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Lionel Mandrake

(4,121 posts)
Fri Apr 5, 2024, 02:28 PM Apr 2024

mealy-mouthed creationists

Many people mistake pseudoscience for science, and always have done so. For example, "Intelligent Design" (ID) and other forms of creationism are now recognized as pseudoscience, and evolutionary biology as science, in the courts as well as in the academy. For another example, astrology is now recognized as pseudoscience, and astronomy as science, but until the 17th century astronomy and astrology were generally viewed as equally respectable parts of a single science. In both examples, the proponents of pseudoscience used to say what what was really on their minds. Proponents of astrology still do so, but nowadays creationists say one thing to each other and something else to the public. A paradigmatic example of this is the infamous Wedge Document perpetrated by the Discovery Institute (DI) in 1998, which outlined their public-relations strategy. The DI tried to keep the Wedge Document secret, but it was leaked in 1999.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge_strategy
A new law in West Virginia provides another example of mealy-mouthed creationism:
https://apnews.com/article/west-virginia-intelligent-design-religion-teaching-e01560041051a061c65a83f4129e0993
Further examples will be found on social media (e.g., Facebook), where a great many posts are promulgated by DI avatars like the “Center for Science and Culture” and “Evolutionnews”. The sheer volume of this disinformation guarantees that many people will mistake ID pseudoscience for science.

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mealy-mouthed creationists (Original Post) Lionel Mandrake Apr 2024 OP
It's important to find out what these people think in private-- CaliforniaPeggy Apr 2024 #1
I'm not optimistic either. Lionel Mandrake Apr 2024 #4
The Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense JoseBalow Apr 2024 #2
An excellent display of quackery! WestMichRad Apr 2024 #3
I like the Venn diagram, but ... Lionel Mandrake Apr 2024 #5
I would prefer that too JoseBalow Apr 2024 #6
Ear candles ? I don't think I really want to know. nt eppur_se_muova Apr 2024 #7

CaliforniaPeggy

(152,083 posts)
1. It's important to find out what these people think in private--
Fri Apr 5, 2024, 03:03 PM
Apr 2024

Where they're only talking among themselves. This is where their hearts really are.

Then it might be possible to introduce the truth to them, although I'm not optimistic about that.

Lionel Mandrake

(4,121 posts)
4. I'm not optimistic either.
Fri Apr 5, 2024, 04:48 PM
Apr 2024

Religious fanatics are interested only in propaganda in the original sense of the term: how to persuade others that they are right.

JoseBalow

(5,151 posts)
6. I would prefer that too
Fri Apr 5, 2024, 05:10 PM
Apr 2024

"Bollocks" is the British version of "Bullshit" so it basically means the same thing. It's a dead giveaway that it was a Brit who originally created the diagram, I'm just too lazy to Photoshop the change myself.

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