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I have to admit, that cartoon made me laugh.If you are referring to Young Earth Creationists, it's becasue they are taught that the reason "Science minded" people make their claims is becasue their intention is to undermine all of Christianity. So any science sources facts are an attack on Christians.....not actually secular at all.
So YE creationists are always "fighting Humanism" so there is no common ground.
I can't speak for everyone, but I suspect that science acts as an authority and, even if our understanding of how evolution works is limited, we still accept it. We usually aren't scientists or biology graduates with a detailed knowledge to build on but accept what has been repeated to us by adults, school, the media, etc. To really engage with creationism means having to get past the trained reaction of thinking it is "absurd" or "nonsensical" based on the assumption it is impossible and couldn't ever happen that way. For example, it is hard to keep a straight face when confronted with the banana as an example of intelligent design even if your willing to concede he may have a point.
By good fortune I have had yourself and BungleBear on Ignore for some time. I temporarily removed the Ignore to find out what cartoon had amused Nithavela. I agree with your assessment that (at least some of) the reason for endless, unresolved debate is the belief by YECs that evolutionists have been brainwashed. I agree that BungleBear was careless in his reading of your post.
I bet that kid went back to her teacher and asked and was told the truth that some people believe odd things . If she was a good teacher she would have shown her pictures of apes skeletons and let her draw the same conclusion that scientists -did that these organisms are closely related to humans. As far as homosexuality, when she met a gay person she’ d treat him or her as she would any other person instead of behaving with bizarre,insulting ,fear and disgust for no discernible reason
It won't work. Those are regarded as being just as much "enemy" positions as atheism. It is my experience that creationists are even more hostile to theists who accept evolution than they are to atheists.
There is no other discussion. There is no other reason for believing in creationism. These discussions are not about the existence of God, not discussions between theism and atheism. They are between those who believe that the Book of Genesis is 100% accurate literal history and those who do not, theists and atheists together.
Didn't we supposedly come out of the ocean?
Your assertion that science acts like an authority is just wrong . No fact or theory is engraved in stone. If facts are wrong they’re discarded. If a theory is wrong it’s either changed or discarded. Science doesn’t have dogmas but theories that have a lot of evidence without any refuting facts ever, are treated as if they are simple facts. Evolution happens and it causes species to change over time. grow up and deal with that!I can't speak for everyone, but I suspect that science acts as an authority and, even if our understanding of how evolution works is limited, we still accept it. We usually aren't scientists or biology graduates with a detailed knowledge to build on but accept what has been repeated to us by adults, school, the media, etc. To really engage with creationism means having to get past the trained reaction of thinking it is "absurd" or "nonsensical" based on the assumption it is impossible and couldn't ever happen that way. For example, it is hard to keep a straight face when confronted with the banana as an example of intelligent design even if your willing to concede he may have a point.
It is therefore easier to challenge the authority of a creationist by arguing their belief is illegitimate, than to actually look at the arguments. This is particularly true if the debate gets reduced down to a "faith versus facts" situation as that usually ignores the middle ground between evolutionary and creation positions such as old-earth creation, natural theology and enlightenment deism where science and religion are- at least in theory- compatible. I think if you can get the discussion away from young-earth creationism over the account of creation in the book of genesis and have someone willing to go in that direction you are more likely to get somewhere because it won't rely on the authority of scripture as the word of god. To reach a common understanding, you need a common source for that understanding and atheists aren't going to accept the bible as evidence. It really depends on the methods you are using to decide how we "know" something and how we "know" the origin of species, nature and the universe more generally.
It's also worth keeping in mind that the majority of people who use the internet are already convinced of their own views and the most vocal and active members are usually going to be the most rigid in their positions. It is not automatically the case, but if you are someone who is looking for the challenge of debating online you probably already feel very confident in what you are saying before hand and aren't likely to change your mind. Even if a debate can make a dent in a person's convictions, such as by presenting new arguments that they haven't heard before, you are still relying on people being intellectually (and emotionally) honest enough to concede that. It can take alot of time for someone to change their mind and online debates are generally a very small time frame or window in to what people are thinking and how it might develop in the long-run.
. The earth has been known to be old for the past 250 years . That is based solely on the evidence from the earth itself. YECs have unverified assertions and a book written in the Bronze Age that’s well know to be inaccurate . Why should we teach nonsense to children?
