Pheobe Debates The Theory of Evolution

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: 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?

Hi all (pinging on request of RWP),

My sweetheart visited me the last couple of nights--amazing what a sweetheart can do to squish out anger and frustration. :-)

So, I've decided to go ahead and ignore the people who will not change... you know who they are... and to try to focus on people who can, hopefully, be responsive and have the capacity to disagree or agree... Yes, it's the 9th, but I'm not going to agree to the agreement until this post is finished.

VadeRetro: Now, you've got a great sense of humor and your scientific knowledge is impleccable. But, you've been letting ALS get to you way too much. Lurking on other threads, I saw at least one thread completely unrelated to science where you and ALS engaged in fistcuffs. You know that the only reason ALS is here is not for debate, but to engage in flamewars... AKA, he's a self-admitted disruptor. Just relax a little bit, okay? :-)

Gore3000: You're not an intentional liar, so won't bring up the exact threads--because you'll know what I mean. But, for goodness' sake, can you please adhere to giving information when you make allegations against other posters?

I.E., "you are an atheist, not a Christian, and that is self-evident in all your posts." That's a very serious judgement to make--and you should link to other threads & posts when you make those judgements against CobaltBlue & Junior, and so forth. You did a very good job of backing yourself up with PH.

And, the reason why you get old stuff brought up against you over and over has everything to do with that you will never admit to even the most glaring mistakes... instead, you will run away if you know you're wrong. That's wrong, period, and does nothing for your side. Everyone makes mistakes, typos, etc.

In particular, it has been disgraceful how you treated RadioAstronomer... he's too gracious to bring it up against you, but the way you pulled the 'if you don't believe hawking's theory of multiple universes, then you're either not an astronomer and liar' and ran away when it was pointed that there was no such thing as the Hawking theory of multiple universes. That only makes you look prideful and makes all Christians look bad. And, no, insults are not self-evident... back them all up no matter how self-evident you think they are, please... and, well, you were the one told to knock off personal attacks. Not RadioAstronomer. Not Junior. Not CobaltBlue. Not PatrickHenry (recently if at all, anyway). And I'm willing to bet that JR & his mods are actually YECs or ID'ers, not atheist evos.

And, not to mention you never responded when R-A asked you to back up the accusation that he was throwing insults, more than once, on the peace discussion thread. I hope you will do the right thing and either publicly apologize or FreepMail RA with an apology. Yes, the agreement says to forgive & forget any trepasses committed against the self, but it would be in the spirit of the agreement to apologize for old trepasses.

I forgive any trepasses against me, (which have been none) but I will not forget any glaring trepasses that you make against other posters without apologizing. And I will call on you every time you break the agreement and refuse to admit error, or refuse to back up your serious accusations of being a liar, not a Christian, or whatever. How hard can it be to say "I'm sorry, I thought Hawkings was the one who invented the theory of multiple universes"?

AndrewC: I don't remember the exact words I wrote, but I was being just plain bratty in the circuit chips thread. That was wrong of me, and I apologize.

There are other posters on both the evo side & crevo side and some much worse, but bringing them into this rant will be as futile as convincing Jim Robinson to change the site to SocialistRepublic.com. Anyway, that's all of the steam--significantly weakened by cuddling with the sweetie--so if anyone has any disagreements with me specifically, I will be willing to apologize. Just let me know!

AndrewC: I don't remember the exact words I wrote, but I was being just plain bratty in the circuit chips thread. That was wrong of me, and I apologize.

Thanks for the apology, but there was really nothing for which you needed to apologize. You were defending a subject about which you cared and had knowledge. Now, I may disagree with a particular item you consider in your arena, but that passes no judgement on you. I do not remember that you were bratty. That dubious "honor" goes to others, the which are forgotten until the resurrection of old ghosts. Your deportment was not abusive in any way. Thanks again for your apology. I likewise should apologize, if I caused you to think I was attacking you or your profession(genetic programming?). I was not. I was questioning the hyperbole associated with a particular article. I apologize if I was not clear.

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