Beware the strawman of Dawinism

[hexola]

A Christian friend of mine had a DVD called "How to debate a Creationist?" - I havent watched it yet - but on the disc - I knew it - a picture of good ol' Darwin. The disc supposedly contains a debate where a creationist trounces a evolutionist (but not a scientist)

The Creationists love to paint Darwin as the sole bearer all of Evolutionary theory. He is not.

Why?

Because Darwin WAS WRONG about a lot of stuff...he got the main idea right - Natural Selection...but its taken the efforts of thousands of scientists to complile the current, modern theory of evolution.

But the Creationists think - if we can disprove Darwin - well of course, all of evolution must be wrong. This approach appeals to the uneducated. And seemingly to their own kind - who despite the power of their "faith" - seem to need see this kind of affirmation.

Just keep on the lookout for this approach - and just tell them "Yeah Darwin was wrong about a lot of stuff..." They will scratch their heads...

[beam me up scottie]

1. nevermind,

don't want to hijack a thread

my apologies

[NorCalDem]

2. Nice logic!

I have always realized this, but could never state it quite so eloquently as you have :D

[Gman]

3. Darwin did not have the human genome project to work from

He didn't know a think about molecular biology. That's why he makes such an inviting straw man.

But he made some observations and came to conclusions. Some obvious conclusions that pointed science in the right direction.

[manic expression]

4. True, he wasn't nearly the first nor the last

.............................(and Lamarck has a point!).............................

[InaneAnanity]

5. It always cracks me up

To see the proliferation of these christian movies, showing christians how to debate someone. These people are so incredibly dumb, they need to watch a videotape to formulate an argument.

Then, when the debate doesn't go exactly as the movie said it would, they'll likely throw a hissy fit and go home crying.

[varkam]

6. Or...

they'll just respond as if you had stated what you were *supposed* to, and go right along.

[InaneAnanity]

7. That's a possibility too...

They'll be too busy remembering what the video said to say to actually listen to what I'm saying.

[Ediacara]

8. Darwin was a genius working without two major pieces of data

1) Fossils in any quantity.
2) The mechanism of genetic storage and inheretence (ie, what is DNA for and why does it work?).

Had Darwin had those two, I doubt that his initial theories would have been much different than our modern understanding.

[genie_weenie]

9. I always use the Standard Rejoinder

I grant Creationists the following: "You have disproved Evolution (I know, I know bear with me) Does this mean Creationism is correct?"

When they say yes, I laugh, ask them if a third, fourth, fifth, N+1 theory could possibly exist.

This causes much consternation. They looked perplexed and to quote Malone, "Here endeth the lesson."

[Boojatta]

10. You could ask: "When you say Darwin, do you mean the author of

On The Origin of Species? I don't want to get into an argument about who actually wrote that book."

Then you can say, "I don't idolize any book. How about you?"