For all those asking questions about evolution on R&S?

Question

Well, the obvious point would be that you should be asking in the biology section but whatever.

My real question is, have you considered these web resources:
http://uc.princeton.edu/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1441&Itemid=17
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/new_search.php?q=evolution&submit=Search&category=all&type=both
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/all-courses.htm
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?category=2613
http://mediasite.com/Default.aspx?q=evolution
http://www.edge.org/edge_video.html
http://www.actionbioscience.org/lessondirectory.html

Many universities now publish their lectures in podcase, HTML or streaming video format on the web for all to use. Open universities, indeed. By all means, don't restrain yourself to evolution. I hope you enjoy it.

Answer 1

Facts mean nothing to a theist

Answer 2

Sadly it is the uneducated, home schooled, those indoctrinated by extremist sects and cults and some just plain BAD Christians! The Pope, Catholic Church, Church of England and mainstream churches all accept the big bang and evolution! Lord Carey the former Archbishop of Canterbury put it rather well – “Creationism is the fruit of a fundamentalist approach to scripture, ignoring scholarship and critical learning, and confusing different understandings of truth”! Nice that christians and atheists can agree and laugh together even if it is at fundie expense! But behind the laughter is the despair at the fundamentalists striving so hard to destroy christianity by turning it from a religion to an ideology! Surveys suggest that 29% of American christians are so extremist in their beliefs that they fall well outside of the accepted bounds of christianity!

Answer 3

I wish some of them would just take the time to read a book about evolution. Or an article about it. Or watch something about it. Or read a paragraph of text in the newspaper about it. Or read the back of a book about evolution. Or SOMETHING. It's just so amazing that so many people have already developed this unchanging opinion about evolution, and yet a lot of them don't even know what it IS.

Desktop: Kent Hovind uses an incorrect definition of evolution. It's a bogus offer.

Hovind is a great example of the people that I'm talking about. I almost can't blame him. If I thought that evolution meant that humans were supposed to be sprouting wings, or that birds were supposed to be morphing into reptiles, I'd probably think it was a load of crap, too.

Answer 4

Ah thank you! I just had a very unsettling conversation with an acquaintance at the park. She was clearly very clueless about science. She insisted that because evolution was "just a theory" that creation should also be taught in science class. My question about 'which religious creation story?' was met with "Christianity of course, it's the only one that's true". Blah blah blah, she said a bunch of other malarkey, but I took her e-mail and told her I would try to give her some accurate info about her misinformation. Now you just did half the work for me. Thanks again.

Answer 5

I watched on the videos on Dr. Dino's site, so it's the least they can do to reciprocate.

I'm listening to the Ward lecture now. Ward was co-author of one of my favorite books, Rare Earth. Thanks for the links!

Answer 6

I agree that the questions on evolution should be kept to the biology section. Unfortunately, most of the "believers" assume that all atheists are scientists and ask.. the atheist can't help but try to educate them out of the goodness of his/her heart.

Answer 7

Desktop muhammad: Do you mean the $250,000 promised by the guy who's now in prison for tax fraud?

Here's why:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/hovind.html

Answer 8

Hey sorry to hear about your profile. Thank you for the links, I've added them to my collection.

Answer 9

The only problem is the people most in need of looking at all that probably won't.

Answer 10

'Tis a shame they won't bother to read the links you have posted.