Author of Confusion

Given 2008 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin Of Species it is no surprise there is significant activity going on about Darwin and evolution this year.  And it seems this last month was the time for it to all start happening in my world.

In the last month or so I seem to have encountered a number of fascinating events, books and the like relating to evolution (some relating to the anniversary, others just coincidence) so I thought I’d share them along with some comments/reviews.  It is nice to talk about the positive reasons for one’s world view once and a while rather than forever battling the opposite views, as important as that is!  Listed roughly in chronological order:

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There has been a bit of activity on this blog in the comments sections about the ever entertaining issue of morality.  I have posted on this issue in the past but in this post I want to describe my opinion on how morals work, where they came from, and why we don’t need an objective moral set to explain the values and moral conscience we see in people today.

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This debate preceded the Craig vs Cooke debate in NZ this year but unlike that nonevent, is actually a thoroughly enjoyable debate.  The information from YouTube:

On Tuesday, January 22 2008, Dr. William Lane Craig (Theist) and Dr. John Shook (Atheist) debated the question “Does God Exist?” on the University of British Columbia campus.

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Another excellent video series on YouTube is the “Made Easy” series by YouTube user Potholer54.  There are 12 videos in the series covering the science behind the origins of the universe, life, people and so forth.  As well as explaining the concepts behind how we came to know what we do know about the world around us, it also directly addresses a bunch of creationist claims. 

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A fascinating discussion between two very interesting characters.  This is a great example of how polite direct conversation can achieve so much more in a shorter space than debates.  All the clutter is gone and the two can interact as they want to make for a dynamic and potentially useful outcome.

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Why do people laugh at creationists?
Only creationists don’t know why.

There is the punch line to a great series of 24 (so far) videos on YouTube entitled “Why do people laugh at creationists?” by a YouTube poster called Thunderf00t.  They highlight the very worst logic that creationists have to offer and offer well thought out and insightful counterarguments to the nonsense.  

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I’d like to introduce you to a new blog that I am one of several authors for called Evidence Based Thought.  You can find the blog here:

http://evidencebasedthought.wordpress.com/

This was an idea started by a group of sceptics of the show Sensing Murder who all met on the forum set up by the producers of the show and subsequently have been in contact outside of the forum.  There is a wide diversity of experiences and knowledge among the authors and I think it over time we will get some excellent discussion going about pseudoscience and the paranormal over there. 

Check it out!

Thanks to posts here and here I have discovered that a film entitled “The Privileged Planet” has been distributed to 400 schools in New Zealand. Curious, a quick Google search yielded that Google Video had a full version of the film which I duly watched. I have to say it is pretty tame as far as ID propaganda goes – in fact I even found it kind of interesting. So while it concerns me people are sending any kind of propaganda to New Zealand schools, if this is as bad as it gets I don’t think I really have a reason to complain.

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I was astounded at the attendance - the Regent Theatre in Palmerston North has a capacity of about 1,400 and it was easily 90% full for most of the night.  There was an impressive diversity of age, gender, and race evident in the audience and I would say it was a fairly accurate cross-section of adult society (it certainly wasn’t an old white men’s club!).   From responses to the speakers the audience was polite but predominantly Christian and this reinforces my impression is that there is a growing religious movement pushed by several of fairly active church groups in Palmerston North and it is something I am going to start keeping a closer eye on.

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“one of the things evolution really needs is lots and lots of time“

This was to be the premise of the entire nights discussion, where Harrub essentially took the approach that if he could demonstrate evolution did not have sufficient time then it must be false. To do so he makes a long list of points, which I will list and briefly respond to below but first he makes a rather curious point.

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