Pheobe Debates The Theory of Evolution

Original scene from the show... Friends. ^ | NA | NA

[Mr.Atos]

I was just lisening to Medved debating Creationism with Athiests on the air. I found it interesting that while Medved argued his side quite effectively from the standpoint of faith, his opponents resorted to condescension and beliitled him with statements like, "when it rains, is that God crying?" I was reminded of the best (at least most amusing)debate that I have ever heard on the subject of Creationism vs Evolution, albeit a fictional setting. It occurred on the show, Friends of all places between the characters Pheobe (The Hippy) and Ross (The Paleontologist). It went like this...

Pheebs: Okay...it's very faint, but I can still sense him in the building...GO INTO THE LIGHT MR. HECKLES!!

Ross: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What, uh, you don't believe in evolution? Pheebs: Nah. Not really. Ross: You don't believe in evolution? Pheebs: I don't know. It's just, ya know, monkeys, Darwin, ya know, it's a, it's a nice story. I just think it's a little too easy.

Ross: Uh, excuse me. Evolution is not for you to buy, Phoebe. Evolution is scientific fact. Like, like, the air we breathe, like gravity... Pheebs: Uh, okay, don't get me started on gravity.

Ross: You uh, you don't believe in gravity? Pheebs: Well, it's not so much that ya know, like I don't *believe* in it, ya know. It's just...I don't know. Lately I get the feeling that I'm not so much being pulled down, as I am being pushed.

Ross: How can you NOT BELIEVE in evolution? Pheebs: [shrugs] I unh-huh...Look at this funky shirt!!

Ross: Well, there ya go. Pheebs: Huh. So now, the REAL question is: who put those fossils there, and why...?

Ross: OPPOSABLE THUMBS!! Without evolution, how do YOU explain OPPOSABLE THUMBS?!? Pheebs: Maybe the overlords needed them to steer their spacecrafts!

Pheebs: Uh-oh! Scary Scientist Man!

Pheebs: Okay, Ross? Could you just open your mind like, *this* much?? Okay? Now wasn't there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the Earth was flat? And up until what, like, fifty years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split it open, and this like, whole mess o' crap came out! Now, are you telling me that you are so unbelievably arrogant that you can't admit that there's a teeny, tiny possibility that you could be wrong about this?!?

Pheebs: I can't believe you caved. Ross: What? Pheebs: You just ABANDONED your whole belief system! I mean, before, I didn't agree with you, but at least I respected you. Ross: But uh.. Pheebs: Yeah...how...how are you gonna go in to work tomorrow? How...how are you gonna face the other science guys? How...how are you gonna face yourself? Oh! [Ross runs away dejected] Pheebs: That was fun. So who's hungry?

[NewLand]

Nice guy, isn't he?

[conservababeJen]

You see Junior, if it shows catholicism in a positive light, it is still somehow Christian bashing.

You are so off base here that it's bordering on ludicrous. First off that above comment is inaccurate because you clearly claimed that it was all about Catholicism "not christians" as if they are not one and the same. Secondly, just because you seem to think it shows Catholics in a positive light does NOT mean that it doesn't show Fundamentalists (who are CHRISTIAN)in a NEGATIVE light.

[exmarine]

EO Wilson's 'Consilience' has several examples of human aesthetic preferences that appear to be hard-wired and seem to have evolved. Wilson, incidentally, is a very fine and politically conservative biologist.

Show me the aesthetic gene. I don't accept presuppositional speculation.

[Right Wing Professor]

Prokofiev's 'Troika' from the Lieutenant Kije Suite

BTW, I'd be astonished if there were anyone who hasn't heard this piece, but if anyone would like to link the music with the name, I'll be happy to put the mp3 on my website.

[Right Wing Professor]

I gave you a source. You can look at the source, or not look at it. I really don't care.

[Aric2000]

Oh quit with the I'm so innocent crap Newland.

You posted the link to that "learn about the bible" ALL over the evo threads, then set up your statement as a trap, hoping that one of us would trip it. Then I made my statement, then Dimensio popped up with a question about the veracity of a quote and you jumped his butt.

The whole thread was nothing but a trap for us by you, the motivation was OBVIOUS!!

So don't play the innocent virgin on this one, you set it up, and we caught you, like it was that hard, the obviousness of it was almost laughable. That is why I made the statement that I did.

So quit with the he said, she said, and they should apologize etc. You laid it out, we caught you, now let it go.

You sound like a democrat when they get caught, they scream when you poke them too.

Quit whining, you just make it even MORE obvious.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Without God, Life is short, meaningless, leads nowhere, amounts to futility, and ends in total oblivion, which is nothing more than black nothingness forever.

Even believers feel that way sometime. Read the first four or five chapters of Ecclesiastes, for example.

[balrog666]

On the other hand, his theory might help to explain why major chords produce one emotional response in every culture, whereas minor chords produce a very different response.

Not true, cultural factors dominate in music.

[conservababeJen]

ALS was being a jerk, so I sent him something that I knew would piss him off

Oh yeah this'll help things along.

Well....I think YOU'RE being a jerk. Do I get a free piss-you-off-pass? Please? Because I really could use a good vent. I'm kinda crabby today.

[Lurking Libertarian]

If any scientist tries to tell you that A or B don't exist, he's blowing smoke.

Richard Dawkins comes to mind. Although he does a great job writing Biology

I have written before on these threads that Dawkins should be brought up on charges of practicing theology without a license.

[Aric2000]

How can you SO consistently misinterpret what I said?

It had the Catholic heaven in it, and the Pagan was shocked that she somehow ended up there, it shows St Peter in a VERY positive light, being as he showed her where HER Pagan heaven was right next door, and then explained why that was, because a Pagan does NOT know what god is thinking, or tries to tell you what god is thinking, they just do the best they can, and be the best person they can, and god gives them their reward as well.

I found the joke hilarious, but then again, I have a thing about fundamentalists, they make me crazy with their, You're going to hell, because you do NOT believe like we do.

I knew it would upest some people, so I did NOT post it, I freepmailed it to a few friends, then ALS started up with his crap again, so I freepmailed it to him, to A: piss him off, and B: to get it posted for all to see, without actually posting it myself. ALS being the predictable fundie that he is, posted it within 5 minutes.

His anger always gets the best of him, and I just happened to be able to aim that anger to my advantage.

[conservababeJen]

fundamentalist Christians, of which a vast majority of christians are not

I'll look into the statistics of this as a whole, but I challenge it's accuracy in the FR member base.

GW is a Fundamental Christian.

[Aric2000]

Fine with me, go for it, but I don't take offense easily, just when people claim that they somehow know what god was thinking from a 2500 year old story. I actually find it more amusing then anything else.

But if your boy ALS had not been acting like a jerk again, I would NEVER have sent him the freepmail, think about that for a few minutes.

And every time he acts like jerk, I ought to do the same thing, kinda like when you step on a cats tail, the cat yells. Every time ALS acts like a jerk, I'll send him a fundie joke and piss him off, he'll post it, and everyone will know that I find Fundies hilarious.

When ALS does NOT act like a jerk, I will NOT send him anything, hmm, kind of like Pavlovs dog. Maybe, just maybe I can condition him to be nice, instead of a jerk. That would be nice, probably a dream, but it would be nice.

[inquest]

Cultural factors don't dominate emotional response to particular types of chords.

[Lurking Libertarian]

The draft agreement looks good to me.

[AndrewC]

>>>Nice guy, isn't he?<<<
I don't want to get into a fight so I'm going to reply in private. This is what I would have written if we had not been attempting a more civil discourse.

Give him a break. He is missing his gall bladder. He needs to get rid of his bile somehow.


God bless you
Andy

[AndrewC]

I guess this is not private.

[exmarine]

Much of the music of Shostakovich and Prokofiev is very beautiful. You are almost certainly familiar with Prokofiev's 'Troika' from the Lieutenant Kije Suite; it's been co-opted, usually without attribution, as a standard piece of Christmas music; yet it was written as the soundtrack for a Bolshevik propaganda film.

But it was originally Christmas music that was co-opted by the commies. That's nothing more than a form a propaganda. Show me something directly from the commies that is beautiful. You will have to look long and hard.

[CobaltBlue]

Eisenstein was certainly one of the greats. Alexander Nevsky. Potempkin.

Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and other dissident art also qualifies as great.

As for atheists, Ayn Rand was a atheist, and a great writer and philosopher.

[exmarine]

Even believers feel that way sometime. Read the first four or five chapters of Ecclesiastes, for example.

Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon and it it is written from a humanistic point of view. So, no wonder, eh?