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To: Right Wing Professor; js1138; WKB
I despise creationists in general for their anti-intellectualism, their pride in their own ignorance, and their negligent attitudes to the truth.

With all dues respect, I think you're taking this crevo thing a little too far. Professional creationists are certainly worthy of contempt, but the ordinary folk who follow them out of ignorance, well, they're mostly good, simple people who don't know any better. I don't see why anyone would despise them. Frankly, if they're not doing anything that has an impact on science, why should we, on a personal level, care what their views on science are?

I tend to take John Derbyshire's view on this matter:

All I am pointing out there is that while, speaking as a scientifically-educated person who prefers truth (so far as we can discover it) to falsehood, I would rather you believed in evolution that not, I think there are a great many other things that are much more important. We don’t all have the capacity, or the willingness, or the time, to master elaborate scientific theories. (I wonder how many of those who chuckled at Sunday’s Doonesbury strip could actually give a full explanation of the theory of evolution from a standing start?) Unless we are professional specialists, there is no need for us to, other than by way of making a courteous gesture towards the ideal of objective scientific knowledge in general.

...My ideal nursing-home attendant, auto mechanic, or president would be a cheerful, capable, well-motivated person who was thoroughly au courant with the theory of evolution — and indeed with all the most recent advances in astronomy, biochemistry, cosmology, dendrochronology, endochrinology ...yachting, and zoology.

Life, however, often consists of making a choice between unsatisfactory alternatives. Invited to choose between having my kids educated, my car fixed, or my elderly relatives cared for by (a) people of character, spirit, and dedication who believe in pseudoscience, or (b) unionized, time-serving drudges who believe in real science, which would I choose? Invited to choose between a president who is (a) a patriotic family man of character and ability who believes the universe was created on a Friday afternoon in 4,004 B.C. with all biological species instantly represented, or (b) an amoral hedonist and philanderer who “loathes the military” but who believes in the evolution of species via natural selection across hundreds of millions of years, which would I choose? Are you kidding?

826 posted on 03/15/2006 9:50:27 PM PST by curiosity
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To: curiosity; Right Wing Professor

Take a look at post #827, and tell me that people who post screeds about Darwin being a racist are not worthy of contempt.


828 posted on 03/16/2006 5:56:46 AM PST by js1138
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