Evolution v Creationism: A Dead Issue

[Jose Fly]

As someone who spent a lot of time on the evolution v creationism battles over the last 20 years, I've noticed that in the last 5 years or so the issue seems to have largely gone off the radar. In the message boards that are still around (both Christian and secular) it's barely debated, if at all. Websites specifically dedicated to countering creationist talking points such as talkorigins and pandasthumb have gone silent, seemingly because there just isn't much to talk about.

Surveys have shown that younger Americans accept the reality of evolution at pretty much the same rate as the rest of the developed world. Thanks to national focus on science education by organizations like the NCSE, evolution is more widely taught than ever, even in the deep south. The Discovery Institute (the main "intelligent design" organization) stopped advocating for ID creationism to be taught in schools years ago, and they closed their alleged "research arm" last year.

On the science front, creationism remains as it has for over a century....100% scientifically irrelevant.

So for all practical intents and purposes, this debate is over. There isn't any sort of public debate over teaching creationism, nor is there any real debate about whether evolution should be taught. For sure there's still work to do in some parts of the country (mostly the south and interior west) where even though evolution is officially required, teachers don't teach it either because it's "too controversial" or they don't believe it themselves, but big picture-wise, "evolution v creationism" is in about the same state as "spherical v flat earth"....nothing more than something a handful of people argue about on the internet, but outside of that has little to no significance. And even on that front it's kinda dead....most forums where it's openly debated have a very skewed ratio where there's like 10 "evolutionists" for every 1 creationist.

Glad to see it!

[Jose Fly]

This just gets better and better. The intelligent design proponents haven't worked out how to definitively establish if something is designed or not and they also don't even know what intelligence is. It's called comedy gold for a reason.

Creationist: I believe in intelligent design.

What do you mean by "intelligence"?

Creationist: Don't know.

What do you mean by "design"?

Creationist: Don't know.

Um....good talkin' with ya?

Evolutionist: I don't believe in intelligent design.

What do you mean by "intelligence"?

Evolutionist: Don't know.

What do you mean by "design"?

Evolutionist: Don't know.

Um....good talkin' with ya?

As the saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[JoeyKnothead]

Are you complaining about my analogy or Jose's?

I presented comments. That you find em to be complaints is a hand I ain't here to hold.

[Sherlock Holmes]

Are you complaining about my analogy or Jose's?

I presented comments. That you find em to be complaints is a hand I ain't here to hold.

Why does your avatar change every fifteen minutes and why does it always look like a short penguin?

[EarthScienceguy]

[Replying to Difflugia in post #188]

Those aren't the facts, though. I linked you to three workable evolutionary theories that are based on evidence, so your second "fact" isn't one, no matter what you mean by "workable theory."

If there are three different theories then there is something wrong with all of them otherwise there would be only one theory.

Creation cosmology has 1 theory that is workable.

Yea and how generations does it take for 1 ERV to become fixed in a mammal genome. Haldane calculated 300. I do not think you have enough time for your workable theory to work.

[brunumb]

Are you complaining about my analogy or Jose's?

I presented comments. That you find em to be complaints is a hand I ain't here to hold.

Why does your avatar change every fifteen minutes and why does it always look like a short penguin?

HEY! Look over there. It's a pigeon.

[brunumb]

Creation cosmology has 1 theory that is workable.

As far as magic can be used as an explanation for everything I suppose. But it's not really a theory, barely just an hypothesis. What evidence specifically supports the explanation that a god did it?

[Difflugia]

If there are three different theories then there is something wrong with all of them otherwise there would be only one theory.

That's trivially wrong. You can say that at most one is correct, but having multiple possibilities doesn't somehow render all of them incorrect.

Creation cosmology has 1 theory that is workable.

There are as many "creation cosmologies" as there are creationists. If multiple hypotheses renders all of them false, then the combination of YEC, OEC, and ID must mean that none of them is right. Right?

Yea and how generations does it take for 1 ERV to become fixed in a mammal genome. Haldane calculated 300. I do not think you have enough time for your workable theory to work.

There have been far more than 300 generations of mammals, so that looks like a non sequitur to me.

[JoeyKnothead]

Are you complaining about my analogy or Jose's?

I presented comments. That you find em to be complaints is a hand I ain't here to hold.

Why does your avatar change every fifteen minutes and why does it always look like a short penguin?

It's the Linux mascot. I have right at a thousand of em. I try to change it daily.

[Jose Fly]

If there are three different theories then there is something wrong with all of them otherwise there would be only one theory.

That's trivially wrong. You can say that at most one is correct, but having multiple possibilities doesn't somehow render all of them incorrect.

Creation cosmology has 1 theory that is workable.

There are as many "creation cosmologies" as there are creationists. If multiple hypotheses renders all of them false, then the combination of YEC, OEC, and ID must mean that none of them is right. Right?

Yea and how generations does it take for 1 ERV to become fixed in a mammal genome. Haldane calculated 300. I do not think you have enough time for your workable theory to work.

There have been far more than 300 generations of mammals, so that looks like a non sequitur to me.

Creationists sure don't seem to ever put their talking points together to see if they're consistent, eh? Earlier we saw "everything is designed" with "creationists are working on differentiating between designed and undesigned things", and now it's "more than one theory means they're all false" with the existence of multiple forms of creationism.

Hilarious.

[Sherlock Holmes]

Are you complaining about my analogy or Jose's?

I presented comments. That you find em to be complaints is a hand I ain't here to hold.

Why does your avatar change every fifteen minutes and why does it always look like a short penguin?

It's the Linux mascot. I have right at a thousand of em. I try to change it daily.

Linux sucks.