This guy from Tennessee is coming to my school tomorow to spend three hours teaching about the evil religion of evolution, and promoting the idea of earth being created in 6 days and stuff.

So anyway... when he asks if there are any questions, I want to pop the most difficult-for-him-to-answer question that I possibly can. I know a lot of people here on massassi are pretty smart in this area, and I was wondering if there were any suggestions.

Can you prove God exists?

or

How do you live with yourself?

Yee haw smartass time

Something was coalescing in my head about seeing evolution first-hand with the development of multiple types of infectious antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but I lost it. And he'd probably just say that God made them to punish us for tolerating homosexuality or something. However, if you can find a way to pick that one up and make it fly, all the better for you. I hit a dead end. Probably something to do with that relapse of computer gaming addiction fogging my mind, curse it all.

A very nice question might be "Can you explain why God made men with nipples?"

Hm.

There might be a logical answer for that, though.

Maybe.

Hm.

"If God exists, why did He in his Almighty Glory plague us with Tennessee?"

Edit: "Why would a just and kind God create people as stupid as you?"

Edit 2: Screw the questions. Just rush the stage with a battery-operated powerdrill in one hand and a fistful of rock salt in the other.

i'd go for the classic:

"how much are they paying you to be here?"

Find out if he has a degree from an accredited university and ask about that.

What's his name?

Or even better:

"I think youre the ****ing antichrist."

"Why are there dinosaur fossils and bones of prehistoric animals?" is usually a good one. They tend to give different answers.

"If the bible is to be taken literally, what do we do about the parts that promote slavery between nations? Or the parts that actively condone stoning as a form of punishment?"

Or

"Why is religion always at least half a millenia behind science? It took over 300 years before the Pope recognized they made a mistake with Galileo, do you think it'll take that long before they say the same about Darwin?"

Or

"If there is a God, what makes you think anything he did would have any meaning for an average person when the Bible was written unless severely dumbed down?"

^ I like the first two

I'm pretty sure the Catholic church already recognizes evolution as the tool god used to envoke creation or some nonsense.

Anything you say will be retorted with logical fallacies, insults, or some other tactic typical of creationists. The only way to "get him" would not only be to pose a very difficult question, but to anticipate his answers and retort them before you are done speaking, giving him no room to manuever.

Good point. Don't act like a smartass, act like your really really want to know. Like if they were to answer but these simple questions, your would be forever loyal to the Church.

"How did Noah fit all the species of animals on the ark?"

or

"Why is it that you feel so threatened by a theory that suggests that everything wasn't created in its present form by God? What is wrong with reading the biblical creation story as a metaphor, especially when so many other things in the Bible are clearly not literally true?"

"Where you want it? Head or gut?"

I especially like Kyles second idea.

What do babies taste like?

Why didn't people in the bible ever shave?

I know a lot of evolutionists here scuff at this but here's the link again that used to be in my sig:

http://www.drdino.com

Savage, when I'm sober and have more time, I'll go through more than the few topics of that site that I've been through. But thus far, the fact that I've held an chimp apendix and that not just giraffs but all mammals (lymphatic system) have valves in their blood vessels doesn't seem to lead me to believe that anyone at that site knows anything about what they're talking about...

I'm sorry Savage but Kent Hovind is the last creationist I would listen to if I was so inclined to believe in creationism. He represents old, flawed arguments repeatedly and worms his way out of responding to counter-arguments. He shifts the goal posts by bringing in Big Bang theory and lumping it together with the theory of evolution. On top of that, he compares scientists and atheists to Nazis and Communists simultaneously, claiming there's a new world order on its way and encouraging everyone to read the protocols of Zion, a fraudulent anti-semitic piece of work that claims that the Jews are trying to take over the world etc etc.
Watch this lecture of his if you want: http://blueletterbible.org/audio_video/hovind_kent/creation/creation_5.ram

Simply trying to discredit someone using their education won't be all that effective.

link

Educate yourself before you make blatant assumptions.

If God made us, then where did God come from? Does God know where he came from?

[QUOTE=IRG SithLord]Simply trying to discredit someone using their education won't be all that effective.[/QUOTE]
Sure it would. A lot of creationists only have degrees from diploma mills. Meaning they don't have an education, and are therefore completely unqualified to teach evolution, let alone criticize it.

But they'll just cite the name of the diploma mill that, unless you know it in particular, will sound just the same as any other small college that you've never heard of.

I don't see any good questions to ask him that he won't already have an answer for...

Yeah, but you're not even taking the crowd into consideration. If the majority of the audience is even christian, discrediting the guy's education won't do much, I think. I would think that you would be better off giving everyone something to think about.

Please correct me if I'm wrong I dont even live your country let alone attend school there, but isnt it illegal to teach creationism in the classroom? How is this guy getting away with it?

As for what to ask the guy, my #1 question would simply be where is the evidence that supports your theory? All scientific hypotheses have physical evidence which support them, as is the case of evolution. Can you provide any non-hearsay physical evidence of the theory of creationism? If god was on trial for creating the universe he'd be found not guilty.

"Isn't it an insult to God to claim that he didn't come up with a system as elegant and ingenious as evolution?"

"If maintaing your faith relies on the rejection of accepted science, shouldn't you be questioning whether you are faithful for the right reasons?"

From what I understand, the guy is some sort of guest speaker so no, it's not illegal.

Also, if it's a private school, teaching creationism is legal.

"The bible claims that different languages are the result of a single event, in the story of the Tower of Babel. Do you also disbelieve in the evolution of language?"

I've never actually heard a creationist's view on this.

I'm surprised I don't see a post for this yet...
Yes, there is a logical answer for that one.

Although it's been a while so I don't remember the wording I originally read, but I think it said it has to do with the fact that both men and women develop very similarly in the early stages of life (embryo, toddler, etc). Until the age of 7 or something broadly close to that, the developments don't split off in their respective directions (granted, there are certain features that existed at and before this point and distinguish boys and girls, i.e. reproductive organs). Men have nipples because our bodies were designed to develop breasts, but, except in rare circumstances, men don't continue that particular development while women do.

This is also the reason some women have a significant amount of facial hair, along with other rarities.

(Hopefully I didn't butcher this bit too much :o)


Ask him if Adam and Eve had belly buttons :p [/classic]

or "What makes the Bible any different than any religious texts of fallen civilizations like the ancient Greeks, or the Egyptians?"

*blink*

certification != education. There are plenty of people capable of teaching evolution who don't have any certifications. There are plenty of people without a diploma with good educations. It is wholly possible and not even improbable to make this happen. I find it absurd that you can somehow come to the conclusion that someone _does not have an education_ because they don't have a diploma.

Furthering that, there are people with very prestigious diplomas from the best schools ever who are dumb as dirt.

The real problem here is, just like anything else, you only see the fringe. Extermist Earl is very vocal; Average Joe is not. It's Joe you want to listen to; he represents what most people on that side of the issue think. Earl's a loud mouthed idiot. Average Joe hates him even more than you do.

I did a whole class semester on this stuff.

I believe the Bible is a religious book, not a science book, and it was never intended to be used as such. Unfortunately many Christians seem to think the Bible is God's documentary on the universe, when its God's documentary on his love.

There are numerous clearly metaphorical passages in the Bible, yet some Christians refuse to believe the Creation story is anything but fact. I forget specific examples right now.

Lots of scientific evidence from DIFFERENT, INDEPENDANT SOURCES points to an old earth. Little, if any, evidence supports a young earth.

By an extension of the above, literal creation should not be taught in schools because it has no scientific evidence to back it, and thus is not fit for a science class. It could only be taught in a religious context.

Plenty of Christian scientists believe in evolution and do not see it conflicting with the Christian faith.

The Christians who insist on a literal creation story from Genesis do so because they believe it is a cornerstone of their faith. As a Christian I believe it is not, rather the love, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to save us from hell is the single, sole belief of Christianity that everything else builds on. Genesis' story of the fall of man is an important part of this but occurs after the creation story.

Christian children are not taught the true facts about evolution, only that it is wrong and they should not listen to it. (I speak from personal experience.)

Christianity and evolution in no way conflict, infact I believe evolution shows a more powerful God than a 6-day creation. I think of it this way: God snapped his metaphorical fingers and we got the big bang. Not only that, but everythign in the bang was arranged in a specific way so that our solar system would form, earth would form, life would emerge, and humans would evolve. All planned in an instant, all executed in an instant, and God sit back and let his tapestry weave itself! (That's my personal view.)

Virii are a modern proof that evolution and natural selection exist. Any doctor will tell you that if you have a virus, medicine of some sort can help kill it. If you don't take enough, the virus won't die fast enough, and may become immune to the medicine. This happens through natural selection, where random mutations in the virus make it immune, and those virii survive the purge and then replicate with their new DNA.

HIV/AIDs treatment sees this alot. New treatments involve taking patients off medicine completely for a bit. The virus now mutates and replicates and soon is no longer resistant to the medicines it was before (as it no longer needs that gene to survive so virii without it can live and replicate the lack-of-gene). Then, a cocktail of different treatments can get the virus more under control than it was before removing the medicine.

You should just laugh loudly after everything he says