Evolutionists who tell it like it is (and those who don’t)

There are people who pump up the the intellectual merits of evolutionism, such as the ex-creationist Stuart Ritchie. He said:

You can’t begin to understand biology (and so many other areas of science) if you don’t know about evolution – not teaching it to students is like not teaching gravity in a physics class.

But that’s a stretch; consider a more level-headed and unvarnished view from Jerry Coyne, an evolutionist activist:

In science’s pecking order, evolutionary biology lurks somewhere near the bottom, far closer to phrenology than to physics.  

Quote sources

1. Ritchie, S (2023). India Removing Evolution from Textbooks Shows we Shouldn’t Take Science Education For Granted. INews. Available https://inews.co.uk/news/science/india-removing-evolution-textbooks-science-education-for-granted-2430490. Last accessed 12th Apr 2024
2. Coyne, J. (2000). ‘The fairy tales of evolutionary psychology’ in Review of “A natural history of rape: biological bases of sexual coercion”. MIT Press, The New Republic, Mar 4.

Political correctness comes from the Communist Party

P.C. comes from the C.P. The P.C. mentality is a successor form of the Communist mentality. To be politically correct is to toe the party line. It is to support leftist positions and tactics, including the suppression of the free speech rights of opponents. Essential to leftism is the double standard. So while the politically correct insist on their own free speech rights, they deny them to their opponents, which is why they routinely shout them down.

Quote source

Vallicella, B (2016). What is Political Correctness? Maverick Philosopher: Strictly Philosophical. Available https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher_stri/2018/04/what-is-political-correctness.html. Last accessed 11 Mar 2024.

Naturalism of the gaps—coming to an evolutionist near you

There are naturalistic evolutionists who claim:

As an example, creationists incessantly use some difficult-to-explain facet of biology as “proof” of a creator. The problem is that, though there is no non-design explanation for how precisely a certain organ could have evolved at the moment, one may be discovered in the future.

Contrary to the instincts of many creationists, lack of an explanation does not justify confecting whatever explanation one would prefer. The inexplicable is just that, and does not justify speculation as proof. 

But then the creationist holds a mirror to the evolutionist’s face:

An evolutionist could always cling to the idea that an unknown naturalistic cause for such [genetic] features might one day be discovered, but in many cases (especially in origins science) this begins to look desperate—a resort to naturalism-of-the-gaps.

Defaulting to naturalistic explanations without justification is equally as problematic and precarious as the god-of-the-gaps, yet no evolutionist ever seems to warn against making that mistake.

Quote sources

1. Rationalwiki (2023). Argument from Incredulity. Available https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Argument_from_incredulity. Last accessed Feb 16th 2024.
2. Halley, K (2015). The God-of-the-Gaps Charge Doesn’t Stick. Creation Ministries International. Available https://creation.com/god-of-gaps-charge. Last accessed Feb 16th 2024.

Recognising the leftist threat to democracy

That’s why warnings from [Joe] Biden and others about the risk [Donald] Trump poses to democracy are likely to fall flat even with many moderate voters. If there’s any serious threat to democracy, doesn’t it also come from Democratic judges and state officials who are using never-before-used legal theories — which even liberal law professors like Harvard’s Lawrence Lessig regard as dangerous and absurd — to try to kick Trump’s name off ballots in Maine and Colorado?

When liberal partisans try to suppress democracy in the name of saving democracy, they aren’t helping their cause politically or legally. They are merely confirming the worst stereotypes about their own hypocrisy.

Quote source

Stephens, B (2024). The Case for Trump … by Someone Who Wants Him to Lose. The New York Times. Available https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/opinion/columnists/donald-trump-election.html. Last accessed 19 Jan 2024.

The impetus behind the best-selling creation book of all time

Because many humanists are passionately opposed to Christianity, they are working directly against missions organizations (such as Creation Ministries International) to prevent the spread of Christian beliefs.

For example, a major scientific organization here in the US once produced an evolutionary handbook for every high-school science teacher. Concerned that creationist beliefs were growing, it was promoted and distributed by the openly atheistic NCSE (National Centre for Science Education) and its leader Dr Eugenie Scott (a vocal critic of creationists). The NCSE is a ‘faith funded’ organization that relies upon donations from like-minded vigilantes.

However, due to the giving of active and faithful Christians, we were able to fund brilliant creation scientist Jonathan Sarfati’s efforts to write a response. The result was the book Refuting Evolution, which became the biggest-ever-selling creation book of all time.

Quote source

Bates, G (2011). It’s the Season for Giving: The Atheists Think So Too! Creation Ministries International. Available https://creation.com/season-for-giving. Last accessed Dec 27th, 2023.