Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Ignorant religious fools

I'm not usually this cranky but the past couple of weeks have exposed the complete ignorance of very large parts of society. Seeing as I can't seem to escape the morons surrounding me, I really need to come here and vent my anger. My last couple of postings have ranted about it. Now, it seems that good old American invention, Intelligent Design, has reached Denmark.
Of course, religious people of Denmark are welcoming it. Which actually surprises me a bit, since most Danish priests have been schooled at universities and should know the essential logical flaws that this psuedo-scientific movement turns into "valid" arguments of the existance of God.

Basically, their very intelligent premise is:

"Well....eh....this evolution thing is all...erh..a bit confusing, to be honest. We don't see how an eye of a squid could have evolved, because..erh...if we remove the retinal lens, that poor squid goes blind! How could he have evolved the eye, then? I mean, lenses aren't in abundance on the bottom of the sea, are they? Nope, they aren't, we're sure of that. So, that proves it. It's too complex for the squid to have gotten hold of it...not like it had any lens manufacturers around or mail order or anything. Nah, God must have sent those lenses. He wouldn't allow a creature like that to splash around in blind agony...he's benevolent, remember?"

I was dumbfounded when the Danish national TV had a report describing this moronic argument as a "theory". That is just so wrong that my gut wrenches. At most it is a philosophical standpoint...no different from what religious people have been claiming all along.
The notion that "It's too complex to understand, so it is not understandable, and therfore an act of God" is perhaps the most crappy attempt at an argument for God's existance ever posed. Even the ancient Greeks would be on their asses laughing, giggling about circular arguments.

The real danger, however, is not these painfully stupid psuedo-scientists. Nope, it is the media that run their errands for them. Describing a sorry piece of empty rhetoric like that as a "theory" should get the responsible journalists fired on the spot, in my opinion. Because of them, a lot of regular people might be thinking, "Hey, that sounds alright, actually".

Unfortunately, this is an example of the Christian religious community now practising what various new age cults have been trying to do for years. Namely, mixing up religious dogma and scientific-sounding reasoning in order to suspend the deisbelief of weaker people. It is horrorsome and really I have felt outraged and a bit sad since yesterday, and in general by seeing this trend rise up the past years. I hope the trial in the States puts these posers in their place.

I should say, that I have no quarrel with religious people or religion in general. But religion is mystic in nature and should be seperated completely from scientific methods and observations. The philisophical discussion of God's existance is fine by me, as long as Darwin is not taken hostage - his theory is perhaps the most elaborate system of observations and methodical reasoning that mankind has. There is NOTHING to suggest that his general principles are wrong (although we can never fully prove them either).

Of course, ID people will just claim that it is God's intention to mislead mankind. It's so easy when you can just dream away like that...

Monday, October 10, 2005

Empty rhetoric and puritanism...*sigh*

Just a rant on two things this week. Firstly, the whole media frenzy involving the Danish Minister for Social Affairs, Eva Kjer Hansen. Supposedly she strives for more inequality in society, which has everyone jumping around in scandal. Everyone uses this premise - both the current opposition, the media, her self-proclaimed defenders and her prosecutors, and - sadly - her own prime minister.

The problem is, she never fully stated this. Every quote I have seen is wrong and not stated in its full context. What she said was that inequality in itself is not bad or undesirable, provided the lower levels are continuously raised. The last sentence is omitted by all, and changes her utterance completely. Really, she is relating a very modern concept, namely that phenomenons don't bear essential qualities by default. Everyone seems to hang out with Aristotle, though. I'm sick of it.

The level of political discourse in this is getting stupifyingly low by the hour...it does not make sense, considering the educational profile of Danes in general.

Second rant concerns the completely insane uproar over long time TV commenter Jørgen Leth and his new biographical book, "Det Uperfekte Menneske". In the book he touches on different more or less immoral deeds that he has done during his life, e.g. having sex with a 17-year-old servant. Consequently, his diplomatic responsibilities seem to be lost, he's been fired from his TV job, every feminist is of course raving and screaming.

No doubt the man is a insensitive self-obsessed snob - but that does not justify this level of stigmatization. It's the worst case of moral puritanism in this country yet (my time frame probably begins in 1990), and it does not bode well for freedom of artistic expression in the future.