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Get Some Balance

Entry 566, on 2007-07-03 at 20:39:23 (Rating 3, Comments)

I hate to harp on about the topic, but I'm beginning to realise the major cause of people having illogical and incorrect beliefs is lack of balance in their knowledge. I have mentioned this idea in previous podcasts but it was reinforced in a debate I'm currently engaged in on one of my blogs where the person I'm debating continually mentions points against evolution which seem to mirror those made by a well known intelligent design proponent, Jonathan Wells.

The points are easily negated, and if he had bothered to do a little bit of research my opponent would have realised this. Its important to know a bit about both sides of every story. Even if you are determined to believe one side you should at least know about the other side so that you can attack it and avoid making false statements (such as Darwin converting to Christianity and rejecting evolution at the time of his death). And for the more open minded people around its even possible that by exploring both sides they might change their mind about what's true.

I am a strong supporter of evolution and other science against religion and it might seem that I only know about one side of the story too. But that's definitely not true. Looking through the material about the evolution-creation debate I have on my computer I can see that I have a significant mount attacking evolution. None of it is particularly convincing, but I have read it and understand where the attacks on evolution come from.

I'm not scared to read about the opposition to evolution. I do wonder if believers are scared to consider the other side though because they are almost universally ignorant of the arguments for evolution and how evolutionist refute creationism and ID.

So my advice to anyone who wants to debate the subject is to do some real research (and that doesn't just mean to go to the Discovery Institute's web site for more propaganda) and get some balance.

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