December 11, 2007

A Warning to Creationists

One of the things that annoys me about Creationists is their constant recycling of the same stupid arguments, the same debunked hand-waving, over and over again. Here's a good example left by a particularly pinheaded know-nothing as a comment just a little while ago:

The past cannot be tested or repeated, so how does evolution 'history' (by which I mean the supposed progression from a single organism to the diversity of life currently observed on our planet) fit into your definition of good science? To make claims about the past given facts in the present, one needs to make interpretations based on untestable assumptions. There is no getting around it. So by your definition, the theory (and yes I do mean theory in the proper scientific context) of evolution is not good science when it makes claims about things that happened in the past.
Is this not one of the stupidest strings of text ever strung together?

The past cannot be tested! No, only the future and present can be tested. That's why we can never find corroborating evidence about events that have already occurred and not only science but history, evidenced-based criminal trials and audio recordings don't exist in our world today. The past is unknowable and there's just no way to test anything from the past. In fact, we can't even say with certainty that yesterday wasn't merely a hallucination.

The sheer idiocy of such an assertion doesn't even require some obscure science or diligent investigation, just a modicum of common sense. Intellectual dishonesty and plain muddleheaded nonsense isn't that hard to spot.

So here's the warning: I'm not going to get into discussions about the same old Creationist nonsense unless I happen to feel like making fun of it. In fact, I'm not even going to let my blog get bogged down with other people promulgating it. If you have something factual, something that's been discovered and can be replicated and is somehow predictive — in other words, scientifically valid — that contradicts any of the numerous laws comprised by evolutionary theory, then bring it on.

If you're going to make the same old vague and mindless arguments that necessitate redefining all of science based on nothing but an opinion, don't bother typing a comment about it in this blog. It won't show up. Been there, done that. We're not going to debate scientific method here. Demonstrate that you know something about the subject at hand or go educate yourself.

If you're going to try to convince me that "the past cannot be tested" or give me yet another stupid argument about "nobody saw it happen so we can't say anything about it," do us both a favor and go find something useful to do with your time. Start by reading this.

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