Evolution No Longer Inspiring Confidence

farmerman and timberlanko will have a peer reviewed rebuttal of that out in no time once they have done a bit of selective Googling.

The essence of it will be that all the people mentioned are completely insane.

They will be right, of course.

Peer reviewed? You think any real scientist would waste their time taking this tripe seriously?

Because five creationists and catastrophists give a talk about it?



I'm willing to accept that it is accurate. I fail to see how it holds any significance whatsoever. It is a press release that has so far been used by nobody except the Kolbe center.



Yes, very historic, it was the day after tuesday and the day before thursday...Oh, and five creationists gave a seminar to some politicians. Extremely historic.



What the hell is the "General Theory of Evolution"?

Mastropaolo is a kinesiologist. I'll take his advice on exercise programs but not on evolution.

Zillmer is not a palaeontologist. He studied enginnering and political science.

Dominique Tassot is a metallurgist...

Notable Quotes:
"I know of no biological data relevant to tree genetics that would require evolutionary explanations." (source)
"I had been taught that palaeontology (sic) gives the bulk of the evidence for evolution. To my surprise, I found that evidence is lacking not only in genetics but also in palaeontology(sic), as well as in sedimentology, in dating techniques, and in fact in all sciences." (source)
"Franco guaranteed the maintenance of traditional values in Europe and we lack such statesmen today. Christian Europe is losing against atheistic socialists today and this has to change." - Giertych, praising the late Spanish dictator Franco, before the European Parliament, July 2006. (source)

Commentary:
Maciej Giertych may be thought of as the Pat Robertson of Poland. He is known for making phenomenally stupid statements in highly visible venues, most recently praising the late Spanish dictator Franco before the entire European Parliament (see quote above). His quotes on evolution are of similar caliber - he may not know of any "biological data relevant to tree genetics that would require evolutionary explanations," but the fact of the matter is that it would be easy to find scores of plant geneticists who would unequivocally give the lie to Giertych's nonsense. Likewise, his critiques of paleontology (which he mispells, twice, at "Answers in Genesis"), sedimentology, and dating techniques hinge on standard creationist arguments, virtually all of which can be shown to be flawed, to the degree that they may be considered deliberate "disinformation" (lies).
Also like Pat Robertson, Giertych has actively endeavored to bring his ultra-right wing viewpoints into Polish politics, most recently having made a bid for the Polish presidency, running under the auspices of The League of Polish Families (LPR), a party which the European Tribune characterizes as "Extreme right. Emphasis on extreme..." and goes on to note that "...Poland in their eyes is being persecuted and exploited by the Jews, the Masons, the Germans....They are also anti-American and until very recently tended to be pro-Russian - opposing NATO membership and the Ukrainian revolution..."
As a final note, the Tribune noted, in regard to Giertych that, "It seems intelligence and charisma skipped a generation."http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2005/9/21/13356/8038
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:M2xejYs1Y6cJ:primatestew.blogspot.com/2006/08/maciej-giertych-head-of-genetics.html+Maciej+Giertych+evolution&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5

I'll say it again. Evolution isn't about science; if it was, it would have been abandoned 70 years ago after the fruit fly experiments. Nobody defends any sort of a science theory the way evolution is defended, i.e. to the last man, at all costs, and the truth be damned, particularly when all of the evidence contradicts it.

Evolution is about wanting to feel good about perverted lifestyles.

Hey look, it's a lady wearing a GungaSuit.

Hey, GungasnaKKKe. How's it hangin'?

One example of a perverted lifestyle whose adherents/practitioners must have welcomed Chuck Darwin with open arms for making them feel better was the practice of conducting wars for the protection of the opium trade of the East India Company and the British empire.

And justifying 16/7 working weeks in dangerous environments, and child labour, whilst the creme-de-la-creme pratted about their estates in their bellying waistcoats, eating putrifying game and as pissed as farts.

And it will all come back if evolution theory dominates only moreso. What would there be to stop it?

Anti-trust laws and evolution theory. Is somebody pulling my leg.

Enron would be a chortling job.

That's not evolution; that's selfish cut throat people.

Evolution is red in tooth and claw Ed.

The northern cotton manufactures jumped all over Darwin like he had scored the winning goal.

Some say Darwin got the idea of the struggle for existence from the factories of his time which, through his wife's Wedgwood money, (potteries),* enabled him to live the life of a country gentleman and magistrate sending starving people to goal for stealing a loaf.

It was only the sex angle which gave him the heebie-jeebies. He only accepted bits of his theory. The bits that filled his plate up. He didn't wish to fight the local yeomanry for his property.

* Ever read about the kiln workers ?

Remember, it's not "The Theory (in the sense of a grand so-far-unfalsified hypothesis) of Evolution"; it's "Evolutionary Theory", a general framework for the theoretical integration of theoretical findings from the natural sciences, i.e., genetics, geology, biology, etc..
Unfortunately, evolutionary theory is viewed by fundamentalists as a quasi-religious doctrine on a par with fundamentalist christian doctrine. While all scientific theory contradicts the superstitions of fundamentalist fairytaleism (i.e., the allegory* of Genesis taken literally), it is not itself a religious doctrine. Therefore, fundamentalist christians should not get so exercised over it's failure to affirm their fairytales. It's not because "Evolutionism" offers a competing religion--frankly I get no comfort or spiritual nourishment from evolutionary theory--they should, instead, fret over the failure of their fairytales to coincide with reality as revealed by both Science and contemporary Philosophy.

*Allegories can be edifying as interpretive stimulants, but when taken literally they are no more than fairytales.

The thing that makes evolution so great to me, it gives insight into where we came from, opening hitherto closed doors. I love being able to relate to dinosaurs through birds, to see the puzzle of humankind being slowly gathered and fit together, a piece at a time. Much more exciting than counting angels on the ends of needles, or prostrating oneself to a vision of a white haired old creater. While there is an element of truth in the analogy spendius is pushing, that is but a portion and not the whole of it, just as religion is more than a mere delusion of the faithful, it is also humans striving to rise above "inhumanity" and attatching the struggle to the myth making process, humans becoming detached from their roots by relying on faith. Humans by reaching the current stage of development are far from the best that nature could produce. We seem at a crossroads, in which we waver between a higher process and being the destructive animal that kills and screws over others for gain. I am not pessimistic, nor am I hopeful. I can't guess which way we will be in the long term future.

Ed wrote, among other interesting things-



That's sums it up. The roots being too ghastly to contemplate.