Posted by
Reid
It's time. After a massive battle for positions, the teams are ready to go. Calgary is lined up against Anaheim in the first round. The teams are both pretty fast, which means there should be some solid hitting to try to slow each other down. Flames in 5.
In other news, Kent Hovind is an idiot. Yes, we knew this before, but he has sealed the deal. If you have some time, you might want to watch a bit of this video. **WARNING** You are going to want to punch your computer screen when you hear his "science". His opening statement goes something along the lines of "A good scientific theory is able to predict things" (True), and then goes on to say "If I take the bible as being true, then I can make all of these predictions:"
- The universe will show evidence and design
- There will be many symbiotic relationships found in nature
- There will be limitations to the variation life can produce (Dogs produce dogs, but not fish)
- There will be a purpose in life
- There will be love and non-material things such as love and justice
- There will be a way to find the will of the creator and maybe even a book telling us how he created and why
- There will be an afterlife where we face the creator
- There will be a golden age and legends of a creation events
- There will be fossils found of people living to great age
- There will be problems with wisdom teeth since people aren't living to 900 and aren't growing as long or as big.
- There will be a universal longing to restore the world to the garden of Eden conditions.
With the assumption of God and the earth being 6,000 years old, this is actually the only prediction on this list that is reasonable. I would agree, that if there is a creator, there would be aspects of design...so where is the evidence of design? Where are the drafts and the blueprints? God just did it? That hurricane "designed" New Orleans like that...c'mon
There will be many symbiotic relationships found in nature:
Evolution does a better job explaining this than Hovind's "If everything were created within 6 days of each other, then everything must be able to interact" explanation. This is scratching at "prediction", but sounds more like making what we know now fit. Again, this didn't provide a bunch of time for design with all this creating going on. Evolution simply explains this by saying relationships between living things is what drives the evolutionary pathway. If you aren't interacting with your environment and other life, you are dead.
There will be limitations to the variation life can produce (Dogs produce dogs, but not fish)
The fossil record disagrees. What a fucking awful argument. It's like saying, well milk can come in different kinds: chocolate, white, skim, 1%, 2%, homogenized, powdered etc...but cheese never comes from milk. When I pour out my milk, it is always milk, not cheese. Therefore cheese must have been created. Fucking dumb ass. This is also a "make it fit" prediction made from the bible's reference to species giving birth to the same species. For the record, speciation has occurred numerous times in our life time (viruses, bacteria and some plants). Although this is just "our classification system", "kinds" that Hovind uses is based on the same classification system (dogs and dogs).
There will be a purpose in life
This isn't a prediction. This is what you are told. But if you ONLY look at the idea of creation, I guess this is a semi-prediction. There is a purpose in life from the perspective of evolution actually...to reproduce and pass on your genes. Hmm, hard choice...worship or pleasure.
There will be love and non-material things such as love and justice
HAHAHAHAHA. Wandering off the path here, Hovind. This is an ambitious prediction. Evolution can explain these non-material things very well actually. Having the bible tell you that God is love doesn't mean you can predict in from the creation story. If the bible told you that there existed a parallel universe, would you say that creation predicted this? "Well, obviously there are multiple universes since we were created in 6 days". That sounds RIDICULOUS....and so does the "prediction" of love and non-material things.
There will be a way to find the will of the creator and maybe even a book telling us how he created and why
Hahah, BOOKS. Ahhh, another crazy prediction. So, apparently 6 days of creation also implies that all writing utensils existed, they had writing, and they knew enough to write something down. If I went back 5000 years and told people the creation myth, I doubt they would be like "I predict that a book will be made telling us how He created and why...because obviously this God, who we have never heard of, is now working on his autobiography". The book is also what has told people about creation...back to your circular world Hovind!
There will be an afterlife where we face the creator
This is a waste of time to even argue as a prediction. The cheese that was made in the variation prediction will face it's eater as a piece of shit...did it predict that when it was created?
There will be fossils found of people living to great age
Ya, I skipped the golden age and legends of creation events. How come he calls it legend, I would have predicted massive worship where reference to legend would have had you stoned...oh wait, that's what happened. But to the fossils, I haven't heard of anyone saying "these fossils are from people who lived to 900 years old". Confucius made it to his 70s I think, and that was considered freaky for the day. According to Hovind's great age assumption, and our age now, I would predict that humans would live to the age of 4.
There will be problems with wisdom teeth since people aren't living to 900 and aren't growing as long or as big.
What? You had dental during creation to predict this? Damn...you predicted a lot from a little creation story.
There will be a universal longing to restore the world to the garden of Eden conditions.
Hmmm, personally, if it involves a god, count me out. I have no desire whatsoever.
Yes, Hovind is an idiot, but the really shocking thing about the video were the amount of people that cheered him on for his shitty ass arguments. Evolution is a fantastically applicable and has allowed us to make predictions that have saved lives? Don't believe me? Well, you can ask God why He made a new batch of drug resistant bacteria just for you....
11 comments:
I like how he filled his audience with Fundies - that's a good way to make it seem like you're winning a debate. I also like how he brought in an Aerospace engineer to talk about Evolution.
I also completely disagree with his calling Evolution a religion. He says it is a "dumb and dangerous" religion. What a fuckwit.
And the earth isn't 20 billion years old either. It is 4.5 billion, ass.
And 900 year-old men? Fuck, you are SO STUPID.
If I had less studying to do, I'd watch this whole thing just to laugh my ass off.
Here's a letter written about Kent Hovind's visit to a Canadian high school:
Hello Mr. Stear,
My name is John and I am seventeen and come from Canada. I would like to thank you for offering a wonderful web site.
I love your page dedicated to creationist frauds. Last year, I had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting Kent Hovind. He talked at a local church and one of his extremist followers is a teacher at my school. He is in charge of the school's Christian society. He arranged for Kent Hovind to come and do two lectures at our school.
I was very interested in the topics but amazed by the arguments used. It opened my eyes to a whole new realm of stupidity. First of all he called Charles Darwin, "Chuck"! He also made sure that everyone knew that evolution was the cause of Socialism and The Communist Manifesto of 1848. This was rather funny to me because I know that The Manifesto was written a decade before The Origin of Species. I questioned him about this and he gave me a brief answer that was complete nonsense and then quickly moved on to another topic and completely ignored me.
I believe he impressed a lot of people though. These are fifteen and sixteen year olds that haven't researched the evil that is Kent Hovind. He used the tree in rock argument and also showed us many examples of times where, he claimed, carbon dating has been wrong. He made sure that we knew that the three of his children were so incredibly smart, and a chip off the old block, and how he loves them, although he is quiet willing to beat the hell out of them to show it.
I asked many questions and not many of them were answered. After the second lecture was done I was standing in a group with three of my friends, and he told me that I was an awful person and that I am going to burn in hell for all eternity. I didn't mean any disrespect to the guy, but I busted out laughing - I couldn't believe it. I was very upset at the school for allowing him to come and speak because there was no one to protect the reputation of the other side, except a couple of high school kids. However, because of Kent Hovind, I find myself dedicated to researching this topic more and more.
I want to know everything about evolution, and I want to be able to answer bogus questions that my friends ask me. Thanks to the knowledge that I acquired through your web pages, I can now do this. Over the last few months I believe I have done a pretty good job on this. I am right now considering starting up my own web pages. I have a friend who is willing to help me out. We do believe this is a good thing to fight for.
John D.
'Nuff said
The email I sent to comments@drdino.com:
Stupid [adj.] - Kent Hovind.
You, sir, are a joke. You make a mockery of "science" teachers everywhere in the world. I can't believe how stupid your followers are and that you actually have followers. It makes me sad to think that there are so many misinformed individuals in the world.
Hopefully, one day, people will see you (and the rest of the evangelists) as what you really are: a troubled and insecure bully who needs to constantly reaffirm your faith by "disproving" others.
I would LOVE to see you in a REAL debate. If you're interested in entering a real debate at the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) contact me.
Sincerely,
John Gozde
That is fucking awesome x 3. I agree with all your comments and I too get annoyed with the evolution is a religion. I really hope he gets back to us. Maybe we can debate him at SunWest. Fuck him up real good.
Well, back to my hobby of not collecting stamps.
I did a blog on a review of Kent Hovind's Age Of The Earth DVD. His son, Eric, is to be in Guelph, Ontario, for creation seminars this weekend.
Right now, "Dr." Hovind's Dinosaur Adventure Land is closed because he did not get permits to build four years ago and the IRS raided his house in 2004 for tax evasion.
Obviously the bible didn't tell him directly that tax evasion is illegal...not to mention building an entire park without a permit. If he got his head out of his bible and caught up with the times/real rules, he might not be in shit.
Corey, you have some interesting websites that I will delve into once I'm finished pretending to care about Software Metrics, Prolog, and whatever else I have to do before Tuesday the 25th.
Brett, although you are "correct," it was Reid who made that blog post, not I.
I have to disagree with your comment on this topic Mr. McDonald; "There will be limitations to the variation life can produce". I feel this is a completely valid arguement. As we all know from our days in primary school, a horse cannot mate with a donkey. Though scientifically defined as equi, these two animals are drastically different. Additionally, we now that tigers and lions cannot reproduce either. The "mule" that we have been told by biology teachers comes of this marriage and the "Liger" are not real entities, but are in fact examples of Satan's demons. These demons disguise themselves as animals such as the mule and liger to fool our God-fearing souls into believing the fallacy that is known as Darwin's theory of Evolution. The existence of these demons prove the existence of both God and Satan, good and evil, love and hate. These demons undermine faith and clearly one has inhabitated your soul. May God have mercy on you both, contributors to this pagan inspired atrocity.
-Brett
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