Letters to the Editor
-
evidence of evolution
The anonymous who doesn't think there is evidence of evolution should check out Beak of the Finch. Its a very well writen book which focuses on the work of Dr.s Peter and Rosemary Grant. Their studies of the finches in the Galapagos show that evolutionary change can be readily obeseverved in biological time. The book also mentions some of the studies conducted by their former students. Or you could read the incredibly dry (but being a scientist myself very interesting) Ecology and Evolution in Darwin's Finches. In fact he just pulished a new book on speciation that I might have to ask for at Christmas.
-
Oops
I think Mike Huckabee is the best of a bad lot but, after seven years with a dodo as POTUS and know-nothing policies, I would rather be dragged though a mud puddle by a 900 pound pig than vote for him.
Karen
-
@Madame President 2:13
The points I was making at 9:41, 12:00, and 12:51 is that for any observation we can only infer its cause but never observe the cause directly (Hume, 1739). All those observation about the finches' beaks are consistent with the theory of evolution, so one may infer that evolution caused that particular progression and specialization of the beaks of the various species. However, one must always keep in mind that that is an inference. A different possible inference is that God caused all those beaks to be the way they are. No observation (about finches' beaks or otherwise) can that disprove this latter "theory"?
-
Anonymous
I think the problem you are running into is that the typical person who tries to make the argument you are making almost inevitably follows with the illogical leap to "therefore evolution is false and you must convert to my belief system". I don't think you would have gotten the push-back you have seen had you made clear you were not of that ilk. In this area people are more likely to listen to an argument if they don't think it is coming from someone who is looking for an opportunity to ram their religious beliefs down another's throat. I don't think you are one of those unpleasant folks, though (just to make it clear).
-
Athenian
I realize that I.D. has been hijacked by those who were once advocating creationism, and then thought they could get further with this philosophy. I myself am both a scientist and a believer in God (though I admit that my belief stems from a leap of faith). Many of my peers are atheists, but I have convinced some that even that is based on a leap of faith (faith in science that is), and that a truly rational belief is to be agnostic.
-
Alter Falters As Journalist
Jonathan Alter's compliments for Huckabee are either based upon a lack of real thought about his remarks on Bill Maher's show or, more likely, another example of a liberal trying to show he doesn't dislike all conservatives. Alter must like Huckabee personally and can't find anything good to say about the other GOP candidates (for good reason) but that doesn't justify pretending Huckabee doesn't hold the fundamentalist views he espouses.
Now, Alter may want to think that these views are the just what he has to say to get elected and not what Huckabee really believes, but his comments on Maher's show don't prove that and it really doesn't matter. What is said on the campaign trail has real meaning. It justifies ignorance among others and relieves them of the obligation to think. Tragically, this has bad consequences for us all.
-
i disagree with you, Athenian
anonymous is as stupid and solipsistic as he is cowardly. The shortest IQ test in the world? "Do you believe in God?".
-
With all due respect
With all due respect David Sugarman, evangelical atheists are just as annoying and unpleasant as evangelical Christians. Indeed, in some ways they are worse. By misappropriating evolutionary biology to push a religious agenda, they end up providing great ammunition to evangelical fundamentalists who can then push the idea that acceptance of evolution is acceptance of atheism. Speaking as an evolutionary biologist, that just makes my job harder when it comes to trying to get the public to accept and learn about evolution. I am not defending the fundamentalists. I think they are morally repugnant. I have been on the receiving end of their vileness (I also have a research advisory committee member who got death threats after testifying at the Dover trial). The thing is, though, that fundamentalism is not all of religion. Indeed, I would say that fundamentalists fundamentally misunderstand religion. Just because they misunderstand religion, however, that is no justification for fundamentalist atheists to misunderstand religion in turn. But I am a fuzzy-minded Unitarian, so what do I know?
-
Intolerance?
Some have made accusations of religious intolerance in these comments. When a person running for elective office says
"Oh, I believe in science. I certainly do. In fact, what I believe in is, I believe in God. I don't think there's a conflict between the two. But if there's going to be a conflict, science changes with every generation and with new discoveries and God doesn't. So I'll stick with God if the two are in conflict."
he is saying "I believe in a Supreme Being whose answer to a conflict between what I believe is His Inspired Word and our empirical observations is 'Who you gonna believe? Me, or your lyin' eyes?' In such cases, I'll believe Him."
The most charitable description of that mindset is "foolish." If being less charitable makes me "intolerant," so be it. Such an attitude is willfully and dangerously ignorant.
-
i agree, Athenian
Unitarians are worse - all the sanctimony but none of the passion. the "enablers" in the next Dark Age.
-
david sugarman
So what do you recommend? Execution of all non-atheists, or simply forced re-education and rehabilitation? Burning of all religious texts? Your attitude as expressed on these boards has been pretty Manichean and extreme. Indeed, I can see it as being potentially just as destructive as the hard core attitudes of the religious of any stripe, be they Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or atheist. You may not be like that at all, and I don't mean to imply you are, but that is how you can come off in what you write.