Monday, December 7, 2009

Something to know about Creationist sites...

It is important to realize that this is a common very unethical false claim that the majority of Christians do not agree with. They make this claim to give the reader the impression that there are a large percentage of scientists who disagree with the robust theory of evolution. When pressed, they *may* be forced to give you the real figure of 5% of scientists in the U.S. support Creationism over Evolutionary Theory. That's 50 out of 1000 scientists. That is quite paltry. Now, that figure includes ALL scientists, which means any one in a 'science' field, such as engineers, and others who are not educated in the field of life sciences. So, when you look at those scientists who are educated in Life Sciences, you'll find the number to be even more minuscule, which is 0.15 %. That's 1.5 people per 1000.

And hopefully most people not knowing the difference between Creationist's claims and the science of evolution will recognize that anyone can make any claim. Creationism sites over-use this unethical tactic by saying things like "this proves evolution is wrong". That is an example of how anyone can make any claim, as they should be allowed to do. However, many people do not know how to investigate claims, or know how to apply critical thinking to information, research sources, validate sources, and all the other processes that are necessary to determine the truthfulness of a claim. Creationism sites take full advantage of these people. If you do have those tools to thoroughly investigate the validity of any claim, it is not only welcomed, but required by true scientific sites that report the facts and theories of evolution. You will never see a true scientific site disable or censor your dissenting views (as long as you are polite and respectful) but you will often find creationism sites will not allow comments, or will censor or disable any dissenting views other than the 'straw-man' supposed dissenting views they made up. They will censor these dissenting views even if the dissenter is polite and respectful. If anyone knows of any Creationist sites that allow and does not censor dissenting views, please post a reply. I am all for it, and will use them as an example to creationists how to be confident of your information, and that is to allow dissenting comments.

in reference to:

""Do you think the theory of evolution is a fact accepted by ALL scientists? Think again!"
- Creation vs. Evolution Sites - Links (view on Google Sidewiki)

1 comment:

SDC said...

I do find the 'roll call of scientists supporting Creationism' to be very funny. A lot of them I think are people who minor'ed in Biology in college, but now are in real estate or such (not that that is not a worthy profession, just saying I don't look to them for scientific knowledge and wisdom).

My name shows up on at least one such list due to the fact that I did research way back when as an undergrad w/ a prof that was a bit on the Religious Right side. I am by no stretch a scientist (much as I love science) and in his case, he's an Astronomer, not a Biologist, Jim. So such lists do need to be taken with several 50 pound salt licks.