Freethought & Rationalism Archive

John Solum · 02-01-2002, 04:47 AM

excreationist:

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I think your origins determine your obligations. If God made and owns you then he determines your moral obligations. If you weren't created by God then it is up to you to decide what is right and wrong. Evolutionary psychologists (EP = Evolutionary Psychology) talk about how evolution is responsible for some kinds of primitive morality though.

I don't think evolutionary theory indicates that God doesn't own you. Personally, I think determining the existence of God is outside of the realm of science since it's not possible to construct testable hypotheses (for example how would you determine if mutation occurred naturally or if it was the will of God?). I do think a lot of YEC is testable (young age of the earth, "kinds" of animals. etc.), but adherence to YEC isn't scientific because YEC concepts fail the tests that are applied to them.

excreationist:

Quote:

If you're going to attack what they creationist is saying, you should at least do it in a way that the audience can understand. e.g. talkorigins.org - Problems with a Global Flood
In particular, the Green River formation. I made this thread all about it. here I was trying to get creationists to reply.

I'm familiar with the talk.origins FAQ, and I agree that the varves in the Green River formation are strong evidence against an young earth, however I'd like to keep my questions directly related to the speakers presentation (i.e. dinosaurs). I expect that he'll be throwing a lot of information at the audience (the well-known Gish Gallop technique), and I don't want to add to that flood of information. I'm trying to anticipate what he'll say about dinosaurs, and base my questions on that.

If he does mention varves and says that the "Green River Blues" article refutes the idea that the varves represent semiannual cycles, I'll be prepared for that. I'll point out that none of the examples in the "Green River Blues" paper produced varves, just laminations, which are not the same thing (but I think that may be too technical for the audience).

John Solum · 02-01-2002, 04:51 AM

sbaii:

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I don't recall a Q&A period afterwards but he might pass out cards for questions and if he doesn't like it, he'll just pass it by. His talk on Genesis and the Flood is truly an example of overwhelming the audience with a ton of bs. He quoted from a text on natural history that was at least 250 years old.He brings about a thousand slides to show in one hour. The crux of his argument then was that if Genesis and the FLood story was not literally true, then the whole Bible was false and Christianity could not stand.

I'm worried that I might have to write my question on a card, that would definitely put a kink in my plans. I expect Kerby to use the Gish Gallop, it's a time-honored YEC technique. I haven't experienced it first hand though, and I'm kind of looking forward to it.

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