David Menton, one of the ‘authorities’ at Answers in Genesis, has scribbled up another mendacious collection of nonsense about tetrapod evolution. Alas, poor Menton — he caught the attention of Martin Brazeau, a real scholar and researcher in sarcopterygian and tetrapod evolution, who did what creationists dread: he actually checked on the facts behind Menton’s claims. Would you be surprised to learn that there are not only dishonest quote mines that twist the author’s meaning, but that he is caught making up facts about the fossil? Brazeau even contacted Ted Daeschler, one of the authors of the Tiktaalik work, to check on some of those assertions … and there’s no way around it. David Menton is a liar.
It’s hilarious. Brazeau also takes care to document some of the real facts about transitional tetrapods — well worth reading even if you don’t care for the spice of schadenfreude.
And yet, to the faithful, this man is a hero who is being unfairly maligned by “scientists.” The scarier thing is not that so-called authorities would rely on deceit to make a case for their beliefs but that so very many people will automatically and eagerly accept and defend their chosen authority who takes a stand against the evil scientists. It’s one thing to point out the lies of the creationists, their faulty reasoning, their dodgy scholarship. But it is the audience where the battle will be won or lost. As long as a majority of people don’t understand how science works, and as long as they carry an automatic (though unexamined) respect for the authority of faith, no amount of fact finding will make much of a difference.
This guy is nuts. I don’t even have to read the Lancelet’s refuting (though I will) or even know who Menton is. I don’t know how ignorant you have to be to think of evolution as random chance, and run a campaign against it. I guess only the type of ignorant religious can afford to be.
I have friends that know squat about evolution, but they at least know to believe in what the scientists say, and don’t go about bashing what they don’t know. Not a very good stance either, but it’s a whole big giant leap ahead of these idiot creationists.
I am no paleontologist, but this statement, if not a lie, is at best just plain stupid:
Oh, and I’m not even finished reading his dumb tirade. I don’t know if I can.
Thanks for the link, PZ! Good to see this getting a wide coverage. Menton’s lucky he’s retired, I consider this type of fraud to be actionable — especially coming from a professor of anatomy!
I have to correct myself, this guy is not nuts. This guy is just a plain old idiot.
I would like to know what “authority” does “Holy scripture” hold on the truths of the universe. But that’s just asking for some shred of reason out of this clown.
I gotta tell you, I come from a mostly impoverished country in Latin America, and even there where lack of education is rampant, these creationist types aren’t really taken seriously. I was shocked to learn they were here in the U.S., and that even the president is one of them. Utterly and positively shocked. It took some days to sink in that it wasn’t a cosmic joke played on me. I even believed in a god those days, if only to have someone to play that cosmic prank on me.
My favorite bit from the AiG tract:
There you go, proof that Intelligent Design is science. Right, I mean, if ID evolved from creationism, why are there still “if people evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?” arguments? Huh? Answer that, mister smarty-pants evolutionist! Mister college professor! Mister hippy!
I’ve come to the realization that a large portion of the difference between you/me and a lot of other people, is that they just don’t trust what scientists say. They don’t understand that someone has put their entire life into comprehending a subject, and knowing their limitations (perhaps it’s a holdover from more artsy subjects, or maybe they’ve had bad experiences with bias in the past).
I ran into this while trying to moderately explain Global Warming, the other day. I pointed them towards the IPCC report, and made only the claim: “Global Warming with very high confidence is being significantly caused by human activity. It’s unfortunate that we can’t accept this, and move on to debate more important things, like how much to spend on avoiding the risk.”
I got slammed. If one of these beliefs is shunned by your cult, no amount of reason or trust is available for use.
It is not a surprise to me.
I contacted him about 6 years ago in regards to one of his “techncial and in depth essays” (in reality, a collection of citationless one or two paragraph diatribes). His first response was a generic ‘who are you to question me?’ type of arrogant snits. When I replied by informing him that I was an anatomist myself and I fouind some of his anatomy-related claims specious, he replied that my ‘worldview’ prevented me from seeing things his way and that he was right and I was worng and that was that.
He is a televangelist with a degree.
They think everything is a series of hierarchical worldviews. They don’t have the first clue about how science works; they just want to usurp its authority (as they see it).
I’m not American, but am deeply scared by the waves of creationist bullshit coming from there.
However, I was encouraged when last week in Washington DC, I whiled away a few hours in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Lots of school parties running around, all being told that dinosaurs were around millions of years ago, and how comparatively recently homo sapiens evolved. I was beginning to think everyone over there was a YEC.
What does “pwned” mean? I can generally discern the meaning from context, but I don’t understand the word or its etymology.
“Owned”, as in “soundly defeated”. It’s a term from gaming culture.
As Wolfgang Pauli once said : “This isn’t even wrong”.
It’s a collection of spurious nuggets of nonsense.
By the way, you might find this site interesting, if you haven’t already seen it – it has a section on religion…..
http://www.physics.buffalo.edu/whkinney/notevenwrong.html
Paul
No indeed! I’m happy to report that the Boston Museum of Science is currently featuring the largest traveling Darwin exhibit ever mounted, and is concurrently showing “Galapagos” as one of its IMAX offerings. I saw the exhibit and the film last weekend with my dad and my brothers, and it was well worth the trip. They even have a pair or live tortoises and an iguana from the islands!
The exhibit also features a couple of short films, one a brief Darwin bio, another on natural selection (how about that toxic newt, yum!) The only evidence of “teach the controversy” was a small frame of materials accompanied by a video. I regret that I had to leave before having a chance to view the whole piece, but I did catch a glimpse of Francis Collins explaining why ID and Creationism weren’t even science, or something like that. Damn, I wish I’d had time to see that. (I’d also like to note that Ken Miller appeared briefly in one of those other films.)
I feel silly saying it, but it was so exciting! It was moving and inspiring, all of it, and I haven’t felt quite the same way since I saw Coldplay up in Manchester, NH last spring. (Only half-kidding here!)
Seriously, though, I get so discouraged at the constant attacks on evolution from the anti-science cadre that I forget that they are still the minority (if a damnably large one) and that there are many millions of Americans who will never – NEVER – accept any form of Creationism as part of the science curriculum in any public school at any level.
“What does “pwned” mean? I can generally discern the meaning from context, but I don’t understand the word or its etymology.”
The word means ‘owned’- as in ‘our team owned yours’. It is also linked closely to ‘poon’ as in ‘poon tang’, which is an American version of the French…
It is pronounced ‘pooned’ as opposed to ‘pawned’ or ‘powned’.
…and if you believe Benny’s explanation above, you have just been pwned.
Etymology? Evolution!
It arose as a gene duplication from “owned”. Then the duplicate mutated, acquired several new pronunciations, and turned out to be capable of performing an entirely new function.
Etymology? Evolution!
It arose as a gene duplication from “owned”. Then the duplicate mutated, acquired several new pronunciations, and turned out to be capable of performing an entirely new function.
Mister Nice Guy… I refer you to this->
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pooned
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pwned
I may be a kidder- but I don’t joke about etymology.