Comment Re:The original story behind this...[oops. fixed] (Score 1) 1237
No, the flaws in my education are at best minorly tangential to this discussion. There are numerous causes for that, bad student, bad teacher, bad environment, etc.
But as a more specific example, we have some of the ID nutjobs will totally ignore evidence that supports evolution, and present their evidence in a rather biased manner. But we also have textbooks still showing things as hard fact that have been quite discredited since soon after they were published in the late 1800's.
They seem to still be used because, while bogus in their own right, they show some principle that is to be explained. That doesn't seem like it's much better on a rather basic level. But it also does not mean that I expect an equal half hour from each side on the subject. Shouldn't some small effort be put into finding a better example? It would shut up a whole lot of people.
If you want to show that adding an even number to an odd number results in an odd number, don't use 2+3=7, even if it does show the principle. Perhaps I should wait for a cosmological God-trolling article instead of a biological one since I deal with astronomy and physics better than biology and palentology. But it seems to me (from what I hear at least) that this in some respects is similar to a situation I am a bit more familiar with.
Consider the fact that our place around the sun and galaxy, the various physical constants etc. seem to have a rather tight tolerance on what they could be to support life, out of a rather large range of possible values that could be picked (for all we know) at random. Some have said "See, God did it", others "No, we just wouldn't be around to discuss this if it weren't so. It's just dumb luck." and others invent some new concept like there must be a nearly infinite number of universes all different so we could appear in the right one, but not need it specificly made for us.
I can't say "Don't bother looking farther, we can blame God." But at the same time, I have a difficult time with the alternative which seems rather similar to "I was in front of a firing squad with 20 expert marksman. They all missed, but it doesn't really matter, because if they hadn't all missed, I would't be here to discuss it." I also hold open the many universes option, but there seems to be no evidence for it, and there doesn't seem to be any way to argue against it.
The proper answer for me at least is "I don't know, I will try to keep these possibilities in mind until I find out more." But it seems that many people, perhaps on only philosophical grounds, fall very hard into one camp or another, completely overlooking the evidence against or simple lack of evidence for their position, while berating the other groups for being in the exact same situation.
Since my biology is a bit weaker, part of my interest has been to see what the evidence is, and what trolls I can ignore. It's probably a good thing that I follow more sources than just
BTW, rather than going after my mother (even if she might deserve it 8^) Might I suggest a more neutral but similar argument I heard once: Eating pickles causes aircraft crashes. Evidence: 99% of airline fatalities have eaten pickles at some time before boarding the doomed aircraft.
