Monday, December 29, 2008

Where we need change

If you've ever participated in an online discussion group about atheism or evolution, you are probably familiar with people who come in "just to learn". They ask a question or two, and before you know it they caricaturing your position, spewing ignorance, and just generally being dumbasses.

The problem is that it can be hard to tell honest inquirers from dumbasses (at first), and so sometimes honest inquirers are treated badly because the atheist/evolutionist/other rational person has learned time and again not to even deal with the alleged "honest inquirer".

Well, guess what. I had a legitimate question about evolution, I posted it on the talk.origins discussion group, and I was not only mistaken for a troll but also treated very poorly.

Here was my post:

"Subject: Michael Behe's Argument Against Indirect Pathways to Irreducible Complexity

On pages 65-67 of his book. Its hard to figure out just what he is arguing. He talks about parts not being able to fit together and about problems with the evolution of the cilia.
Can anyone help me understand this and also link to some rebuttals? I know of the rebuttals to IC, I just want refutations of his argument against the indirect evolutionary pathways to IC."

I later posted the following to clarify what Behe was saying:

"A motor protein that has been transporting cargo along a cellular highway might not have the strength necessary to push two microtubules relative to each other... A Nexin Linker would have to be exactly the right size before it was useful at all. Creating the cilium inside the cell would be counterproductive, it would need to extend from the cell. The necessary components would have to come together at the right place at the right time, even assuming they were all pre- existing in the cell." - Michael Behe, page 203, The Case for a Creator

How was my question met? With recommendations for Ken Miller's book, rudeness, and a guy who thought he could answer this by simply pointing out that a large number of bacteria have existed on the earth [Which may mean that highly unlikely mutations can happen, a flagellum isn't something that will assemble in a lucky mutant bacteria].

It seems people are avoiding the question. I understand that their are trolls, but why do these people find themselves unable to answer a simple question?

1 comment:

Anthony said...

I see the same thing on other blogs like Debunking Christianity. The problem is that it is easy to jump to conclusions about a poster. As they say patience is a virtue and it is one that is hard to maintain. I have found myself getting impatient with posters and sometimes saying things that I wished I hadn't.

The one thing that I hate is when one (whether theist or not) simply dismisses the other. That does not further discussion but only polarizes everyone.