It’s always a mistake to treat creationists gently, especially Islamic creationists. Well, maybe not especially…believers in any fundamentalist, literalist religion are a pain in the ass. This Nadir Ahmed fellow has been pestering me for a week now, saying I must make an acknowledgment of the contradictions in my previous comments (there weren’t any, I’ve been very consistent) and that I now agree that there are no errors in the Islamic summary of embryonic development. First he wanted me to say that on his YouTube video. Then he wanted me to make a blog post about it. Now he just emailed me.
We would like to assemble the team together
like we did last time, so that you can make
a presentation to us regarding these new allegations
about Quran and Embryology.Please let us know how to proceed.
He’s awfully presumptuous. No. There were no new allegations. I am not going to take the two sentences in the Qu’ran as seriously as he does, and I assert once again that they are superficial, useless, and a bad description of embryonic development, not worth further discussion.
This Hebrew embryology text is much more detailed;
https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a19473685/gefilte-fish-recipe/
or maybe I read it wrong.
So it’s like fish meatloaf? You can’t go wrong!
That’s an interesting take on Gefilte Fish, I’ve only been exposed to the traditional, single serving sized ones. But, it’s not truly authentic Gefilte Fish unless you bring home a live carp and have it swim in your bathtub until needed. Heck, there’s a book about it and everything.
And in other fundamentalist news…. Rick Wiles (and several of his family members) are down with COVID-19. He claims it’s an attack by Hell. I would put down to self-inflicted stupidity. But then, he’s in Florida…
I think the most interesting topic raised by PZ in this thread is obvious:
Evil Willow “Bored Now” meme: Best meme about boredom ever? Or best meme ever?
End of discussion? They don’t want discussion. They want capitulation.
Sounds a bit like an inquisition. I’d politely decline.
I’m fine with “Bored Now” as long as nobody is flayed alive… even if they deserve it.
@Crip Dyke #5:
I thought ‘Bored now’ came from Vampire Willow not Dark Willow, but then I last watched Buffy about a decade ago.
There’s still three weeks of lockdown left. Should be just about enough time to re-watch all seven seasons…
Dear Prof. Myers,
I created a paraphrase of Schiller which perfectly describes your interaction with these deceitful creationists:
“Against zealotry, the greatest of intellects contend in vain”
I’m not going to allow that as best meme ever. For a great meme, the picture needs to speak for itself. If you haven’t seen the show and the caption was missing, you wouldn’t know whether the girl is supposed to be bored, or angry, or scared, or resolute, or what. I also couldn’t tell she was supposed to be evil until you told me. I guess it’s eye shadow + backlighting, right?
One wonders if this request represents the nadir of editorial changes to fit a text to length. Those last two pages of a signature can be a real bear to typeset, especially on deadline!
OK, awful pun, but necessary. And a precursor to serious study of questions like “What steps were there between the deathbed ramblings of an old man in a version of Arabic that resembles Modern Standard Arabic about as much as Beowulf resembles The Sparrow{note} to understandings of modern American English as spoken by several nonnative speakers in conversation with native speakers? Were there, perhaps — and only perhaps, because we are after all dealing with oral-to-written transmission in a culture with a centuries-previous history of not acknowledging changes in those documents that it did have — some ‘editorial changes’ on the way, along the lines of striking out ‘three-fifths of all other persons’ just about a lifetime later?”
This is what bugs me the most about fundamentalism (and its more-extreme version literalism): It necessarily presumes, often under the rubric “divine inspiration,” that the text/precept in front of us has remained unchanging in both graphos and meaning, and that therefore we are obligated to respect only one unchanging one. Leaving aside that this is rather assuming the conclusion, in virtually all of our lifetimes we’ve seen counterexamples. Go ahead — try to find an example of the term “gender fluid” being used in the 1990s that matches how it is typically (but not universally!) used in 2021.
{note} That the author of the latter is a religious convert was carefully considered before using it as an example.
Rich Woods@8 Both. Vampire Willow said it first and Dark Willow said it before flaying Warren. I assume the writers intended the allusion, which is actually sort of clever since it suggests a continuity of Willow’s personality in a parallel universe and under an extreme transformation.
(I have the benefit of only watching Buffy nearly 20 years after it came out.)
brucegee1962@10
Well aren’t you the party pooper?
I’ll grant that the initial claim was hyperbolic, but I thought it was a funny reference. I have used it before in a FB post, though I forget when.
Arguing with Islam followers is very frustrating. It’s what I’d imagine arguing with Christians 500 years ago would be like. The idea that there could be no god at all, still seems very shocking and offending to them.