AiG Tract

A few weeks ago at work, I got an Answers in Genesis tract called "Major Categories of Scientific Evidence for Special Creation" that was written by Carl Wieland. This was the first time I came across one of these and Rob Penn's post from earlier today inspired me to blog about it (yes, there is a million dollar bill tract hanging on a bulletin board in one of the hallways). The Wieland tract presents six arguments, none of which we haven't heard before:

1. Natural Law - Evolution doesn't take into account the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Even worse, Wieland mistates the law by saying that it applies to open systems.

2. Living Things - An evolutionary model is incapable of causing an increase in information, but the creation/Fall model works perfectly.

3. Fossils - The are only four or five transitional fossils, when there should be millions.

4. Age of Things - The Earth is young because all the evidence is opposed to the billions of years scenario. Some of the evidence provided is too little helium in the atmosphere, too little salt in the sea, and C-14 found in coal.

5. Cultural-Anthropological - Many cultures have stories of being flooded, so there must have been a global flood. Also, studies on DNA show very little genetic diversity among all "races" of humans.

6. Design and Complexity - Nothing more than a tired rehash on reducible complexity.

At the end, Wieland declares that I am a sinner and that I should give myself up to the Jesus Christ so his "holy" God will not have to be a part of my "everlasting destruction".

All of the arguments presented in the tract have been thoroughly debunked on talkorigins. I can see how those that are scientifically illiterate would be taken in by something like this. Wieland uses a lot of scientific sounding language to cover up the false dicotomy that states "if evolution is wrong, then creation is correct".

On a happier note, Friday was the best day of my life. I finally got the surgery to remove the infusion port in my chest that was used so the chemo drugs would not destroy my veins. I only got a local anesthetic and was able to watch the entire procedure. It was so cool to be able to look down and see the doctor removing tubes from an open incision in my chest.

Update:

Is it just me, or does storeytwin_a over at Ray's look and act like she could play Mama Fratelli in a remake of The Goonies?

Not that I'm surprised.......

Sye fails again.

And this time, it's epic. He's actually caught the attention of the posters at the JREF. Of course, now that he's caught their attention he can't do anything useful with it - he's simply regurgitating the same arguments that were refuted here and on Stephen Law's blog.

Read the #**§? Manual

Another on of Ray's great analagies.

The bible as an instruction book. he suggests it is foolish to own an instruction book and not follow the instructions.

Logic tells me that this instruction book is the right book for that appliance. Any other conclusion would be lunacy.

Here's what happens when you use the bible as an instruction book:
What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

The second type of difficult rules were those that will get you into trouble if you follow them in modern-day America. For instance, the Old Testament rule that you should stone adulterers. Luckily, I was able to stone one adulterer. I was in the park dressed in my biblical garb (white clothes, a beard, sandals, walking stick) and a man came up to me and asked why I was dressed so strangely. He seemed hostile right from the start. I explained to him my project. And he said "I'm an adulterer. Are you going to stone me?" I said, "That would be great."
I took out a handful of pebbles - because the Bible never specifies the size of the stones. This man actually grabbed the stones from my hand and chucked them at my face. I felt I had the right to retaliate, so I tossed a pebble at him. And in that way I stoned.

If You Thought That Ray Was The Ultimate in Willful Ignorance ...

People can't really be this stupid and delusional, can they? After 6 months of reading the shitstorm of stupid that is Ray's blog, I'm not so sure.