Atheist Armaments

Foreword: Sorry it took so long to get this up here. This post is a product of a week or so of writing, research, and editing. More to follow soon, but likely not until the New Year. Have a happy end-of-year season!

This is a claim I hear a lot.

“Evolution is an unproven theory!”

“There’s no evidence for the conjecture of Evolution.”

“Evolution is unsupported.”

This is, of course, generally spoken/written by people with their head buried deep in the sands of the book of Genesis.

First off, I’d like to open with some testimonial propaganda. This is a self-admitted Appeal to Authority. I want to present, for the record, the general opinion of the science community regarding the status of the theory that they developed (they would know, after all, right?). Read more

In the local paper, my editorial was responded to by Kenneth Ridden, a local retired minister. I sent a letter to the editor in response to his editorial. Here’s that letter.

The article author severely misunderstands the scientific process. No one has “proven” evolution in the same way that no one has “proven” gravity or electromagnetic theory or quantum physics. Nothing in science is ever “proven” because science isn’t in the business of proving things. It’s in the business of DIS-proving. Much like a sculptor carves into a piece of stone, science improves itself by discarding bad theories and keeping those that withstand the culling blade of scientific scrutiny.

Evolution has withstood over 150 years of scrutiny. Scientists all over have attempted to disprove this scientific theory since Darwin postulated it back in the late 1800s. Is evolution unproven? Yes. But there is an overwhelming amount of evidence, both experimental and observational, that supports it. If the Creationists are wrong, then all of society suffers from having a crippled view of scientific process. If evolutionists are wrong AND God believes that evolution is indeed on contrast to His will, then the evolutionists alone will have suffered.

But there is plenty of room to have both a belief in the well-supported theory of evolution AND believe in the remainder of the Bible beyond the creation myth. Besides, there are plenty of portions of the Bible that are no longer followed literally. Why should this be any different?

The author further attempts to polarize, to divide, our society on this issue by appealing to your emotions and loosely associating evolution with the moral problems society faces today. Don’t buy into it. This is a common tactic of propaganda when people are trying to control you. Stick with the facts. Stick with observable reality. No one is telling you to give up your faith, but don’t give up your ability to think rationally either.

I have read in a number of places that in a formal debate, if either party knowingly uses a logical fallacy, the debate is essentially over. It’s sort of an unwritten rule that debators stick with the facts, the issues, and not personalize the whole affair.

That said, debating an issue that has been tied into an individuals faith will inevitably turn personal for them. It’s unfortunate that religious organizations (such as creationist supergroup extraordinaire AiG) have intentionally tried to tie issues of science (old earth, evolution, abiogenesis, etc.) tightly to the reins of their Holy text. It is important to remember that, when arguing these issues, it is quite easy to degenerate to a battle of gainsaying. There are as many, if not more, websites and materials out there that a YEC will use as support for their argument, and often it can take an inordinate amount of time to de-tangle exactly why the source they are referencing is incorrect. Sometimes you get lucky with an explicit refutation, but more often than not, a counter-refutation will be found somewhere else.

Bottom line — sticking with the issues is often a fruitless attempt when debating YEC’s. Remember, we are not dealing with a rationally minded group of people here. It can often be more effective, depending on their method of arguing, to establish logically why their arguments are incorrect. The goal is to clear up the misrepresentation that their beliefs are based on anything except their faith. (Note: for more information, check out my page about logical fallacies.)

One other point, before we begin, is that learning how to spot logical fallacies can help you avoid them yourself. It’s very embarrassing to point out someone else’s fallacy and then have them (or a bystander) point out that you had unknowingly used the same fallacy yourself. Just remember that the point of spotting fallacies isn’t to specifically to attack your opponent, but rather to level the playing field.

Some favorites, as arbitrarily assessed by my experience: Read more

There are some arguments that you will encounter time and time again. They are generally levied by Creationists that are either not well-read, or are new to the Young Earth/Old Earth debate. There are also some more complicated arguments that require more finesse (and more sources) to properly defend. This particularly post will address the former (categorically), and later posts will address the later (individually). Some of these arguments are so weak that even Creationist Supergroup Answers In Genesis advises against using them.

These are listed in no particular order, and there are likely some that I have not yet thought of, as well (But will add later!) Read more

A lot of the reason why this blog has been sparsely updated is because I spend so much time on other blogs and forums (and occasionally youtube) debating Young Earth Creationists (YEC’s) and Intelligent Design (ID) proponents.

Part of constantly standing up for Observable Reality ™ means doing a lot of research: reading blogs (Badastronomy, ERV, PZ Myers), information aggregates (TalkOrigins, AigBusted, AnswersInCreation) and reading about the opponent as well (AnswersInGenesis, Institution for Creation Resarch, True Origins). This series of blogs (and I’m not sure how many there will be) will highlight some strategies, tactics, and talking points for getting involved with YEC’s. Read more