Alison Blogs Here

I’ve been seeing a lot of IDiots over the last few days “explaining” that evolution (they like to call it Darwinism, which right away tells you they don’t understand evolution >or< Darwin's theory) can't be possible because there are too many holes in the fossil record.  This is an awfully hard concept to wrap your mind around, because the lack of a relatively small number of trasitional forms over hundreds of millions of years doesn't change the fact that there are huge numbers of fossils that have been tested for age, that have shown DNA proof of genetic connection, and have been found in the same geographic areas as their predecessors and descendents.  Just because great grandma didn't turn into a fossil, you aren't suddenly erased from the face of the earth.  If this is the criterion they use, then creationism surely doesn't exist, because it >is< a big hole.  And it makes a giant sucking sound, too.  The scientific data that verifies creationism doesn’t exist at all, because it can’t be done.  The historic data that justifies creationism doesn’t exist, either, except for small bits and pieces (with big holes in between) that correspond with other historic records, but mostly it’s an unverifiable mythology written by primitive people.

Apply the idea that history does not exist if any pieces of information are missing, and the implications are huge.  You don’t have to look too far.  How much do we not know about the events leading up to 9/11 – about the event itself?  That’s surely enough to prove that it never happened.  Oh, wait.  There are people out there who actually believe it never happened because of that.  I’m sure the relatives of deceased loved ones will be happy to see them walking through the front door now that we know it can’t be proven.  In WWII, people were snatched from their homes and killed.  The Nazis didn’t bother to record all their identities, and when it became clear that they were about to be big-time losers, they destroyed a huge amount of recorded evidence.  Big, big holes there, so clearly, that never happened, either.  Oh, wait – there are Holocaust deniers out there, too.  I bet that suddenly all those people with the number tattoos are going to wonder where those came from, and why they’ve lost all those memories.  OK, here’s an easier one.  We know for a fact that a huge chunk was erased from the Watergate tapes, and it was really important.  It’s gone, so obviously, it probably never existed.  Watergate never happened.  I don’t think there are any Watergate deniers out there – maybe some apologists.  Nixon was kidnapped by aliens and the whole plot was hatched by his evil twin brother, Skippy.

Now, just because there are some parts missing in a historic event, or an entire history, it doesn’t disprove it.  That’s what the scientific method is for.  Connections between fossils and current living things can be shown even if a piece or two is missing – and where it’s questionable, the scientists keep asking.  It’s a logical fallacy to turn this around though – that creationism would also therefore be true despite its missing pieces – because there is nothing about it that can be proven using any scientific method.  No matter what kind of pseudo-intellectual hoo-ha the Discovery Institute and its trolls spread around, it comes down to “We don’t know, so god musta done it.”  I keep thinking of the Far Side cartoon with the mathematical formula written all over the chalkboard, and at the bottom, before the answer, it says “then a miracle happens.”