ARCHIVE: Need some expert eyes here

[aharvey]

A colleague forwarded me this link. If you can get past the name of the site (I've never heard of it before, so I can't vouch for its legitimacy), please watch the two videos and let me know if you think these are parodies or not. Like the people commenting afterwards, we really can't tell.

 

[GuySmiley]

Those are bizarre. I'll vote for the first one being serious, and the second one is supposed to be funny. But it wouldn't suprise me if they were both supposed to be serious.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

A colleague forwarded me this link. If you can get past the name of the site (I've never heard of it before, so I can't vouch for its legitimacy), please watch the two videos and let me know if you think these are parodies or not. Like the people commenting afterwards, we really can't tell.

I think the first video (the Chuck Missler video) makes a good point don't you?

You do agree that life only comes from life right?

 

[Yorzhik]

ditto Knight

 

[fool]

A colleague forwarded me this link. If you can get past the name of the site (I've never heard of it before, so I can't vouch for its legitimacy), please watch the two videos and let me know if you think these are parodies or not. Like the people commenting afterwards, we really can't tell.

Not parodies.
They are dead serious.

 

[SUTG]

They're serious, although I doubt they are really as ignorant as they appear.

Chuck Missler is probably making decent $$$ by telling people what they want to hear. Think of it as one of those miracle diet infomercials. They are supposed to be serious, but I don't think the people putting them on really think their miracle diet or their get rich quick scheme is going to be effective. It is easy to convince people they can lose weight without exerising and changing their diet, or they are not descended from apes, or they can get rich without hard work, because they are so eager to believe these things.

 

[GuySmiley]

They're serious, although I doubt they are really as ignorant as they appear.

Richard Dawkins is probably making decent $$$ by telling people what they want to hear. Think of it as one of those miracle diet infomercials. They are supposed to be serious, but I don't think the people putting them on really think their miracle diet or their get rich quick scheme is going to be effective. It is easy to convince people they can lose weight without exerising and changing their diet, or they are descended from apes, or they can get rich without hard work, because they are so eager to believe these things.

I agree!!

 

[fool]

The question is how can the rest of us cash in?

 

[Nathon Detroit]

They're serious, although I doubt they are really as ignorant as they appear.

Chuck Missler is probably making decent $$$ by telling people what they want to hear. Think of it as one of those miracle diet infomercials. They are supposed to be serious, but I don't think the people putting them on really think their miracle diet or their get rich quick scheme is going to be effective. It is easy to convince people they can lose weight without exerising and changing their diet, or they are not descended from apes, or they can get rich without hard work, because they are so eager to believe these things.

What did Missler say that you disagree with?

 

[SUTG]

What did Missler say that you disagree with?

Absolutely nothing.

Now send me a check and you'll be granted eternal life.

 

[fool]

What did Missler say that you disagree with?

That if evolution was true then we would find new life in jars of peanut butter.
And that the fact that we don't find new life in jars of peanut butter means that evolution is false.
The first is a strawman.
The second a non-sequiter.

 

[GuySmiley]

The question is how can the rest of us cash in?

Write books and sell videos reassuring people that there is no God and we evolved from peanuts.

 

[Jukia]

I have seen some of this before, not the peanut butter one in particular but I have seen the woman who introduces it on other creationist videos. These people are dead serious as best I can tell.

 

[fool]

Write books and sell videos reassuring people that there is no God and we evolved from peanuts.

:think:
There is a file on my hardrive called "The Book of Fool"
I supose I should get busy on that.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

Absolutely nothing.

Now send me a check and you'll be granted eternal life.

You already know this but..... Misslers video was intended to be a scientific presentation.

He is merely making a point about a scientific fact and putting it into terms that regular "Joe's" can understand. His point has as much to do with peanut butter as it does rotting meat, dirty trash cans or cheese in your refrigerator.

Life only comes from existing life, that's all he is saying. Attacking videos like these only illustrates the mental bankruptcy of the folks that do it.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

I have seen some of this before, not the peanut butter one in particular but I have seen the woman who introduces it on other creationist videos. These people are dead serious as best I can tell.

And you DO agree with them right???

You do agree that life only comes from life, don't you??? :think:

 

[SUTG]

Write books and sell videos reassuring people that there is no God and we evolved from peanuts.

It would be more accurate to say there is no God and we share a common ancestor with peanuts.

 

[aharvey]

You already know this but..... Misslers video was intended to be a scientific presentation.

Really? Well, he's making his point as effectively as you're making yours!

He is merely making a point about a scientific fact and putting it into terms that regular "Joe's" can understand. His point has as much to do with peanut butter as it does rotting meat, dirty trash cans or cheese in your refrigerator.

Life only comes from existing life, that's all he is saying. Attacking videos like these only illustrates the mental bankruptcy of the folks that do it.

That's a fairly jaw-dropping assessment, Knight. It's been 40+ years since George Wald demonstrated the fallacy of equating spontaneous generation with abiogenesis. Why is it wrong to criticize a video that presents a long-refuted fallacy as a "scientific fact" in terms that regular "Joe's" can misunderstand?

I wouldn't fall too much in love with the "our experience tells us that life only comes from existing life, right?" argument. Our experience tells us lots of things that I'm sure you quite comfortably reject.

 

[SUTG]

Life only comes from existing life, that's all he is saying.

That isn't all he is saying. He says something along the lines of "if evolution was viable then we would find new life in jars of peanut butter." This leaves three options:

1) He is ignorant of the theory of evolution.
2) His IQ is in the single digits.
3) He is lying.

Since #1 and #2 are very unlikely, I'd go on record as saying that he is lying. Why would he do this? As I mentioned in my earlier post, he is making $$$ off of the gullible. Just like a televangelist or an informercial salesman selling get rich quick schemes.

 

[Woodbine]

This is the kind of crap a great many people want taught in science class.

The teacher will get the kids to each bring a jar of peanut butter into class and check if there's anything crawling inside, if not then God wins!

Honestly, can Christians not see the harm in this mis-guided, uninformed waffle that gets broadcast in their name? For the non-theist it's incredibly funny but at the same time very worrying. When you watch these idiots make a fool of themselves (perhaps unwittingly) you realise that these same people are trying to redefine the science curricula.