Today’s game card – William Dembski
August 22nd, 2008 Posted in Game CardsToday’s card is a difficult one. William Dembski is a very smart guy – he’s got more degrees than you could safely count and, well, he just looks smart too. But the problem is that he believes something outrageously stupid – that the Earth is only a few thousand years old.
Dembski is another victim of the human propensity to trust our instincts in areas where they are unreliable, and then to back up our strongest emotionally held beliefs whatever the cost, instead of looking for the truth with an open mind. The Earth, let’s face it, is very old indeed. To believe that it’s less than 10,000 years old you need to be either (a) very stupid, (b) very brainwashed, (c) very self-deluded or (d) very ignorant. There are no other options, as far as I can see. And (d) isn’t really an option, because remaining ignorant whilst living in the Western world, with ready access to information, is also a sign of (a), (b) or (c) – or usually all three.
I gave Dembski a 2/10 for stupidity, not the minimum 1, simply because *nobody* who believes in a young earth could get the minimum here. His wealth isn’t as high as some others, based on his publications. He’s not particularly evil, except that he believes in the wedge strategy, which is essentially a declaration of war by evangelical christians against reason and rationality. Anyone supporting something so insidious and destructive can’t be all good.
Dembski claims that his works have been peer reviewed, but unfortunately it doesn’t count if your peers are all halfwitted morons. Nice try though Bill.
William Dembski
