Saturday, August 27, 2011

Yes Evolution! Really? Are you kidding me?


Mat (Mature Atheist Turtle): Ary, watch this video - a simple demonstration of evolution.

How to believe anything.
[Video via BBC Science Zone.  Dr. Yan]

Johnson1010 (one of Mat's buddies) Well, what do you think?

Ary (Mature Christian Pastor) I think you guys are so gullible you will believe anything said by a person with a British accent and the letters BBC hung up behind them; throw in some attractive young people and us old codgers are doomed.

Johnson1010: You're doomed because you believe in God not science.  That demonstration showed how evolution works by introducing small changes overtime.

Ary: All I saw were people who weren't very good at tracing lines on a computer screen; what does that have to do with how evolution works.

Johnson1010: It showed how each time the line was traced tiny errors were introduced which, over time, made the line unrecognizable.

Ary: How were the errors introduced?

Mat:  By the person tracing.

Ary: So it has nothing to do with the line; not really!

Johnson1010: Yes, it does.

Ary:  What?

Johnson1010: The line changes over time.

Ary: Because the people doing the tracing aren't good at making direct copies.  If they were the line wouldn't change.

Mat: But that's the point, each iteration of the line represents what happens when cells reproduce.

Ary:  But cells aren't copied from the outside, they copy themselves, so show me the line copying itself and making mistakes.

Johnson1010: You're an idiot.  A line can't copy itself.

Ary: Exactly! But cells do. 

Johnson1010:  Listen fundie, the video is making a point.  It's a simplification.


DNA Strands are not straight lines

Ary: No, it's a parlor trick and it's unfair.  A cell is a complex set of instructions not a straight line.  What the video should show is people copying computer code.  Have them copy the code and then run the program.  I submit that the program won't run with an error and so the mutation will end with the first mistake, not be copied.

 Johnson1010: [crickets]

Mat: [crickets then] Turtle up.

1 comment:

  1. I like this one. Good defense! Thanks for clarifying the 'trick'. Suddenly the whole thing looks silly, just like when a 'magic' trick is exposed for what it is, a trick.

    ReplyDelete