Controversial Opinions?

Facebook shares, news articles, and Trump. What do they have in common? A good amount of anti-science garbage. There are times when you see your friends and family sharing things from David Avocado Wolfe or Food Babe, or you see news articles about the new Ark Encounter in Kentucky or Texas school boards trying to get Creationism in science textbooks, or you hear Trump talk about how climate change is a conspiracy or that vaccines cause autism, and you just want to slap some common sense into people.

So, here it is. Vaccines do not cause autism. There is no evidence. Climate change is happening. There’s a ton of evidence. There was no global flood in 2348 BC. There is no evidence, and a lot of civilisations were around at that time with no record of any such flood (not to mention they didn’t realise that they supposedly disappeared, when they most certainly did not). Non-avian dinosaurs did not live at the same time as humans. They predate modern humans by around 65 million years. Evolution happens. Yes, it has been observed (quite easy when you look at microbes). There’s no evidence of any kind of damage or sickness from eating genetically modified foods. Remember, pretty much all cultivated foods that we eat have been modified over centuries or millennia. You can’t avoid chemicals in food. Everything is made up of chemicals. Water is a chemical. Protein is a chemical. Want to avoid chemicals? Then don’t eat, drink, or breathe.

Anti-intellectualism is incredible strong, especially in the United States. Look at the Republican Party’s candidate for President. It’s a scary situation if he gets elected. People need to be educated. Science is something that doesn’t rely on emotion. The science doesn’t change if you believe it or not. It’s still true. A ball falls whether you believe it or not. The Theory of Gravity isn’t “just a theory.” Cells exist in your body, they divide, and they have a structure whether you believe it or not. Cell Theory isn’t “Just a theory.” Dinosaurs existed and they still exist in the form of birds whether you believe it or not. The Theory of Evolution isn’t “just a theory.” Scientific theories aren’t something you can dismiss as “just a theory.” They are an explanation of observable facts. They’re not a guess.

Don’t agree with me? That’s fine. You don’t have to agree with me. The science will still be true. It doesn’t need your approval to be true.

Creationist Discovered 60 Million Year Old Fish Fossils

This comes straight from my home province of Alberta in Canada. It probably has the highest number of Creationists in Canada, as it’s the most conservative province, at least religiously.

A Creationist from Calgary was digging in a basement when he found what is probably a completely new species of fish dating back to 60 million years ago. This is a problem. According to him, they’re only 4,500 years old. How does he know? Noah’s flood.  He’s sure they were deposited there by the flood. This guy actually helped build the Big Valley Creation Science Museum.  Creation Science. Something that contains not one bit of science.

He’s also interested in having Alberta schools teach Creationism. He hasn’t directly asked the government, though. I have a problem with that. Creationism is religion. Public schools are secular. If anyone thinks that Creationism should be taught in science classes as an alternative to evolution, they are completely wrong about what science is. I would have a big issue if a science or biology teacher started teaching Creationism in class.

But back to this discovery. This dates back to 60 million years ago, which is extremely significant. This was only a few million years after the K-T mass extinction, which wiped out non-avian dinosaurs and most other species. These fish lived in a time when life was recovering from the devastation of the extinction and asteroid impact. We know it’s this old because of several methods of dating, which all agree with each other (fossil record, palynostratigraphic, and magnetostratigraphic).

It’s not 4,500 years old. At that time, Mesopotamia and Egypt both had civilisations uninterrupted by a giant flood.  It didn’t happen. So, how can a great flood wipe out everything but a small group of humans and the animals of the Ark, yet the civilisations continued on without even acknowledging this flood? Sounds fishy.  Oh yeah, Egypt started building pyramids around that time. He says that he has come to “accept the fact that we all have different opinions.” Too bad evolution and science are not opinions. They don’t care what people believe. They just are.

Hilarious Google Search – Ray Comfort Bacon Number

Do you know who Ray Comfort is?  He’s a young Earth creationist who has teamed up with Kirk Cameron on many occasions to promote their version of Creationism.  Their knowledge of science is rather funny, as they get a lot of things wrong.

Well, I was playing around with Google’s Bacon number search, and decided to put in a few random people.  Well, Ray Comfort came up with a Bacon number of 3.  It’s actually quite easy to have a Bacon number of 3.  It seems a lot of actors and other people who have appeared on film or TV have a Bacon number of only 2, meaning they appeared with someone who has appeared with Kevin Bacon.  At first, I checked Kirk Cameron’s Bacon number, and I found it was a 2.  So, knowing that he’s been on TV with Ray Comfort many times, he’d probably have a number of 3.  Google confirmed it.  However, it didn’t link him to Kevin Bacon through Kirk Cameron.  The actual results were hilarious.  I captured this image from Google.

What’s that?  Who is Ray Comfort connected to?  It can’t be.  I know Ray Comfort was born after Hitler died, but they did appear in something called 180. It’s a documentary that Ray Comfort created where he actually compares abortions with the Holocaust.  This is how he’s connected to Adolf Hitler.  But if you didn’t know this, the results above look quite funny.  Anyway, if you need proof, here’s the Google search.

Anyway, if my life were a movie, I would have a Bacon number of 3.  I’ve met James Doohan, who’s connected to Kevin Bacon through Kirstie Alley.  I’ve also met Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis, both of whom are connected to Kevin Bacon through Wil Wheaton, my favourite celebrity geek.  We could all aspire to be like Wil.

And that is how a blog post about Bacon numbers becomes all about Wil Wheaton.

Keep Your Religion Out of Our Public Education

I’m a big supporter of education.  Good education.  I especially love science education.  Science is very important for many professions, including medicine, engineering, agriculture, and computers.  But when something threatens good education, I want to fight back.

In Manitoba, a candidate for the Winnipeg School Board is supporting teaching creationism in the science classroom.  Not only that, she advocates abstinence only sex education.  This kind of thing is heard of a lot in the United States, but rarely in Canada.  To Candace Maxymowich, I say keep your beliefs out of Canadian education.  They have no place in the classroom.

First of all, she’s supporting abstinence only sex education.  This is irresponsible.  Never mind the studies that have shown that this kind of sex education doesn’t work.  You don’t need the studies, you need to use common sense.  We’re talking about teenagers.  Telling teenagers not to have sex doesn’t work.  Nor is it really sex education.  While abstinence is the most effective way of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, telling teenagers not to have sex is likely to backfire.  At that age, they don’t always make the best decisions.  They will have sex.  Then what?  With education about contraceptives and birth control, they will at least be far more likely to have safe sex rather than unprotected sex.  Candace, what you advocate will lead to more pregnancies and STDs.

Secondly, something that I feel extremely strong about, is the teaching of creationism in science classes.  Never.  Creationists want the alternatives to evolution to be taught, and of course, that’s creationism or intelligent design.  Neither of these (basically the same thing) are science.  They do not use the scientific method, do not use all the evidence, and are simply not science.  I don’t want religion to take up valuable science class time.  It should not take up that time.  What Candace fails to understand is that there are many religions represented by the students.  Which creation story is to be used?  Of course, she intends for it to be her religion’s creation story.  Not everyone follows your religion, Ms. Maxymowich.  This shows you don’t understand what science is.

I’m all for creationism to be taught in school.  Yes, you read that correctly.  But not in science class.  Teach it in religious studies.  But you also have to teach about other religions, not just your version of Christianity.

Science and health are both extremely important.  They need to be taught responsibly.  Science needs to be taught using science. Keep religion out of it.  Sex education needs to be taught from a health point of view, not from a religious point of view.  Candace Maxymowich, your version of science and sex ed are not welcome.

Creationism on “Cosmos?” Unlikely

When I saw this news story, I couldn’t believe it.  Honestly, who would ever believe that creationism would find a place on Cosmos, a TV show dedicated to science?

Danny Falkner of Answers in Genesis complained about Neil deGrasse Tyson not discussing the creationists’ point of view.  Of course it wouldn’t be discussed.  As Cosmos is a science show, it wouldn’t be discussing something that is strictly religious.

Let’s take a look at what Falkner said.

Creationists aren’t even on the radar screen for them, they wouldn’t even consider us plausible at all.

No surprise about this.  That’s because creationism isn’t science.  It’s religion.  Cosmos has nothing to do with religion.

The host of The Janet Mefford Show went on to say this:

Boy, but when you have so many scientists who simply do not accept Darwinian evolution, it seems to me that that might be something to throw in there, you know, the old, ‘some scientists say this, others disagree and think this,’ but that’s not even allowed.

Please, provide us a list of scientists who don’t accept Darwinian evolution.  Evolution has never been successfully refuted or falsified.  It is accepted by the scientific community.

Falkner also says this:

I was struck in the first episode where he talked about science and how, you know, all ideas are discussed, you know, everything is up for discussion – it’s all on the table – and I thought to myself, ‘No, consideration of special creation is definitely not open for discussion, it would seem.’

Yes, science is all about discussing the ideas and investigating them.  Creation isn’t considered because it is not science.  It’s that simple.  Unicorns aren’t being considered, Santa Claus isn’t being considered, the Theory of Barbaric Lemons isn’t being considered, and my mother’s pickle recipe isn’t being considered.  They’re not science!  Actually, a pickle recipe is more scientific than the others, since it’s basically a kind of chemistry.

So why should creationism be featured on a strictly scientific show?  For the same reason creationism has no place in a science class.  It’s religion, not science.

What do you think?