Head Slapping Dumb

[subplotkudzu]

At the local playground I had a self professed Christian Creationist try to convince me that if I believed in the second law of thermodynamics that I obviously couldn't also believe in evolution.

Aside from the head-slapping dumbness of this I just wonder what he thought he was going to accomplish? That if he showed me how happy and comfortable he was being ignorant that I too would leap to being happily and comfortably ignorant?

Or, in evangelism via bad science, his inane argument was going to make me accept creationism and, from that, realize that the only logical course was to accept his version of Christianity right then and there? 

Since it was nearly time for me to take the little one home for lunch, and because I am naturally polite in public, I did not ask him if he was also a geocentric universe, flat-Earther, but the thought did cross my mind. Or perhaps say "you're right it couldn't be evolution, the world must have been vomited up by the white giant Mbombo! That had been preying on my mind, thanks for setting me right!"

Comments

[mylescorcoran]

Heretic! All right-thinking folk know the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the Universe and all in after a bout of heavy drinking.

Sigh.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

wait a minute - what there for him to drink before the universe was created?

[ctwriter.livejournal.com]

Evolution: Biology. change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift.

And this excludes entropy, how?

Things can change and fall apart all at the same time. If the two processes happen over, say, BILLIONS of years, you might not even notice.

If we're talking a need to believe in God and therefore stomp the tripe out of anything that smacks of science rather than ooooooohhhhh magic, it slays me how fundamentalists seem to think an all powerful being couldn't implement biological evolution while creating the universe.

Seven days. Haven't people ever heard of METAPHOR???? HYPERBOLE???? FICTION????

I'm so glad he attacked you rather than me. I had enough of this crap in high school.

Oooh. So started now. So got me going. Gnr.

[mylescorcoran]

Ah the Linear heresy again. Have some spaghetti alla vongole and relax.

[thismustbetheplace-rjs.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

For some reason the "appeal to the second law" argument cheeses me off to the point of being almost speechless. Maybe because the law isn't that complicated, and it seems to take actual effort to get it that wrong. It just infuriates me.

Rebecca

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's a mistake to assume that people who are head-slappingly WRONG must necessarily be dumb. Creationists -- like all ideologues -- can be quite intelligent people. However, they allow what they believe to trump what they know. One sees it in other areas -- benignly in things like sports-team fandom, less benignly in politics. But it's quite possible to be horrifyingly wrong and still be quite intelligent.