Prelude to Debate

OK, so to catch everyone up on what has happened behind the scenes, It was earlier this week I was in communication with a great guy I met in Malaysia years back and through a very good friend, Let's call him "Showlib".

This man, Mohammad, from Yemen, is a truly generous, thoughtful man who I enjoyed many long discussions with over our time together. It is an honor to find someone who simply enjoys the discussion itself. So earlier this week, Mohammad sent me a link to a YouTube video, the same creationist video I referred to in my previous post about Islamic Creationism. Well, I sent him a reply which was, from his point of view, very unfair and rude, and I feel an obligation now to clarify as well as bring this into the public light.

Here was my email to Mohammad,

The video you sent me is of the vilest anti-intellectual trash I have ever seen. To keep it short, it is a collection of misrepresented scientists and broadly misrepresented science, followed by creationists who have lost all credibility in their fields, or who had none to begin with. The show combines some of the most common and easily debunked fallacies about theology, as well as mixing it all together with the worst of the conspiracy theories. Any scientist who might watch it would crap their pants, and the creationists featured on the video would have a heart attack if they knew their work would go towards supporting Islam.

Here is my proposal. I know many people do not care to learn but only from sources they enjoy. To send you a critique of the video, detail by detail pointing out the uncountable errors, would take me a long time. So, I have to know, if I were to send you links, eBooks  and other information, do you want to read them and reply, or would that ultimately be a waste of my time?

YES that means you have to read books on science, evolution, cosmology, and so on. If you are willing to believe this childishly simplistic nonsense, I wonder how amazing you would find proper science. So, I will leave it up to you if you want to take the next step or not. 
Take care, I look forward to hearing from you! 

Enjoy life, this is your only one...probably ;-)Jeffrey

I feel I need to explain why I chose this tone of voice to express myself. First of all, throughout humanity, there are many people who sincerely care if their beliefs are true or not, and they are not adverse to finding corrections or criticism, and take pleasure in being wrong, at least they are learning.

Then there are those who are happy with their beliefs, and not care if they are truth or fiction. If I find this person, then the conversation becomes very annoying, as no matter what I say, it will go in one ear and out the other. This becomes one of the first things I try to find out.

Secondly, all across the world, we find pockets of creationists who, in secular societies, try to gain leverage in introducing creationism in the classroom by asking for two sides of the debate. By suggesting there is legitimate controversy, it gives legitimacy to the entire concept of creationism, which there is none. I will write more about that specifically, tomorrow, but for today I simply wanted to point out that I refuse to give creationism any intellectual foothold, and by not respecting it as science. So when I say "anti-intellectual trash", what I am trying to say is that the very premise of every argument involved is flawed.

So here is my plan. I will be in contact with Mohammad, and hope that he can get involved with me here, to share information and have an on-going dialog, this time to explain why the video he sent me was vile, but in a more technical way. I hope a dialog can commence this way.

Thanks everyone and look for tomorrow's formal response to the video.