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Dishonest Morons

Entry 522, on 2007-04-28 at 20:59:42 (Rating 5, Religion)

Podcasts are a great source of information suitable for rants, so every time I hear news about the latest antics of the intelligent design sect I can just feel the beginnings of a rant coming on.

ID-ers must be the most dishonest morons on Earth. Well, actually, that's unfair. They can't be both dishonest and morons at the same time, but they must be one or the other. If they aren't morons they must have the intelligence to know that they are wrong, therefore they are dishonest (both to themselves and the public) when they support ID. If they really believe their own nonsense, then they aren't dishonest, but they are morons. There are people with real biology backgrounds in ID. They are obviously fooling themselves. What could be more dishonest than that?

The Skeptics Guide podcast often discusses ID. In the latest news they reported an ID spokesperson who asked for evidence where evolution created new genetic information. He was referred to 3000 papers. Most people would say "Oh, I'm wrong, evolution obviously does create new information". But this isn't how the liars in ID work.

Instead of admitting he was wrong, he changed the rules and demanded evidence of "genetically relevant" information instead. Of course, there's no problem with that because as soon as a gene is duplicated it can be acted on by selection independently of the gene it originated from. Soon new information is created. And this is real information under any definition, including that of information theory which the ID-ers love to quote but don't seem to really understand.

Just to completely destroy ID arguments, it has recently been found that 24 of the genes in the bacterial flagellum came from one gene, but they have changed over time through selection pressure. Yes, that's right, the structure the ID supporters love to quote as their icon of ID, has become an example of evolution at work. OK ID, its time to give up. You can all go home now and stop deluding yourselves - evolution is a fact.

Comment 1 (626) by Anonymous on 2007-04-29 at 07:19:05:

You don't know that, you weren't there. I am thankful to God for you, you have really made my faith in Him get stronger. Jesus said people will hate us, and hey He is true again!

Comment 2 (627) by OJB on 2007-04-29 at 09:51:22:

Yeah, yeah. Delude yourself as much as you like. Can't you see how you're being fooled by the church? If you are shown evidence supporting your religion you believe it more. If you are shown evidence against it, its obviously the work of the devil, so again you believe it more. If I wanted to create a mythology designed specifically to fool people into following it, that's the sort of thing I would do too.

Comment 3 (628) by Anonymous on 2007-05-01 at 08:50:12:

Okay, you completely missed my point.

Comment 4 (629) by OJB on 2007-05-01 at 10:11:04:

Oh sorry. Would you like to state your point more clearly? Thanks.

Comment 5 (636) by Anonymous on 2007-05-10 at 09:13:04:

Sure! No problemo. I am not being fooled by the church. I have pretty much accepted Christ on my own with the help of my friends and family. I am saved (don't do your bla bla bla thing anymore, it makes you sound like a three year old) and I can tell God is there, I don't need to be fooled into that. It came on its own.

Also, I am going to ask you a question that you have probably answered many times before... Can you completely prove that Jesus did not exist or that God is not real?

Comment 6 (638) by OJB on 2007-05-10 at 16:46:04:

Unfortunately there are people all around the world who are just as convinced as you are that their religious or spiritual views are right, but they believe in completely contradictory things, so they can't all be right. That's why rationalists use a higher standard of evidence than just what we think is true, or want to be true.

No, I cannot completely prove that God and Jesus don't exist. I also can't completely prove that Thor, Zeus, Xochiquetzal, Hathor, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc, don't exist. What's your point?

Comment 7 (639) by OJB on 2007-05-10 at 16:49:17:

Can you show me evidence that all of these gods don't exist? But wait, there's more. There are almost 3000 gods listed here. So which are real, and which aren't?

Comment 8 (647) by Anonymous on 2007-05-12 at 08:31:57:

I think what it comes to is what you KNOW is right. I don't understand other's thoughts about their beliefs, but I know that God is true. You might not be able to understand that yet, but I am hoping that God will show me what to tell you.
I know how weird that may sound to you, but hey, it is true.

Comment 9 (649) by OJB on 2007-05-12 at 13:34:07:

Do you think that because you think you know something is true that it is automatically true? You realise other people are equally certain of their beliefs? You know many people are totally convinced of crazy things, right? You know that people delude themselves every day. What makes you think that you're convictions are so special? Unless you're prepared to accept you may be wrong you are doomed to be ignorant forever.

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