Babble and Rants

Why do creationists exist?

I’ll quote Lewis Black:

They are crazy. They are stone fuck cold nuts. I can’t be kind about this! Because these people are watching The Flintstones as if it were a documentary!

Why am I writing about this? Three days ago I was talking with my good friend Sebo about an article I posted on this blog, about how should one read the bible and logical conclusions derived from this inspection (god is an metaphor). People who believe that the Earth was created in seven days are wrong. I have still some hope for humankind, I don’t like to label religious people as stupid, even creationists. I told Sebo that I believe most people that still claim such things are just ignorant of the evidence, of the facts, they’re not necessarily stupid - but: the people that have more influence because they are more famous are certainly stupid and that is the problem.

It’s been some time since I have posted anything about religion (in English), but reading the comments to this post at The Angry Astronomer really got me. In this entry Jon discusses some creationist claims against stellar evolution - of cooooooourse! If it has “evolution” in it, it has to be wrong! - and star birth. It’s funny: in German it’s called Sternentwicklung (stellar development), call it like that and creationists would have never come to the idea of even reading about it!

I say it really got to me because stellar evolution is I think the field that interests me most in astrophysics (for the time being), there’s so much more that single stars in the universe - galaxies, nebulae, black holes, dark matter - I know! But the evolution of a star in time fascinates me! So I got quite cranky when an Idiot posted this comment:

Perhaps nobody to this day has ever witnessed a new star appearing. This is because when gas is pushed together, the repulsive (repellant) force causes it to push apart and it could never compact enough to ever form a star. Stars may die, but I don’t believe that more are being born aside from the stars that G-d created in the beginning.

O-kay …

If you want to know why this is stupid and laugh go on and read the comments. But besides laughing one could also start weeping. It is so sad that people can be that stupid. You tell them why they are wrong, but they just don’t get it. They’re too afraid of an old Earth in a very old universe, making it’s way around a lonely star, lonely without a hateful sweet and childish caring G-d god. But isn’t the universe the more fantastic without a creator behind it? Life originating by pure mechanical and thermodynamical processes, without invoking some ridiculous god? How amazing is that!

One more thing. If you read through some of the comments you’ll notice how the anonymous creationist tries over and over to be polite when asking questions and thanking for the answers, while the astronomers reply in an intolerant way. Is this a proof of the stereotypes of the loving Christian and the arrogant scientist?

Can you kindly point this information out to me.[sic] And I don’t appreciate comments like “you don’t even sound like you could pass high school physics.”

Not really. You can see how the creationist tries so hard to not get angry, and my idea is that he only does so to make the astronomers’ replies contrast with his fake politeness. And still - if he truly is so kind and humble, the astronomers aren’t being arrogant either, they’re - we are - so tired of people not knowing anything about science - about how it works, about the scientific method, about measurement and evidence, about it’s history, about it’s achievements, about peer-review, about nothing! - coming and telling us that they have the correct answer and can “debunk” hundreds of years of scientific research by quoting, misusing and misinterpreting an old book started by some Jews being in captivity.

I’ll finish this post quoting Jon Voisey, author of The Angry Astronomer:

But you’re right. I don’t have much tolerance or respect for you. I don’t tend to have it for people that make arrogant claims without even a basic understanding of something that was solved over 100 years ago. Seriously, that’s even worse than Hovind’s out of date knowledge.
So while you may not “appreciate” me questioning your intelligence in this manner, I don’t appreciate you making pathetic arguments from ignorance. As the saying goes, “I’ll be nicer when you be smarter.”

Link: http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/news/2008/ZZ/382_help_wanted_5_8_2008.asp

I’ll repost this port from the National Center for Science Education. They are hiring people, and I would help if I’d be living in the USA.

Fortunately, there’s Richard Dawkins and his Foundation promoting reason and science. He has become kind of my intellectual idol. You can read more about him on the link above.
I have seen two of his documentaries (Channel 4) and I will post the links here. The first one is called The Root of All Evil? and is about religion and its belittling of consciousness. Dawkins goes as far as calling religion “dangerous". I do not completely agree in all that he says, but in most of his ideas I do.

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I’be been reading a lot lately about the whole Creationist debates. There’s a very interesting character out there called Kent Hovind, a real moron if you ask me. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard so much obtuseness. Just make a YouTube search of him and you’ll know what I mean.

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