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

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