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Author Topic:   Books By Creationists?
Coyote
Member (Idle past 2134 days)
Posts: 6117
Joined: 01-12-2008


Message 28 of 142 (613329)
04-24-2011 6:59 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Tram law
04-24-2011 12:34 PM


Creationists' books
The question is do you read books by creationists and do what you can to debunk them to show how dishonest theists are?
I don't read books by creationists as much as I research them. I have a number of them in my library.
Rather than read them I will usually look up their statements on particular subjects with which I am familiar. It does me less good to see what they say about subjects I know nothing about.
I research subjects I know well, like radiocarbon dating and evidence for the flood, and see what they say. In most cases I need to go back to original sources and see if I can find the sources of various errors. However, sometimes the books I am researching are the original sources of the errors. For example, I have found a number of blatant errors in Ken Ham, Andrew Snelling, and Carl Weiland’s The Answers Book.
When the creationists' books make a claim that sounds false, I go to the original sources (if they even cite them) and see what those sources say. The error rate is quite high on those claims that I have been able to track down and fully examine.
If the creationist literature is as poorly researched in all fields as I have found it to be in the fields I know, then it is a pretty sorry lot.

Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Tram law, posted 04-24-2011 12:34 PM Tram law has not replied

  
Coyote
Member (Idle past 2134 days)
Posts: 6117
Joined: 01-12-2008


Message 52 of 142 (613465)
04-25-2011 3:09 PM
Reply to: Message 48 by slevesque
04-25-2011 2:47 PM


Evidence
The same way you think about creationism, the same way I think of evolution. Every which way I turn it, I see it as being falsified by all angles. That is to say, even if I was not a creationist, I would be not thin kthe ToE would be true.
The problem with this approach is that it ignores evidence.
The theory of evolution is something that can be supported easily by real world evidence. Members of all cultures can research the topic and see that evidence. There is worldwide agreement on the broad outline of evolution, and disagreements are primarily about new finds and small details.
Creationism and all of it's related beliefs (YEC, global flood, etc.) are the opposite. They do not stem from real world evidence but are held in spite of real world evidence! These beliefs are not worldwide but restricted to members of certain fundamentalist religions. And there are serious disagreements among those religions. There are some 38,000 different flavors, sects, and denominations of Christianity alone.*
In science when new evidence is found old theories are modified or discarded. With creationism you are more likely to have a schism and split a denomination in two. The reason is science relies of evidence while creationism relies on belief.
Your statement, above, that you would not consider evolution true--no matter what--is a statement of belief, not a reliance on evidence.
* Source

Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 48 by slevesque, posted 04-25-2011 2:47 PM slevesque has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 57 by slevesque, posted 04-25-2011 3:25 PM Coyote has not replied

  
Coyote
Member (Idle past 2134 days)
Posts: 6117
Joined: 01-12-2008


Message 75 of 142 (613525)
04-25-2011 9:23 PM


Statements of faith
Regarding those statements of faith:
Anyone subscribing to one of those statements can not legitimately do science.
They would have to subordinate the scientific method to that statement of belief whenever the two conflicted.
I suppose there might be some field where there would be no conflicts, but those statements are diametrically opposed to the scientific method.

Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.

  
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