Wednesday, January 06, 2016

Talking Evolution

From time to time I will fall into the trap of trying to explain science in general and the Theory of Evolution in particular to someone who thinks the creation myth in Genesis should be accepted as literally true.

It's always an effort in futility. The ignorance level of these people and their inability to even comprehend simple English is utterly astounding.

It's not that they're stupid or illiterate, it's that they have been taught a certain way to view things and have been taught a whole bunch of stuff that's so absurd that's it's not even wrong. They just can't seem to wrap their heads around anything that contradicts what they've been taught and there is no amount of evidence that you can present to convince them.

I'm not even talking about whether evolution is true or not but about what evolution actually says. I just went around in circles with a guy that could not get the idea through his head that evolution does not say that dogs turn into cats.

Nor could he comprehend the idea that if you make a positive assertion about anything, you have the burden of proof to provide evidence to justify that assertion.

Evolution is not that complicated a concept yet your average Evangelical Christian seems incapable of understanding even the basics. I swear that I often think some of stuff they come up with has to be satire. Poe was right. You can't come up with a parody of a fundamentalist Christian that someone won't think is real.

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