from two issues ago severely pissed me off. I live in a country of ignorant but very loud yokels who can't handle the truth! By the way, National Geographic, I applaud you for taking such a firm stand on the issue. Making the yokels angry is good for them.
"Evolution is just a theory!" has long been the rallying cry of creationists. Obviously the kind of people who shout this have no conception of what constitutes a scientific theory. Gravitation is "just a theory" too, folks. There's no "proof" that gravity exists, other than that we don't just go floating off into space at a moment's notice. These ignorant hicks can't tell the difference between a theory and a hypothesis. Theories are backed up by a vast bodies of convincing evidence and are accepted as scientific fact. Hypotheses are just ideas, suggestions. Evolution is a theory. Creationism is a hypothesis, and a pretty poor one at that.
"You can't prove the theory of evolution!" shout the creationists. Of course you can't, you dumbasses. You can't prove the theory of gravitation either, but that doesn't make it false. And if you creationists are looking for proof, you definitely picked the wrong camp. Maybe we can't "prove" our theory, but you can't find even a shred of factual evidence to support your claims. All the evidence, every single piece found so far, supports the theory of evolution. What evidence do you have to deny the existence of evolution? The Bible? Try scientific evidence. There isn't any. And no matter how hard-core you may be, you still don't take everything the Bible says literally. If you know what pi is, you know that it is 3.14159..., not 3, which is the value given in the Bible. "Love your enemies," said Jesus. So why do you have that shotgun?
If I came out with a hypothesis that our feet stay on the ground not because of gravity but because the ground was sticky, I would be the laughingstock of the world, even the yokels. I wouldn't be able to find any support for my argument, and no intelligent person would believe my claim with no evidence to support it. Because all the evidence demonstrates that gravitation is the correct explanation for staying attached to the earth, no one would take me seriously. Anyone who did would have to be either dumb as a stump or delusional. If you believe that the theory of evolution is wrong without a shred of evidence, then you must be either dumb as a stump or delusional.
"How could something as perfect as a human being have evolved?" ask the creationists. First of all, are human beings really perfect? We squabble. We kill each other. Some of us are even idiotic enough to believe that evolution is wrong. We're not perfect, but we are suited to our environment. We have feet and arms and opposable thumbs and penises not because God decided that we would but because we evolved them to cope with changing environments. To a primitive caveman, my sticky-earth hypothesis would make much more sense than the theory of gravitation because it is much simpler. Creationism is also a simple theory, and much better suited to the mind of the primitive caveman than the complex reality that is evolution.
The problem is that the primitive cavemen think creationism should be taught in schools in place of evolution, or at least be given equal billing. And unfortunately, the cavemen are loud and stubborn in addition to possesing only limited intelligence and rudimentary tool-making skills. Not only are these so-called people dumbasses, but they're damned if their children are going to grow up to be any more intelligent than they are. It makes as much sense to present children with my sticky-earth hypothesis as an alternative to gravity as it does to present them with creationism as an alternative to evolution.
The point is, evolution is a theory. It's supported by every piece of evidence found thus far, and it's accepted by science as the correct explanation for the origin of species. Evolution is a theory. Creationism is nothing.
That said, I'm not trying to put down anyone's religion. People who believe in God and creation don't piss me off, just people who don't believe in evolution. Creation and evolution aren't mutually exclusive, guys. There's no real evidence that God created life, but faith means believing in things when there's no evidence. I have no problem with that. Not believing in something when all the evidence points that way is called idiocy.
If any of you right-wing morons can formulate an argument against evolution that's convincing in any way, I would be very interested to read it.
Today I received this month's National Geographic, and looking at all the letters to the editor concerning the article on evolution from two issues ago severely pissed me off. I live in a country of ignorant but very loud yokels who can't handle the truth! By the way, National Geographic, I applaud you for taking such a firm stand on the issue. Making the yokels angry is good for them.
"Evolution is just a theory!" has long been the rallying cry of creationists. Obviously the kind of people who shout this have no conception of what constitutes a scientific theory. Gravitation is "just a theory" too, folks. There's no "proof" that gravity exists, other than that we don't just go floating off into space at a moment's notice. These ignorant hicks can't tell the difference between a theory and a hypothesis. Theories are backed up by a vast bodies of convincing evidence and are accepted as scientific fact. Hypotheses are just ideas, suggestions. Evolution is a theory. Creationism is a hypothesis, and a pretty poor one at that.
"You can't prove the theory of evolution!" shout the creationists. Of course you can't, you dumbasses. You can't prove the theory of gravitation either, but that doesn't make it false. And if you creationists are looking for proof, you definitely picked the wrong camp. Maybe we can't "prove" our theory, but you can't find even a shred of factual evidence to support your claims. All the evidence, every single piece found so far, supports the theory of evolution. What evidence do you have to deny the existence of evolution? The Bible? Try scientific evidence. There isn't any. And no matter how hard-core you may be, you still don't take everything the Bible says literally. If you know what pi is, you know that it is 3.14159..., not 3, which is the value given in the Bible. "Love your enemies," said Jesus. So why do you have that shotgun?
If I came out with a hypothesis that our feet stay on the ground not because of gravity but because the ground was sticky, I would be the laughingstock of the world, even the yokels. I wouldn't be able to find any support for my argument, and no intelligent person would believe my claim with no evidence to support it. Because all the evidence demonstrates that gravitation is the correct explanation for staying attached to the earth, no one would take me seriously. Anyone who did would have to be either dumb as a stump or delusional. If you believe that the theory of evolution is wrong without a shred of evidence, then you must be either dumb as a stump or delusional.
"How could something as perfect as a human being have evolved?" ask the creationists. First of all, are human beings really perfect? We squabble. We kill each other. Some of us are even idiotic enough to believe that evolution is wrong. We're not perfect, but we are suited to our environment. We have feet and arms and opposable thumbs and penises not because God decided that we would but because we evolved them to cope with changing environments. To a primitive caveman, my sticky-earth hypothesis would make much more sense than the theory of gravitation because it is much simpler. Creationism is also a simple theory, and much better suited to the mind of the primitive caveman than the complex reality that is evolution.
The problem is that the primitive cavemen think creationism should be taught in schools in place of evolution, or at least be given equal billing. And unfortunately, the cavemen are loud and stubborn in addition to possesing only limited intelligence and rudimentary tool-making skills. Not only are these so-called people dumbasses, but they're damned if their children are going to grow up to be any more intelligent than they are. It makes as much sense to present children with my sticky-earth hypothesis as an alternative to gravity as it does to present them with creationism as an alternative to evolution.
The point is, evolution is a theory. It's supported by every piece of evidence found thus far, and it's accepted by science as the correct explanation for the origin of species. Evolution is a theory. Creationism is nothing.
That said, I'm not trying to put down anyone's religion. People who believe in God and creation don't piss me off, just people who don't believe in evolution. Creation and evolution aren't mutually exclusive, guys. There's no real evidence that God created life, but faith means believing in things when there's no evidence. I have no problem with that. Not believing in something when all the evidence points that way is called idiocy.
If any of you right-wing morons can formulate an argument against evolution that's convincing in any way, I would be very interested to read it.
# posted by Ben @ 7:41 PM 
