Who's the woman that can tell you why evolution is science and God creating the banana isn't? SCOTT! You're damn right.
There’s a man out there named Dan Gilgoff who publishes a blog for US News and World Report called “God & Country.” The blog is, as you may be able to guess from the title, about religion. Gilgoff regularly dips his toe into the world of politics, but we’re not here to do that. We’re here because Gilgoff decided to recently enter the world of evolution.
Our story starts in September, when Gilgoff wrote a short blog on Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron’s new version of Darwin’s Origin of Species. Now, it seems that we “Darwinists” are an easy group to rile, so Gilgoff figured out that this was an issue he should tackle again. He got the infamous Ray Comfort and the great Eugenie Scott to write in competing posts about Comfort’s fifty page introduction to Origin of Species.
I will admit that I was among those whose initial thought on these two blogs going up was, “C’mon, Eugenie! You gotta give credence to Comfort like this?” There is little doubt in my mind that we will soon hear crowing from Ray that he has debated Eugenie Scott and that he has been featured in US News and World Report. I don’t see the need to give this guy access to any more feathers he can stick in his hat.
The thing is, when I started looking at the two articles, my opinion changed. Ray’s blog came out Thursday, and Eugenie’s on Friday. Ray’s is, not surprisingly, frustratingly moronic to read, and I sincerely hope that no one gullible gets it put in front of them. It’s full of claims that no fossils of transitional species have been found and ad hominems against Darwin – pretty much what you’d expect from Ray Comfort. Eugenie’s post is a solid swing at Ray, which, I think, connects fairly well, but what really gets me are the comments. There are tons of comments from the not so rational on both these blog pages, and they are being responded to by others. I am of the opinion that the only way we can weed out ignorance is to have it exposed, and these blogs certainly have exposed the a big bunch of stupid on the internet.
I don’t think it’s good that Ray Comfort has been given another pulpit. I sincerely wish that Gilgoff had not decided to give Ray yet another place where he could spout off, and the fact that both articles begin with a short paragraph from Gilgoff saying “Neither God & Country nor U.S. News necessarily endorses their views,” strikes me as a prime example of the yellow nature of US News. The news media in this country should stop pussyfooting around with these evolution-denying morons and lose this ridiculous idea that there’s actually a debate to be had here. But that’s a rant for another day.
For today, I’m glad to see that we’ve been given another opportunity to try and tell people who don’t understand the science where they’re lacking. In the future, maybe we’ll be able to spring on these things sooner and try to have a more positive impact. When idiots spring up en mass, maybe we can be ready to join them and try to explain, calmly and as nicely as possible, why they’re so cravenly wrong.
