rising@utzoo.uucp (Jim Rising) (12/12/88)
Carefully! Recall that these people are not trying to objectively discuss phenomena. Rather, they are advocating a particular view (like a lawyer, not a scientist), and certainly are willing to lie or misrepresent fact to score a debating point. So, it is important to listen carefully to what they say in order to catch them on their errors of fact. They usually emphasize the lack of certainty that is inherent in much science. E.g., scientists do not know the precise age of the Earth (they oft talk about the approximate nature of isotope dating-- citing 14C!). Ergo, the argument goes, they cannot be sure that it isn't only 10 000 years old. They'll mention the "existence" of human footprints along side of those of dinosaurs in Texas. False, of course. They'll say that Archaeopteryx has been shown to be a hoax. False, of course. Or, they'll say that Archaeopteryx isn't a "missing link" because it is a bird (of course an artifact of our system of non-overlapping taxa). Evolution cannot occur because it violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics. (Silly quasi-scientific argument). Or better, "Evolution cannot occur because it is against the Hardy-Weinberg Law--one of the basic tenets of Population Genetics". Good luck! As silly as these argument are, they persuade people who know nothing about them, so it is difficult for a scientist to counter these people. --Jim Rising -- Name: Jim Rising Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1 UUCP: uunet!attcan!utzoo!rising BITNET: rising@utzoo.utoronto.bitnet
charlie@mica.stat.washington.edu (Charlie Geyer) (12/14/88)
Not in this newsgroup. Creation/Evolution discussions belong in talk.origins. Post there and some creationists will argue back.