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Designed to deceive: Creation can't hold up to rigors of science
CONTRA COSTA TIMES ^ | 12 February 2006 | John Glennon

Posted on 02/12/2006 10:32:27 AM PST by PatrickHenry

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To: Right Wing Professor; Havoc
That's what comes from watching the Westminster dog show. They have breeds of dogs I won't believe are dogs until they show me the DNA.

Speaking of which, while watching the same broadcast (I was rooting for the Dalmatian for Best of Show) it occurred to me that Havoc's stubborn insistence that "dogs only come from dogs, and thus were always dogs" can be turned around to demonstrate its absurdity and falseness...

The same argument could be used just as (il)logically to argue that "dachshunds only come from dachshunds, and thus were always dachshunds" -- and likewise for any other breed of dog or any other animal (or variety of plant, etc.).

Clearly, something's wrong with his line of "reasoning", because we *know* that dachshunds didn't always exist, and in fact did not exist until recently. Even though breeding dachshunds to dachshunds produce "only" more dachshunds, the same could be said (just as misleadingly) about the non-dachshund *ancestors* of the line of dogs which eventually became dachshunds. And yet, even so, it's not like the "pre-dachshund" breed one day *pop* gave birth to a dachshund, which in Havoc's limited imagination is the "only" alternative explanation.

Instead, the ancestral line picked up, over many generations, a trait here, a different trait there, which gradually made the lineage become more and more "dachshund-like", until eventually the modern dachshund as we know it today came to be.

(The smae case is true of countless other dog breeds. And most people would be surprised to learn that a great many modern dog breeds didn't even exist 200 years ago, they have arisen rather recently, relatively speaking.)

So contrary to Havoc's simplistic belief, that the only two conceivable possibilities are either a) "like" can only ever give birth to *exactly* the same "like" forever and ever, or b) an animal suddenly *pop* gives birth to an entirely different sort of animal... Instead there's a third option, which is actually far more in keeping with both "common sense" and ordinary day-to-day observations (at least to anyone who actually pays attention or lives on a farm) -- animals give birth to not to *exact* copies of themselves, but to *variations* of themselves, and so on for the next generation, and the next, etc., and over large numbers of generations, the end result can actually be quite different from the original animals N generations ago. In fact, it was *specifically* comparisons to what people were *very* familiar with via breeding of domestic animals and new varieties and so forth, which Darwin called upon in order to explain his new Theory in his 1859 book, as being the familiar (animal breeding and plant cultivation) carried out to its logical consequences over longer periods of time than just the few human lifespans which are within the scope of human observation.

What farmers and plant cultivators had long known in Darwin's own time 150 years ago, Havoc *still* hasn't managed to grasp even today -- his arguments about what "can" and "can't" happen when animals reproduce flies reveals a profound ignorance of things which the most illiterate farmer hundreds of years ago already knew full well.

1,241 posted on 02/14/2006 11:59:41 PM PST by Ichneumon
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To: AndrewC

You do know, don't you, that not everything found on line is correct; not even on GOOGLE.


1,242 posted on 02/15/2006 12:00:01 AM PST by nopardons
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To: whattajoke

The only dinosaurs that survived the global flood were the aquatic ones -- i.e. the giant squids etc, that the Japanese found a few years ago.

Makes sense to me every time I see the Grand Canyon.


1,243 posted on 02/15/2006 12:01:40 AM PST by Californiajones ("The apprehension of beauty is the cure for apathy" - Thomas Aquinas)
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To: Dimensio
Oh my goodness...that's hysterical! Corn is a "SPECIES"?

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

And I'm NOT a Darwinists. *giggle*

1,244 posted on 02/15/2006 12:02:48 AM PST by nopardons
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To: nopardons
are or is, it is irrelevant

Havoc's a good man


END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wolf out
1,245 posted on 02/15/2006 12:04:22 AM PST by RunningWolf (Vet US Army Air Cav 1975)
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To: Californiajones; whattajoke
The only dinosaurs that survived the global flood were the aquatic ones -- i.e. the giant squids etc, that the Japanese found a few years ago.

So now squids are "dinosaurs" to the anti-evolution creationists? Oooookay...

Makes sense to me every time I see the Grand Canyon.

I'll just bet it does. "Look at the Grand Canyon, George, when I see that the squidly dinosaurs just all start to make sense..."

1,246 posted on 02/15/2006 12:08:20 AM PST by Ichneumon
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To: nopardons
It appears that you are the one who not only missed the point, but answered my question with an anti-Catholic attack

You are really reaching.

If one is in conversation or debate with a liar, how is that irrelevant? How, if this is a point of fact, is it an ad hominem?

Read this.

Other common forms of the abusive ad hominem argument don't usually resort to clear personal insults:

3. John has been proven to be a liar numerous times, so I don't accept John's arguments about abortion.

4. Well, we shouldn't be surprised that Senator Smith supports this new tax - considering how long he has been living in Washington D.C. and working in politics, it would be a shock if he didn't support it!

With example #3, may be true that the person has lied repeatedly in the past - so saying so is stating a matter of fact, not an insult. And the fact that a person has lied in the past is, for most people, a reason to be skeptical of other things they say. But it is not a logical reason to conclude that they never tell the truth again.

...

Ad Hominem

Ad hominem is not a fancy Latin phrase meaning "nasty insult", it's the name of a rhetorical flaw in which, rather than addressing a person's arguments, one criticizes the person making the argument. In other words, instead of saying that a member's argument is invalid, one says that he's an idiot or a liar (insert your favorite here). A rhetorically valid argument is valid, or not, NO MATTER WHO MAKES IT. Focusing on who's making the argument rather than on the argument itself is "argumentum ad hominem", i.e., arguing "to the person" ("ad hominem").

http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/skepticism/blfaq_fall_abusive.htm and http://www.beliefnet.com/boards/adhominem.html


1,247 posted on 02/15/2006 12:08:22 AM PST by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
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To: Ichneumon
Clearly, something's wrong with his line of "reasoning", because we *know* that dachshunds didn't always exist

Well, that wouldn't be my line of reasoning for starters. Dachshunds may or may not have been around for whatever length of time, but they're a dog and since we can reasonably see that breeding creates all sort of variety in dogs, we can make a "reasonable" assumption based on what we do witness that the immediate ancester was a dog. It's where you start assuming that perhaps a horse or something else might have spawned dogs that you have a problem because nobody's ever witnessed that. Therein the question of origins arises; but, you guys have begged out of that one largely, so, elementary...

As for the number of dog breeds, I don't think most people are surprised that dogs produce dogs - even with variety. Only evolutionists seem amazed at that. Some of us are just thankful for the variety.

1,248 posted on 02/15/2006 12:09:33 AM PST by Havoc (Evolutionists and Democrats: "We aren't getting our message out" (coincidence?))
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To: Petronski

Please do not feed the color-fonted troll.


1,249 posted on 02/15/2006 12:09:57 AM PST by Ichneumon
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To: nopardons
You do know, don't you, that not everything found on line is correct; not even on GOOGLE.

Really?? I thought everything you stated was the absolute truth /sarc

1,250 posted on 02/15/2006 12:10:15 AM PST by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
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To: RunningWolf
Correct and proper use of the English language is NEVER irrelevant!

No, actually he isn't.

Do you make that claim because he agrees with your point of view on this topic?

If so, THAT is not germane to whether he is a liar or not.

1,251 posted on 02/15/2006 12:10:25 AM PST by nopardons
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To: Havoc

Flew *right* over your head, I see...


1,252 posted on 02/15/2006 12:11:02 AM PST by Ichneumon
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To: Ichneumon
TRUTH!
1,253 posted on 02/15/2006 12:12:04 AM PST by Petronski (I love Cyborg!)
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To: Dimensio
So you're saying that it's not relevant to point out that statements made by a person making an argument are demonstratably false?

Have you ever lied?

1,254 posted on 02/15/2006 12:12:36 AM PST by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
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To: AndrewC
Everything I post IS factual.

Everything on line, is not.

Your silogism doesn't work; dear. Did you just learn about that?

1,255 posted on 02/15/2006 12:13:58 AM PST by nopardons
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To: AndrewC
Have you ever lied?

Yes, however I was not simply referring to people who have, at some point in their lives, lied. I am referring specifically to arguments involving people who are lying when presenting their side.
1,256 posted on 02/15/2006 12:14:06 AM PST by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: nopardons
Everything I post IS factual.

Your silogism doesn't work; dear. Did you just learn about that?

No it isn't.

1,257 posted on 02/15/2006 12:16:11 AM PST by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
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To: Dimensio
I am referring specifically to arguments involving people who are lying when presenting their side

And how do you differentiate the two cases?

1,258 posted on 02/15/2006 12:17:16 AM PST by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
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To: Ichneumon

No, I just have invoked the farmer argument before and evolutionists begged off like they'd never heard of a farmer before or that farmers know there are limits to what breeding can deliver for them. IE, farmers breed for the largest pigs they can raise in order to up their dollar value per head; but, they can only get hogs so big before running into limits as to what breeding will do, the rest is done with diet and again within limits. Evolutionists don't like the limits part as I note you seem to have left that part out.


1,259 posted on 02/15/2006 12:18:53 AM PST by Havoc (Evolutionists and Democrats: "We aren't getting our message out" (coincidence?))
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To: AndrewC
You really can't stand it that you goofed, can you? LOL

It's hurting your pride, your ego, and goodness knows what else.

You posted a disgusting example, an example which did NOT work. You were called on it, and now, now you are in a snit. Pity that...................

1,260 posted on 02/15/2006 12:19:14 AM PST by nopardons
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