Here is how I insert a quote in my reply:
1. Notice that the post I'm replying to is at the bottom of the screen (you might have to scroll down). Also notice in the upper-right-hand corner two radio buttons:
Normal:, and
Peek Mode:. If you select
Peek Mode:, then you can see what dBCodes were used, plus you can copy them into your quote.
2. Insert a quotes box using the dBCodes qs and /qs, each enclosed in square brackets (AKA "gs tags"). It's analogous to HTML tags, which are also allowed here, BTW. You'll see an example of a qs box below.
3. In the message you're replying to, highlight the text that you want to quote and then copy-and-paste it between the qs tags.
Your intention learning evolution so that you can oppose it is laudable, since, as already mentioned, the standard anti-evolution approach is to maintain abject ignorance of the subject. But to flesh out the earlier reference to Sun Tzu's famous quote (this uses quote tags, which have a different effect than qs tags):
quote:
From Scroll III (Offensive Strategy):
31. Therefore I say: "Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.
32. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal.
33. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril."
(Sun Tzu The Art of War, translation by Samuel B.
Griffith, Oxford University Press, 1963)
The others have started to point you in the direction of knowing both your enemy and yourself. Since your main source for anti-evolution materials and claims will be the creationist community, you will need to know about that community and about their claims, which are mainly pure crap. You will also need to know and understand their fears and motivations and ideas, which include (in various degrees) the idea that if evolution is true then God does not exist. So you also need to discover and understand the relationship between science and religion and what that should actually mean to one's faith.
My suggestion for a book is an older one, but one that I felt was excellent:
Science and Earth History: The Evolution/Creation Controversy by Arthur N. Strahler (1999)The main body consists of pairs of chapters: each pair deals with a particular area of science, such as geology, and then one chapter shows what science has to say about it and the other what creationists have to say. Basically, the science chapter will counter claims made in the creationist chapter by showing what the evidence actually is. Earlier chapters also explain the nature of science and discusses the relationship between science and religion.
It is available at amazon.com,
No webpage found at provided URL: http://www.amazon.com/Science-Earth-History-Evolution-Controversy/dp/1573927171/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241471861&sr=1-5
The following was created with qs tags:
InGodITrust writes:
I do think, though, that before any science that conflicts with major religions is taught, the teachers should explain the conflict, and also define a scientific theory. And quiz the kids on the definition of a scientific theory. I think some teachers may just present evolution and the big bang as flat-out, absolute truths.
That just kind of jumped out at me because it almost looked like you were starting to head in the direction "it's just a
theory!", which is the first indication that that person doesn't know what a theory is. I also chose to include it because then I could demonstrate a qs box to you. There's a
Peek button attached to my message; you can use that to see what the tags look like.
One of the problems in science education is that too often teachers will teach it as a set of conclusions -- here they are, now learn them. For one thing, that's boring. For another, that creates a false impression that they're just arbitrary, a false impression that creationists seek to exploit. Instead, teachers need to also teach the students
how scientists had arrived at those conclusions. Not only does that dispell the false impression of arbitrary claims, but it also makes science so much more interesting and easier to learn -- we raised my boys the second way and they loved science; my nephew had learned the first way and science was his most hated subject in school.
Part of that is, of course, to teach what a theory is and how science works. Part of that should also cover what science actually has to say about the supernatural and about any of the gods -- which is basically that science cannot and does not deal with the supernatural and it has nothing to say about the gods. Unfortunately, addressing specific religious beliefs would most likely be stepping way out-of-line; at most, the teacher might point out that there is no conflict as far as science is concerned and that there is no way that science could possibly disprove the gods, nor does it want to try to. It is unfortunate that the teacher wouldn't be able to address specific religious beliefs, because it is certain religious sects who are the ones actively teaching that there
is a conflict; the creation/evolution "
controversy" does not actually exist, but rather is a creationist fabrication.
So, I do hope that you will follow through and learn evolution, as well as all the other branches of science (since creationism targets them as well in their claims; eg, geology, astronomy). And that you will also read up on creationist claims and science's responses to those claims. Know the enemy and know yourself.
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