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Author Topic:   One liners, or how to make the PRATTS fall
Steve660
Junior Member (Idle past 4023 days)
Posts: 1
From: UK
Joined: 03-04-2013


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Message 41 of 50 (692610)
03-05-2013 3:18 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by subbie
01-23-2012 12:08 PM


One-liners and short ripostes
I'm a bit late here, but what the heck.
Science does not lend itself to short one-liners, especially where the subject matter is highly technical, so creationists have the edge in convincing a lay audience. Nevertheless here are some suggestions for response to common creationist rhetorical tricks, and PRATTs.
Creationist: Were you there?
Evolutionist: No. Were you?
Creationist: No, but God was.
Evolutionist: Thank you for an excellent example of a circular argument. By saying God was there you have presupposed the very thing creationists strive to prove, namely that God did it. Presupposing the thing you want to prove is the very definition of a circular argument. I hope you don’t mind if I use this example in future debates with creationists as an example of bad reasoning.
Creationist: Many scientists dispute evolution and agree with creation.
Evolutionist: How many of them are called Steve? (Then, when they don’t understand, tell them about NCSE Project Steve).
Creationist: If you don’t believe me you can look it up yourself.
Evolutionist: Yes, and so can you. Have you, or have you just read it in a creationist tract somewhere and are repeating it parrot fashion without bothering to look it up for yourself?
OR: It is precisely because I have looked it up myself that I know it does not say what you claim it says.
Creationist: What will you accept?
Evolutionist: Evidence.
OR: The truth.
Creationist: Natural selection is a chance process.
Evolutionist: Natural selection is anything but chance. In fact it is very selective, hence its name.
Creationist: Darwinists say/do x y z
Evolutionist: Why do you keep talking about Darwinists? You don’t call people who accept gravitation Newtonists, do you?
Creationist: How can something arise out of nothing?
Evolutionist: Ask your God, he pulled it off, didn’t he?
Creationist: I challenge you to a debate.
Evolutionist: So you can lie to your heart’s content secure in the knowledge that I can’t check your claims out there and then, and that by the time I have, days may have passed, by which time you’ve scored your points and the audience has gone home? No chance. If you want a challenge try publishing your claims in a peer-reviewed science journal.
Creationist: Dinosaur bones have been found to contain soft tissue and protein. This should all have decayed long ago if they are millions of years old.
Evolutionist: It has taken years of trying, by various teams, to isolate organic remains from dinosaur bones, and only now has anyone finally isolated tiny traces of badly degraded organic matter from just a few of the very best preserved bones. If the bones really were a few 1000 years old, as creationists claim, then recovering well preserved proteins, and even DNA, should a be matter of routine, as it is for archaeological material that really is a few 1000 years old. It isn’t. Why not?
Creationist: God did it.
Evolutionist: Which one?
Creationist: There is only one.
Evolutionist: You mean Allah? (Or Jehovah, or FSM, take your pick, depending on the religion of the creationist, just don’t pick their god).
Creationist: Fossils are ordered according to how mobile they were. So fast running creatures appear higher than slow ones. Flying ones higher still, and so on.
Evolutionist: Flowering plants appear higher than mosses and ferns, grasses higher still. Can grasses run faster than magnolias?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by subbie, posted 01-23-2012 12:08 PM subbie has seen this message but not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 42 by Percy, posted 03-06-2013 10:40 AM Steve660 has not replied

  
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