"Evolution: Redefined". Not Evolution, not redefined.

Ok, so it takes me a while to digest and deconstruct these shows, but AHSsucks says thanks to you loyal readers for continuing to check out this blog. Also- to the guy or gal who was on at 2:41 am this morning- try melatonin. It helps. Or rent any of the films of Michelangelo Antonioni. Guaranteed to induce a sound sleep.

So I established in my last post that Allen's use of statistics is sloppy and misleading. If you listen to the podcast of his show you'll also notice that he doesn't even really understand the basic concept of evolution. Allen confuses evolution with cosmology- questions of how the universe came to exist. Evolution holds that species evolved from simpler life form by the process of natural selection. Evolution tells us nothing about the origin of the universe. And yet, Allen's refutation of evolution employs that tired old cosmological argument about how Something could possibly come out of Nothing.

Actually there are some very good treatments of this question by physicists and philosophers alike, but I don't really have time to get into that. Suffice it to say this argument has absolutely nothing to do with well-established fact of biological evolution.

This is typical of Christian fundamentalists though. Allen has zero knowledge of the fundamental concepts of science, yet he has the gall to dismiss a century of science merely because it threatens his precious mythology. Who do you think knows more about the nature of the universe, Allen Hunt or Stephen Hawking? Who knows more about biology, Allen Hunt or Stephen Jay Gould? Who knows more about the mind, Allen Hunt or Steven Pinker? Who knows more about itinerant first-century wonder-working rabbis? Allen Hunt or....okay, I'll give him that one.

Bonus McFacts:

1) Allen loves to cite Francis Collins (head of the Human Genome Project) as a prominent scientists who is also a believer. He's right- Collins is a real scientist, and also a born-again Christian. But Collins also believes in evolution. Why? BECAUSE HE'S NOT AN UNEDUCATED, IGNORANT-ASS NASCAR MORON, THAT'S WHY.

2) Michael Behe, Allen's guest on the Evolution show, also believes we are descended from apes. In fact he illustrates this fact in his book The Edge of Evolution. Behe disputes only the mechanism of natural selection as the force behind evolution. Allen conveniently neglected to ask about this on the show.

For advanced insomniacs: www.talkorigins.org