What you want to do is get to the evidence, eventually. Seattle Liberal
has a well written and nicely formatted series up to help with the basics. My post this morning concerns tactics.
I think the Evolution Vs Intelligent Design Creationism (IDC) spectacle is a fruitful training ground for those of you who wish to learn to debate in general, and especially those of you who wish to debate Neo-right wing religious extremists specifically. You learn the ins and outs of debate and deception, you pick up on their tactics and how to thwart them, you'll learn a hell of a lot of science, and if you screw up it's only a friendly science discussion; were not talking about torture or distractive wars or serious assaults on liberty here. Likewise, if you win, you've taught someone who is vulnerable to those who pray on sincere faith, that the neo-right is not to be trusted. Graphic Language Warning
Note- if you're not willing to put in the study time for debating IDCist Billbob, you'd better be careful doing so in public. Because that's
all the theocon Billbobs of the nation do. It isn't a hobby for them, it's their livelihood. They sit around all day and get paid to cook up ways to deceive people into believing that their ultrafundamentalist flat earthism is scientific, patriotic, and of course, Godly. Then they go out and test it day after day to see what cons work the best, and refine them. Few of us are willing after all to spend years learning the underlying science and mathematics, for the sole purpose that we can be useful targets in the debate for IDC shills to tar and feather in front of cheering fundies. Whether it's a big public debate, or a one-on-one discussion with a creationist or a creationism sympathizer, the biggest mistake one can make is to go charging off with science. The predators of the neo-right feed on folks which have usually been led to believe that science (And by extension critical analysis) is inherently atheistic and anti-God.
It's more useful to think of the modern IDC campaign as precisely that: A Campaign. It's obviously not limited to scientific convention. Like any other part of the neo-right wing propaganda machine, it's tag lines, buzzwords, appeals to emotion and bias; PR tactics, just like a commercial campaign for a product, with the clear message being that you're either with us right wing fanatics, or you're with Satan and the terrorists. And the guys who are the advertising specialists for the creationist arm of the neo-right are entities like The Discovery Institute(DI). They aren't operating under the conventions of science at all. You'd better understand that. IDCists are operating under the ethical format of a firm hired by a cola company to advertise and market Cola. It's a PR and Lobbying organization, where each part does its job preparing the ad product to appeal to target audiences. The targeted audience is composed primarily of sincere Christians. That firm is not going to provide accurate, scientific, information for consumers, in the hopes that potential customers are going to do a careful side-by-side comparison of Cola and Pepsi. Using the cola company as a metaphor, they're going to show a couple of sets of highly augmented Swedish Twins wearing a slick coat of tanning oil, playing volleyball clothed in translucent Cola T-shirts, to push deep emotional buttons. And that firm won't think of what they're doing as lying, they wont think of themselves as liars, even though they're fully aware that they're doing anything they can to present their product in the best light possible, the facts be damned. But you can use the same basic tactics of PR, and you'll be providing accurate imformation in the process!
If there's one thing admen don't want people hearing or paying attention to, it's some honest, dimwitted, self-styled, party-pooper in consumerland figuring out and saying "Hey! This here Cola tastes an awful lot like dat no name brand soda water at Walmart! And not one bodacious bisexual barely eighteen-year-old Swedish chick, with breast implants wearing a wet T-shirt, has made a sticky-hot appearance in my life, giving rise to a steaming letter to Playboy's Forum. Even though I've polished off a whole godamn case of this stuff!" No, no, no! That kind of shit better not become an urban meme, because it's death for the advertising executive. That's how you lose accounts, market share, and eventually your job. You don't want a side-by-side analysis, good Lord no! You want a very loaded, inaccurate, completely unfair, comparison. Better yet, if your product sucks, you want no comparison. So you want to direct customers away from anything which will burst that fantasy image you've so carefully created. Bouncy (Cola) perky (Cola) titties (COLA!!!!), yes! That's what we want! That's what we need! And that's what we want you to think, you lovely brainless consumerite drones. Buy Cola goddamit, get some bouncy titties in your life loser, and don't stop to think about it!
And boy, if there's one thing that scares the shit out of those oily salesmen at the DI, it's Theistic Evolution. As the carefully airbrushed and distorted image of the Creator is to creationism-and the whole right wing for that matter-so are illusory hot, bangin, babes to beer and cola ads. And just like the advertising exec who realizes his painstakingly crafted illusion of cola-sex melts away into a puddle of slop in the sobering light of reason, about the last thing the DI wants their customer base to ever consider is theistic evolution. With theistic evolution, the stealth codes words for atheism, such as humanism, Nazism, Stalinism, naturalism, oh and the fave of all, MATERIALISM, are inconveniently stripped of their power to portray scientists as vicious, Godless, Christian-hating, saber-toothed monsters. And all that's left of the caricature is a declawed fat tabby yawning lazily in between naps and cans of Tasty-treat cat food with a saucer of milk on the side. Try something like this as an opener.
"I feel honored at being descended from a long line of God's wondrous living creations, and for sharing the amazingly complex biochemical processes those ancestral benefactors endowed us with. I praise our past legacy and I thank our Linnean cousins; from the microbes to the primates, for through them God bequeathed unto us the finest instrument and possession we will ever own: Our human body and our human brain. Billbob you apparently don't like the idea that God used science to Create. Why?"
Oh, how they run like frightened little cockroaches caught in the beam of that brilliant cone of light! Oh, how their slick, charming, patronizing act quickly turns to agitated incoherent attack when the possibility that their deity used evolutionary processes is presented! "Not fair!" they cry, almost in whiny desperation. Because they know, the mother fuckers, they know, the easy money just walked once that happens. Theistic evolution is like Green Kryptonite to their Super Strawman of atheism cough-evolution-cough implication. And they know, oh how they know, how totally fucked they are if you succeed in exposing their fallacy. Billbob's guts will twist and turn inside like they've just been force fed raw cayenne pepper washed down with a glassful of jalopeno puree. Now, instead of sticking with the sloganistic cliches appealing to the lowest common denominator, now instead of shouting easy one liner soundbites about atheism and evolution even a toothless, wife-beating, impromptu star on COPS could comprehend, they're looking straight down the barrel of the same gun they've been pointing at us for years, and this time you're holding it.
Of course they'll try, after all they're advertising execs, so hell yeah, they'll try to diss theistic evolution. But boy howdy, what a minefield they suddenly find themselves gingerly stepping through, eh? They thought they were going to jog down a wide ten-lane highway of resentment paved with atheism while the vanguards of faithful cheer throwing rose petals in their path. Suddenly they're crawling on all fours in the dark through the mud, rounds zipping overhead, testing the ground in front of them with sticks, lest they proceed too carelessly and blow themselves into a cloud of pink, blood stained, confetti by saying something that ticks off the Christian masses.
You do this with an IDCists in public, and suddenly it's gloves off, I promise you. He or She will often go for the jugular. They will usually fall for the trap and do anything to stop the hemorrhaging of their credibility as Christians and you as an atheist scumbag. That's when they become easy to takedown my friends, my comrades, because it's time for a little turnabout on these lying pricks. This is when they get desperate, but keep in mind every good conman always has a back-up plan. So you better have one also. For example, they might respond awkwardly with something like "Are you telling me all of the sudden you're claiming there is a God. My understanding is that you and Richard Dawkins thought us silly Christian as quaint little primitive savages worshipping a magic man in the sky?"
And now you have them folks, now they're yours, it's payback time for these shitheads. They just rolled the dice, but it's snake-eyes for 'em, because we can say whatever we want also, right people?
"Well, duh; I believe in a Creator ... and geez Louis, the Creator I believe in is sure as heck not limited by what Man wishes He used to Create or did not use to Create. Even the best scientists say the universe started from a single moment of creation, it hasn't always been here. Someone HAD to start it. And if that someone wants to invent and use science to Create, He can use science to create, and the evidence says that He's one heck of a brilliant scientist far beyond human conception!" Look into the audience very reverently when you say this and nod. A few heads will nod back.
POW! BAM! Take that motherfucker for all the times you've misled your Christian fellows to buy your tasteless colored soda water. Take that and stick it up your ass. Like it? Plenty more where that came from. After he says whatever, you plow right on. Don't even pay attention to him.
"Well for Pete's sake Billbob, God isn't limited by your prejudices or wishes, and the evidence we've found using science does nothing less than Shout His brilliance for all to see! I don't see why you have a monopoly on telling our Creator how He can and cannot Create! " And really lay on the patronizing innuendo when you say "your". Pull that fucker through the same painful cotton gin he'd pull you through, and don't show any mercy. Whatever you do, don't show this bastard a shred of compassion or you'll regret it. So keep going with:
"When I look at the scientific evidence for the Creator's genius, it literally makes me tremble, it humbles me with it's magnificent Glory. Who are we to say what God can and cannot do, especially given the signs He so graciously left behind for us to discover with our God given intellects?" Shrug good naturedly, turn to the conman, and then, if no one can see you but the scamster, give him a little "Haha!" wink. Yes we've Jackie Channed that gat right out of their filthy hands, and now we're holding it at their forehead and grinning as we pull back the hammer boys and girls. It's "Austa la vista Baby".
Now they know, they've got to come up with a convoluted explanation which will actually force their poor, mislead marks to think, and they know, those lying bastards they know, that thinking spells DOOM for them. Maybe they'll try with some theology to reassert themselves, you have to be ready for anything. No problem:
"Well, in terms of your personal interpretation of Scripture, if two decent God fearing people read the bible, and one reads the bible to say the earth is flat, and the other that it doesn't mean that literally, how do we decide which is more plausible? Isn't it just common sense to actually LOOK for ourselves at the Earth's shape to decide? Thessalonians 5:21 says to "test everything", so if we can test it, we shouldn't be afraid to do so! I mean it doesn't matter how nicely done your flat-earth theology is, if it demonstrably fails the simple test of checking, it doesn't really make any sense to argue God made the earth flat ... right? God is one heck of a scientists and that's understating it!" Smile at the crowd, like you're thinking 'can you believe this poor flat earth guy dissin God-eh like that?'
Oh yeah baby, it's curtains for Billbob's bullshit argument that science is atheism now. He'll try, Odin knows he'll try to recover that advantage. He may even retain his composure brilliantly, he's a conman, and a respectable professional advertising and PR mouthpiece afterall. But inside, he'd like to curl up and take a dive right about now, inside that jalopeno puree is backing up causing four alarm acid reflux, because he's on the defensive big time, he's gagging and sputtering on the dish you just rammed down his treacherous gullet. He's fighting a two front war, trying to untangle himself from the flat-earth smack down and trying to reassert his authority to speak for God without dissing God in the process. And folks who worship Da' Man don't like see'in Da' Man getting dissed.
Don't let up. Don't cut that SOB an inch of slack until he agrees with you and concedes the point, or falls over dead. You keep bashing his head in with theistic evolution until that lying prick either runs away screaming, or lays on the floor
metaphorically bleeding out of every orifice, or better yet,alienates his consumer base. Fight fire with effin fire boys and girls. Yes, it's useful to be kind, patient, and understanding to the individual nonscientist Christian who's been conned, it's utterly counterproductive to extend that courtesy to the conmen themselves. So, don't pussyfoot around those shysters. They're subtle shills, skillful liars, and charming public speakers, and they don't deserve something they themselves do not offer their own opponents, i.e., civility or scientific courtesy. They'll use any opening you give them to lie, deceive, or distort, and along the way they'll knife you in the backside in a heartbeat. And as they're so fond of telling us, you reap what you sow my friends, you reap what you sow.
And now of course you probably have an opening if you do know the evidence. The smart IDC shill will abandon the evo=atheism/nazism/stalinism/insert your own horridism argument, and try to say that IDC is a secular scientific theory. If so, you've already won a major victory, because now you're no longer talking about science Vs God, you're talking about the scientific evidence for what actually transpired. And you can recite several points as evidence God did use evolution in a theistic format. Which means you're holding four aces and he's bluffing with a busted flush. Because he doesn't have any evidence at all. I'll have more on how to play that hand tomorrow, and it works against both the professional IDC conman and the sincere theist who is trying to make heads or tails of the issue.