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 Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 5:47 pm
I'm sure most of you have experienced it before. It seems that while conversing about theories, a lot of misconceptions are pushed around. This was inspired by a debate I am having right now in which my opponent apparently thought that science stated that life came out of the Big Bang. I am making a list of common misconceptions of science. -"It's just a theory" Guess what? Gravity's "only a theory" too.-The Big Bang was an explosion. -The Big Bang was how the universe was created. VERY common misconception about the Big Bang. In fact, the Big Bang does not describe the beginning of the universe at all. It merely states that the universe used to be a lot more compact than it is now, and it started expanding billions of years ago. No "burst of light" involved.-We evolved from monkeys Nope. We evolved from apes. Two very different things.-Science is a religion Merriam-Webster's Dictionary Main Entry: re·li·gion Pronunciation: ri-'li-j&n Function: noun Etymology: Middle English religioun, from Anglo-French religiun, Latin religion-, religio supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, perhaps from religare to restrain, tie back -- more at RELY 1 a : the state of a religious b (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith
No, it's not.-Intelligent Design is a theory Let's see if you can find one single biologist who makes that claim. It's not recognised within the biological community. It's untestable and purely bullshit. Also, it doesn't follow common logic. Its argument is that something as complex as life must have been developed by an even more complex being. If this logic is true, then that complex being must have been created by an even more complex being, and so on.-A theory can become a law if there's enough evidence to support it. A theory cannot become a law. They're completely seperate things. A law states what happens, and a theory tries to explain why.-"Life is so complex, that it isn't possible for it have evolved on it's own." We're talking 2 billion years here. No human can even concieve that number. Considering how many different types of dogs there are after only 10,000 years or so of breeding, is it really impossible for natural selection to create something so complex?-Evolution has no facts to back it up. If this were true, it wouldn't be a theory.
http://www.gate.net/~rwms/EvoEvidence.html
The mountain of evidence for evolution is so high, it could take me weeks to try to explain it all. Taking high school biology was enough for me. Mutations, fossil records, similar genes...The list goes on.I just went brain-dead. Anyways, help contribute to my list, and maybe even post links and/or explainations to help debunk these common misconceptions. That way, I'll check them over and they can be used by any atheist gaian when they're in the ED (Or whatever). biggrin
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Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 6:15 pm
Big one: "Evolution is a religion
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Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:19 pm
addseale2 Big one: "Evolution is a religion Good one. Although I think I'll revise it to "Science is a religion"...
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Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:04 pm
"Theories are undeniable truths."
Sorry, buck-o. Theories are theories. Not facts.
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 8:47 am
Here is one I see all the time in the GD:
Athiesm is a religion. Athiesm isn't a religion, because there involves to god or diety worship.
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 8:52 am
Theory is something that can be tested, proven, or disprove. It is scientific in nature.
That said I get tired of this misconception that Intelligent Design, or Creationism are both Theories.
One: Neither are scientific topics because they involve Faith.
Two: They both involve ideas that cannot be tested, proven, or disproven.
Three: "Creationist Scientists" are obviously on drugs when they write and draft out thier reports. Thier ideas go so far into the realm of fantasy, and back again. (I can't prove the drug part it but that is my honest opinion)
Another thing that many thiests try to say is that "Life is so complex, that it isn't possible for it have evolved on it's own. There must be a guiding hand involved.
That in a way is a misconception too. Every hear of Chaos Theory? It basically proved that life can self-organize itself without any outside help. Complex systems all have have thier own capability to self-organize.
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 2:46 pm
Theories usually are able to be disproven. Its the more facts upholding the theory that keep it from being totally tossed aside.
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Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:38 am
The idea of the friendly alien is cool, but the killer alien (ALIENS, War o' da Worlds, E.T.) scare the s**t out of me.
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Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 6:45 am
Dathu The idea of the friendly alien is cool, but the killer alien (ALIENS, War o' da Worlds, E.T.) scare the s**t out of me. That's utterly flawed, even against the conquistador argument (as anyone with some time and lumber can build a ship.) If a race is advanced enough for faster than light travel, they're probably more benevolent than we are. (Which, honestly, doesn't seem like a major accomplishment some times. xD)
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Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:02 am
addseale2 Dathu The idea of the friendly alien is cool, but the killer alien (ALIENS, War o' da Worlds, E.T.) scare the s**t out of me. That's utterly flawed, even against the conquistador argument (as anyone with some time and lumber can build a ship.) If a race is advanced enough for faster than light travel, they're probably more benevolent than we are. (Which, honestly, doesn't seem like a major accomplishment some times. xD)
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Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 1:27 am
Dathu The idea of the friendly alien is cool, but the killer alien (ALIENS, War o' da Worlds, E.T.) scare the s**t out of me.
I want a nice alien to visit. :3 Then we can have tea...and if they don't drink tea...I'll find a damn substitute. 3nodding
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Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 1:32 am
Sanguvixen Here is one I see all the time in the GD:
Athiesm is a religion. Athiesm isn't a religion, because there involves to god or diety worship. This is about science, not atheism. Nice one, though.
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Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 9:07 am
Lethkhar Sanguvixen Here is one I see all the time in the GD:
Athiesm is a religion. Athiesm isn't a religion, because there involves to god or diety worship. This is about science, not atheism. Nice one, though. Oh ok...
What about the one that quite a few thiests believe?
It is a very big misconception that Evolution has no facts or evidence to back it up.
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Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 3:17 am
I pretty much just leave the argument when a theist says "TEH IS NO TRANSITIONAL FOSSILES!!!!", there is no point in even arguing as they have not even googled their statement.
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Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:50 am
I feel your pain. I actually put together a jpeg with the definitions that come up the most.  you are free to steal it, just make sure you credit it to TheFiresOfStupid. ^_^ The evolution one only hits on speciation, you should sure to mention that evolution doesn't need to result in the formation of a new species, it just can do so and oftentimes it does eventually.
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