You're Evil. Because I say so. So There! Ha!

As part of his ongoing screed against evolution, blogger LeDaro "explains" the whole Creationism = Good; Evolution = Bad thing:

Let us look at creationists and evolutionists.

Oh, I'm so sure this will be educational. Readers, have you taken your Maalox yet?

Creationists' dogma:

"All humans are created equal."

You're thinking of the US Declaration of Independence.

The Creationist dogma is actually something more along the lines of: The Invisible Sky Monster blinked everything into existence. This doesn't really tell us much about equality. Futhermore, if the above claim were true, one would have trouble explaining why women and people of colour weren't even considered persons, until recently (in historical terms,) in every Christian dominated country.

Furthermore, the Israelites (you know, the people who wrote the Creation story that you refer to,) certainly had slaves. Not only that, but the owning of slaves is clearly condoned by the same religious texts from which you get your Creation story.

Not looking so good for the Creationist side.

On the the side of science:

Evolutionist's dogma:

"Screw you it is the survival of the fittest."

When people use strawman arguments to attack their opponents, they always think they're being clever. The trouble is, the strawman often makes the person using it look ignorant.

Others have already covered the fact that this clearly is a strawman, in the comments on LeDaro's blogsite. However, we can go further, and prove that this is a strawman.

If those of us who accept science do share this dogma that LeDaro is attempting to smear us with, then one would expect that countries where there is a higher acceptance of the theory of evolution would show a higher rate of certain kinds of crimes, and in particular, higher rates of violent crimes. Yet studies have found the opposite to be true.

In order to demonstrate that "evolutionists" are prone to evil, LeDaro provides the following example: fundamentalist Christian George W Bush.

Bush and Cheney wanted to show Iraq and Afghanistan that they are the fittest. They don't necessarily admit to being evolutionist but monkey is what monkey does – the origin of species.

If that's not a facepalm right there, consider this lovely little piece, describing the extent to which George The Lesser's religious views were a driving force behind the war on Iraq.

You'll notice that LeDaro relies on "because I say so" arguments. Such arguments, made without evidence, are easily refuted by providing evidence against. Yet LeDaro is so brazen, that even when he tries an argument for which he knows that the evidence against is already widely known, he simply backs it up with even more "because I say so."

LeDaro, you truly have no idea how much of a fool that makes you look.

When Fundies Attack!

As stated in my previous post, this is the first part of my response to the abusive nonsense of this unfortunate individual.

It all started innocently enough. First, there were a couple of posts, expressing misunderstanding, then bewilderment. Okay, so the guy is not a biologist. Life goes on. Then came some of the fairly mild Creationist sophistry, which drew a comment from someone who tried to provide some explanation. Then another post along the same vein. Then there was a post about some bad things in the world; not about evolution, per se, but which did end with a statement which forewarned of what would come next.

That's when the gloves came off. With this post, after some pretty routine Creationist nonsense, and a "helpful" reference to woo-meister Deepak Chopra, then came the imaginary links to Soviet Communism, Hitler's Nazism, and most unbelievably, the attempt to link George Bush Jr and Dick Cheney to evolution.

Keep in mind here, that the Soviets banned evolution as a scientific theory. The Nazis burned Charles Darwin's books. George Bush is an outspoken, devout fundamentalist Christian, who has openly stated that he does not accept the theory of evolution.

Understandably, this drew quite a bit of comment on LeDaro's blogsite. Yet, in LeDaro's mind, these people were responding, not because being associated with Stalin and Hitler is insulting, but because those evil science-types just can't take a little criticism.

Not getting ugly enough for you? LeDaro can fix that. Here is where we find out that getting upset about being associated with Hitler makes you a fanatic - and prone to killing people. We know this is true, because some religious fanatics have killed people, and non-religious people can get upset about being associated with Hitler. Worse, they may even try to point out the errors in your logic. Which - as we all know - is clearly just one step away from going on a shooting spree in a crowded mall.

What kind of garbage is this?

Don't get me wrong. If you want to believe in talking snakes, that Xenu taught you how to heal people with useless electronic equipment, or that you have been Touched by His Noodly Appendage, that's fine with me. However, if you post nonsense in a public forum, people are going to call you out on it. You may not want to hear it, but that's how reality works. Likewise, if you claim that people who accept a scientific theory (and one for which there is a rather substantial body of scientific evidence,) are evil, people are generally going to get upset by that. I think that's understandable too.

What's really amusing (or not,) about this whole affair is that you want to claim that those who support science cannot take criticism of the theory of evolution, yet your own response to the criticism on your blog is to claim that those who make such criticism - by the mere act of doing so - are a dangerous threat. Regardless of what you believe, or what I believe, or whether or not we believe the same thing, that in particular is what makes you an asshole.

The Descent of (a) Man (into Douchebaggery)

Well, here it is. I've been following a few blogs and blog rolls for a while now, leaving semi-anonymous comments all over the place, but never with a blog of my own. That is, until this guy finally got me pissed off enough to do something about it.

It seems he's been on quite a tear, lately, with a somewhat extended anti-evolution screed. The trouble is though, that this person is not content to merely put forth his own point of view, or spout the usual moronic anti-science drivel, this person has gone that extra step, and has made repeated posts claiming that those who accept science are evil, are motivated by evil, and are resposible for all manner of serious evil acts in the world.

This is personal verbal abuse. While I can't make you stop, I can fight back. Which is what I will do, in the posts to follow.