Oxymorons...

Creationist Idiocy posted this beautiful quote from Charles Darwin yesterday, although it could equally have come from any scientist or educated person.

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

Blind, dogmatic ignorance delivers an air of confidence that is difficult to penetrate, particularly when the person speaking utters it with sincerity. Charles Darwin never claimed to have all the answers, yet people of faith who, by their nature, don't require proof for their claims, think they have all the answers.

It is with a heavy heart that I thumbed the electronic pages of a magazine which is, through no fault of its own, in danger of becoming an oxymoron*:

Scientific American

This is not to say that a lot of Americans are not scientifically minded, just that a fairly substantial majority are becoming so devoid of understanding the tenets of science the country is heading for disaster.

Christopher Marty writes in yesterday's issue under the headline:

Darwin on a Godless Creation: "It's like confessing to a murder"

and follows with:

"200 years after the birth of Charles Darwin, his theory of evolution still clashes with the creationist beliefs of some organized religions."

But glosses over the fact that the worst culprits in western society are his own countrymen - and lots of them too. I'm deeply ashamed to admit that recent surveys also seem to suggest that similar attitudes are taking foothold in secular "blighty" too.

I'm a marketeer these days. I used to be a computer specialist, but my job has moved on from there simply because there is too much competition from hungry young graduates. This is natural - we see it happen in nature as the young turks take on the old guard at their own game and beat them.

Learning marketing, something I've always been interested in or on the very fringes of due to the way my career has taken me, has taught me some interesting lessons. Not least that the louder you shout, the more people hear your message.

In practical terms, that means money.

The message isn't important insomuch as it doesn't matter what you're selling. Marketing guru, Seth Godin observed this point in remarking that even Darwin "marketed" evolution.

Most problems can be solved if you throw enough money at them: and the Americans have lots of it. Worse, the nature of faith means that people who make a living spreading pernicious bullshit about Darwinism have got an almost limitless stream of it.

Even Microsoft, one of the world's richest corporations, doesn't have a bottomless pocket: deep, sure, but even Microsoft has a budget.

Imagine what you could do if you had unlimited resources to promote your idea. Now consider the possibility that your message was exactly what people wanted to hear. To a guy in marketing, that the sort of account we can only dream of: yet it's precisely what churches have; particularly in America where the most extreme form of protestantism is to be found in any significant size.

By way of irony, another oxymoron is a rich scientist.

Scientists rarely achieve fortune although a select few, such as Richard Dawkins, do achieve dubious fame or infamy depending on which side of the fence you're on. It's fair to say that Prof. Dawkins is personally wealthy, but that pales against the bankrolls of many American Evangelists and pales against the might of the Discovery Institute and others like it.

Scientists have to rely on superlative arguments to win backing and that's why they fail so often when face with the almighty ignorance afforded by self-delusion and stupidity.

More after the jump...



Still more...



and if you can stand any more of this bullshit...



Now, go give your grey matter a nice warm lavage before commenting. Clearly, we can't censor these people - that would be wrong - but we have to stand up to them. The future depends on people knowing the difference between sincere faith and delusion. Darwin left plenty of room for god (even though I see no purpose for one) because we still don't have a way to explain the spontaneous creation of DNA. Yet.

The trouble is (as these guys admirably demonstrate in their moronic ruminations) that if you just throw in some "technical" sounding phrases, most people will be bamboozled and others convinced. They won't let a few facts get in the way of their ideas - lies in fact. What bothers me most is that as Christians, they are required to be honest - yet they are not.

Evolution is a fact and has even been demonstrated in the lab - not that these morons would let you in on that.

*Oxymoron. A couplet or phrase in which two contradictory ideas or words are conjoined, often with humorous intent: military intelligence; honest politician; rich scientist.