Today is Charles Darwin’s birthday — he’d be 209 years old if he hadn’t kicked the bucket in 1882. It’s a good excuse to find something to celebrate, so go have a cupcake or something. I’m planning to spend the next few days working with people at the Science Museum of Minnesota on a science education project, which sounds appropriately productive and entertaining. But, you know, the best way to celebrate Darwin’s life and research is to ask questions, question everything, and explore new ideas, which is how Mr Darwin would have liked it. Although you shouldn’t do that just one day a year. Every day is a day to learn something new.
I just wish the creationists could do that. Eric Hovind and his merry band of ignoramuses have declared today to be Doubting Darwin Day, unaware that the sentiment is already inherent within the scientific program, and are distributing their 15 questions for evolutionists flyer again. I’ve seen many versions of this kind of thing over the years; they tend to be repetitive and tendentious, and are a combination of a) questions long answered, b) interesting questions they are unaware that people are actively studying, and c) assertions of Christian dogma that we don’t care to address. I’m not going to bother with them (note that I have to get to St Paul today to do a bunch of fun/work), so I’ll just turn it over to Jackson Wheat.
When will the creationists learn that if their questions can be answered by a well-informed undergraduate, maybe they aren’t asking particularly challenging questions?
That flyer’s not WCAG 2.0 compliant. So I guess they don’t give a shit about saving the souls of blind or motor-impaired people.
Still too early to erect the 300-foot-tall statue of our Lord Darwin? I prefer the concept drawing where he’s tossing infants into the bonfire, with each infant prayerfully clutching a Bible.
Where’s the classic If man is descended from apes, why are there still monkeys? question. I thought that was supposed to shut down evilution years ago.
@larry in 3 – that question is kind of asked in Q10 – just not directly. In Q10 they ask a more general question about how some species are maintained ‘unchanged’ while other lineages undergo changes. A complete lack of understanding of evolution will result in that sort of questioning.
Since we’re being repetitive already, I’ll repeat my 15 questions to creationists, which can be found on the exact same leaflet as Hovind’s.
“When will the creationists learn ….”
When they start celebrating Easter and Pentecost on the same day.
On the list of ‘they … are a combination of’, I’d suggest a fourth one:
d) assertions based on the assumption that if they can somehow discredit Darwin, they can discredit evolution; as though scientists treated things with the same rigid authoritarianism as the creationists.
Darwin’s birth date is also Lincoln’s (02/09/1809), so you could have a second cupcake for Old Abe.
Back when I worked, I laughed my a@@ off each time one of these clowns went and got the free flu shot. It was a big enough employer that they had nurses actually come to the work place and administer shots.
Said clowns got mighty uncomfortable after being peppered by Mr. Spumoni about the various flu bugs and how they . . . change . . . er evolve.
Did Mr. Spumoni offer them any alternative that was better?
The flu shots are predictions, that is known. But what if no flu shot is available? Is that better than no attempt?
Just one question: is a@@ the same as @$$.
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