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Creating Dialogue With The FW Method




Does confrontation lead to conversion? Or is it better to try to open up a dialogue with someone who doesn’t share your view, calmly explaining your position, pointing to facts?

Apparently Rebecca Watson prefers the FW Method when promoting the skeptical viewpoint over at www.skepchicks.org . And what is that method? Check out her post on May 29th, 2010 entitled “It’s Like He’s Trying to Explain Evolution to Fuckwits”.

Yes, calling others who don’t share your POV “fuckwits” will really lead to changing their minds.

The title is actually a quote from Rebecca’s husband regarding book author Dr. Ahamed Kutty and his theory that the children of Adam and Eve didn’t commit incest. Kutty states that human fossils dating back 25,000 have been found that show the same DNA as modern man and these other humans mated with the children of Adam and Eve who appeared later in this world.

Adam and Eve, says Kutty, were the first fully developed human beings – they had “God conscious” – while the humans before them were not fully developed. Adam and Eve were created to lead other humans to God, to become moral.

Hey, I don’t buy it, especially Kutty’s conclusion when Adam and Eve were created. Unfortunately all I have is an interview with Kutty on Fox News (the video clip is linked in Rebecca’s post) where he had to present his beliefs in a TV news nutshell, no time to elaborate. I'm interested in learning how he concluded that Adam and Eve appeared 12,000 years ago. So I am skeptical about his views – but note I’m also skeptical about skeptics and some of their opinions.

Here’s Rebecca’s take on the issue:

“That’s right: an entire book devoted to the challenge of using science to justify Biblical creationism while reassuring Christians that no, you did not come from a guy doing the nasty with his sister. (But he may have fucked a monkey.)

“Be warned: the stupid is strong in this one. Please keep all palms far from all faces throughout the entirety of this clip.”

Instead of name-calling and stereotyping, it would’ve been better to question the basis behind Kutty's assertions. Like the Fox News reporter did in the video clip, the woman that Rebecca called “the idiot anchor.”

Leave it to Rebecca to preach to her cynical choir and leave out any possibility of possibly changing someone else’s mind because anyone who believes in creationism is a fuckwit. Interestingly, her attitude comes across as “holier than thou.”

Polarization is so much better than engaging in debate.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Well put. Thanks for saying this, it is ironic that they are selling themselves at lectures with their 'Hey, don't be a dick!' YouTube videos. Urgh.
12:09 PM
Leigh Hanlon said…
Doesn't the creation of Adam and Eve 12,000 years ago fly in the face of biblical literalism by about 6,000 years?
11:11 AM
Doug said…
Um, Ray, I don't mean to burst any bubbles here, but in case you hadn't noticed the internet is not exactly (shall we say) conducive to reasonable debate. Nor, really, is life in the 21st century.

(Please do not infer that I'm suggesting life in earlier centuries was particularly inclined toward calm discussion of disparate ideas. Whether they were or weren't is immaterial to the circumstances we're discussing here.)

The internet is the finest tool for preaching to the choir that mankind has ever produced.
8:59 PM
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