According to wikipedia, it is
"Something is currently unexplained or insufficiently understood or explained, so it is not (or must not be) true.
Because there appears to be a lack of evidence for one hypothesis, another chosen hypothesis is therefore considered proven.
An adage regarding this fallacy from the philosophy of science is that "absence of evidence is not proof of absence": Not having evidence for something is not proof that something is not or cannot be true. Similarly, merely not having evidence for a particular proposition is not proof that an alternative proposition is instead the case. This is not the same as arguing against something that can, by its nature, never be proven."
Basically it is something like saying "I can prove that I did not steal your money, therefore Tom must have stolen it". Why pick on Tom, and not Dick or Harry?
Why am I rambling about logical fallacies, all of a sudden? That is because THEY HAVE ARRIVED.
The Creationist Movement has arrived in Singapore. Basically they are a bunch of either dishonest or plain stupid idiots (still idiots regardless of whether they are stupid or dishonest) who claim that god created earth and life on earth as scientific fact. Yes, evolution theory in science is also evolution fact in layman's term. Do not fall prey when some idiot tells you evolution is just a "theory".
I shall not speculate on their motives for their continual push towards passing off Creationism/intelligent design as scientific fact. Instead, i would like to point out the stand of the scientific community on the fabricated controversy in evolution theory.
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general scientific society, the AAAS serves some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals "[T]he lack of scientific warrant for so-called 'intelligent design theory' makes it improper to include as a part of science education."[1]
2006 Statement on the Teaching of Evolution: "Some bills seek to discredit evolution by emphasizing so-called "flaws" in the theory of evolution or "disagreements" within the scientific community. Others insist that teachers have absolute freedom within their classrooms and cannot be disciplined for teaching non-scientific “alternatives” to evolution. A number of bills require that students be taught to "critically analyze" evolution or to understand "the controversy." But there is no significant controversy within the scientific community about the validity of the theory of evolution. The current controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution is not a scientific one."[2]
Read the stand of other major scientific societies here.
Read about how creationism/intelligent design is debunked here.
Scientific American cuts their nonsense down to size here.
An article by The Guardian here.
Do not for one moment think that this is a trivial matter. Take a look at their website here. Have a read on their articles that supposedly quashes evolution theory like a fly. Then you can appreciate their cunning, their power and funding.
Do your part to stop this mind virus today!
6 comments:
You've put together an excellent collection of resources. Great job in emphasizing the importance of this matter.
I think this situation demonstrates that Stephen Jay Gould's NOMA principle is not very useful in practice.
If pure faith is all that matters, then no belief system can claim to be more authentic than others. They cannot convince more people to join them.
So at the end of the day, NOMA or not, science will still get dragged in because it is the only reliable way of learning about the Universe.
If the results of scientific studies do not support religious ideas, science will of course be attacked.
And they have cast the first stone.
Personally I don't think that our situation will become anywhere as bad as in the USA, because of our education system and societal makeup. Most people don't really care either way.
Still, we should observe their next step closely and respond accordingly.
Hi leng hiong,
You are absolutely right. I find it amazing the way they take pride in asserting that atheists cannot prove the absence of god while failing to realise that they too cannot prove the absence of a supernatural being who will send them to hell for believing in god.
One should never act based on unfalsifiable beliefs (with no evidence to back it up especially) for there will be another unfalsifiable belief that leads to the EXACT OPPOSITE of what they have asserted.
Personally, the reason why i think this matter warrants attention is that ordinary folks with no scientific background may find their arguments pretty convincing. And if the scientific community here does not make a public stand on this issue, then i'm afraid that more more will fall prey to their lies.
While our social makeup is different from that of USA, the nature of mind viruses still makes it a very real threat to singapore. After all this movement has already been around for approximately 100 years and it's still alive and kicking hard!
Just consider the means in which it can spread via vertical and horizontal transmission. Add in the in-built defence mechanism that such a virus has, such as rendering its host devoid of rationality.
Another point is the information asymmerty invloved. Judging by their aggressive campaigns, the ordinary folks will probably end up getting "educated" in the creationst way instead of the real scientific way and this can only be correct if the scientific community takes a public stand.
You might want to correct the misspelling in your header... "one-eyed king" with a "d" and it's hyphenated.
Other than that your Blog is perfect!
Keep it up!
Atheist
Hehe. Thanks for pointing that out :S
"Personally I don't think that our situation will become anywhere as bad as in the USA,"
I certainly hope not.
"because of our education system and societal makeup. Most people don't really care either way."
You could be wrong. As they say, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Singaporeans are educated but not really educated, if you catch what I mean.
In time to come, an anti-virus (against the creationist mind virus) might be sorely needed.
Hey,has anyone wondered y christianity seems to be speaking up for Singapore?
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