October 2, 2009
Richard Dawkins’ Appearance on the Colbert Report
Dawkins was on Colbert the other night, and although the appearance went pretty much as I expected, I thought there were two pretty noteworthy moments.
First, Dawkins came on to the show wearing a custom “crocoduck” tie, after the nonsense strawman argument against evolution peddled by our Way-of-the-Master friends Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. (“If evolution is real,” Cameron asks, “then why don’t we see any transitional fossils?“) And by “transitional fossils,” Cameron doesn’t mean actual transitional fossils, but nonsensical fuzors, such as the half-crocodile, half-duck “crocoduck.” See how cute he is?
The Way of the Master "crocoduck"
I love the idea of the atheist movement co-opting the crocoduck (and the banana, and other ridiculous arguments) and repurposing it as a teaching tool.
Second, although it’s always a challenge to make a serious point on Colbert, Dawkins was able to summarize his argument as: “In the beginning there was simplicity. Evolution (and other naturalistic processes) tell us how we can get from simplicity to complexity.” I think this is a pretty good two-line summary of the Ultimate Boeing 747 argument and a good shorthand answer to various design arguments.
makarios said,
October 2, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Ya, there was simplicity all right. In the beginning there was nothing – NOTHING. And you know what Dawkins says? He says that nothing “evolved” into everything. He even tells us that inanimate and inorganic gases evolved. It’s brain numbing to see what atheists are willing to believe just to avoid Creator God as Cause.
Andrew said,
October 2, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Find me one citation where Richard Dawkins says that “nothing evolved into everything.”
makarios said,
October 2, 2009 at 4:09 pm
http://makarios-makarios.blogspot.com/2009/09/in-order-to-be-atheist.html
Andrew said,
October 2, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Notice the word “nearly.”
יאיר רזק said,
October 12, 2009 at 5:30 am
“In the beginning there was simplicity. Evolution (and other naturalistic processes) tell us how we can get from simplicity to complexity.” I think this is a pretty good two-line summary of the Ultimate Boeing 747 argument
Yes, but I would prefer “Evolution (and other naturalistic processes) get us from simplicity to complexity”, or “Evolution (and other naturalistic theories) show us how nature gets from simplicity to complexity”.
BWfangirl said,
February 22, 2012 at 1:16 am
OMG Beast Wars ❤