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.
Mat: [crickets then] Turtle up.
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