I just listened to Ken Ham defending his position as an ardent creationist.
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/get_your_popcorn_ready_bill_nye_the_science_guy_to_debate_idiot_creation
I'd not usually respond to such clap trap but it struck me that all of the creationists that I have had dealings with have something in common. Apart from the obvious belief that the Earth and all of its attachments were made by a divine being a few thousand years ago, they all seem to totally misunderstand the process of evolution. The creationist idea of evolution seems to be based on lego. They seem to imagine that evolution involves a bag of lego bricks being shaken up and by sheer chance, complex models emerge. Now I am familiar with the idea that given infinite time, and infinite bags of lego, that anything is possible, but anyone with half a brain will realise that evolution has not had infinite time or infinite resources and that it is not a random process.
There is much to reproductive processes that are random of course. In the production of eggs and sperms, the chromosomes and the genes they carry do get reshuffled to the extent that each germ cell is genetically different, and there is a randomness in which sperm fertilises which egg. The result of this is of course variation in offspring. The reshuffling referred to though has rules, and it is only similar genes that get swapped, fundamental body plans are consistently maintained, otherwise outcomes may be chaotic.
There is always variation in any sexually reproducing population and some of those variations will be advantaged in the conditions in which they find themselves. It is environment that determines what or who survives and goes on to breed.
It seems that this fundamental process is totally misunderstood, or even ignored by Mr Ham, who dismisses evolution, a process with an evidential observable base, and yet embraces creationism, a process not supported by evidence or even logic.
It is tragic that in this day and age, people are still led by the nose into believing fairy stories written at a time when knowledge was limited, and used as a means of controlling the population. Creationism is being taught is many schools in the United States as the truth, while evolution is seen as atheist nonsense.
People like Ken Ham are dangerous, as they appeal to, and lead unthinking and ignorant people along a path that will return them to the dark ages.
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/get_your_popcorn_ready_bill_nye_the_science_guy_to_debate_idiot_creation
I'd not usually respond to such clap trap but it struck me that all of the creationists that I have had dealings with have something in common. Apart from the obvious belief that the Earth and all of its attachments were made by a divine being a few thousand years ago, they all seem to totally misunderstand the process of evolution. The creationist idea of evolution seems to be based on lego. They seem to imagine that evolution involves a bag of lego bricks being shaken up and by sheer chance, complex models emerge. Now I am familiar with the idea that given infinite time, and infinite bags of lego, that anything is possible, but anyone with half a brain will realise that evolution has not had infinite time or infinite resources and that it is not a random process.
There is much to reproductive processes that are random of course. In the production of eggs and sperms, the chromosomes and the genes they carry do get reshuffled to the extent that each germ cell is genetically different, and there is a randomness in which sperm fertilises which egg. The result of this is of course variation in offspring. The reshuffling referred to though has rules, and it is only similar genes that get swapped, fundamental body plans are consistently maintained, otherwise outcomes may be chaotic.
There is always variation in any sexually reproducing population and some of those variations will be advantaged in the conditions in which they find themselves. It is environment that determines what or who survives and goes on to breed.
It seems that this fundamental process is totally misunderstood, or even ignored by Mr Ham, who dismisses evolution, a process with an evidential observable base, and yet embraces creationism, a process not supported by evidence or even logic.
It is tragic that in this day and age, people are still led by the nose into believing fairy stories written at a time when knowledge was limited, and used as a means of controlling the population. Creationism is being taught is many schools in the United States as the truth, while evolution is seen as atheist nonsense.
People like Ken Ham are dangerous, as they appeal to, and lead unthinking and ignorant people along a path that will return them to the dark ages.
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