Claim: Clever questions atheists can’t answer!

So I was shown a page entitled “Clever questions atheists can’t answer!” and asked to comment.

It turns out to be a list that comes from a “Creation Science” site, so you can most probably guess what the spin here is going to be, and you can also be darn sure that we are dealing with individuals from the shallow end of the gene pool (Yes, I’m not taking it too seriously). They most definitely do not represent the view of the vast majority of modern humans regardless of their actual beliefs or non-belief

Be warned, it really is silly stuff, so fasten your seat belts because here we go …

Dear Christians,

Are you tired of atheists claiming they are more intellectual and smarter that Christians? Do you want to continue the good fight against the satanic secular machine that has hijacked this nation from being Christian?

Yes indeed, damn those founding fathers who wrote that evil secular constitution.

Look no further! Here are a bunch of clever questions you can ask atheists.

Sanity warning: the definition of the word “clever” is being pushed out towards new unknown shores.

When they fail to answer these questions, show them the truth from the Bible and watch as they are lead to the light.

The hint being given here is that the only “right” answer will be a bible quote (yes, we have not even reached Q1 and already we are rolling our eyes).

1. If creationists can’t do science, then why do Kent Hovind and Duane T. Gish, who are creation scientists, have professional degrees in science?

People can be both highly intelligent, very educated, and yet at the same time also incredibly irrational. That mixture usually resolves down to individuals who think up really smart ways of rationalising utterly absurd ideas and beliefs.

It might also be worth making the observation that the percentage of life-science scientists who are not creationists is 99.99998%

One other observation, the two individuals named are not exactly active scientists …

• Kent Hovind has been in prison since 2007 for millions of dollars of tax evasion
• Duane Gish died several years ago – that tends to hinder your ability to be an active scientist (the list was posted in 2014, there is no excuse here)

When these are your go-to examples of creationist scientists, then that truly does speak volumes.

2. If dinosaurs turned into birds, why are we not afraid of them?

Now I begin to seriously ponder the thought that this is a satire site – sadly it’s not, they are being serious.

We fear what can potentially cause us harm, and we adore what is cute. A little puppy might indeed invoke a cuddle from us, but his fully matured dad may instead invoke a reasonable fear of being bitten. But of course this question is really an absurd attempt to dismiss evolution, and to be frank a rather weird one.

3. If homosexuality is right, then how come two people of the same sex not produce a child?

So apparently the argument here is one that asserts that the only reason for a loving relationship is to make babies, and that will indeed be quite an upsetting idea for childless couples, or even elderly couples. Luckily it is also complete nonsense.

It is perhaps understandable that religious beliefs take this stance – beliefs needs to outbreed any competing beliefs if they are going to thrive in the long term.

4. What purpose do we have if evolution is real?

Where did the author ever get the idea that there has to be a purpose?

Evolution is all about “How”, and not “Why”.  “How” is very much the domain of biologists, we can leave the pondering over “why” to the philosophers.

5. You say Jesus never existed, but have you heard of the Shroud of Turin?

You mean the robustly debunked medieval forgery? … yep, I’ve heard of that ever so Catholic relic, and find it rather strange for an evangelical to be touting it as “evidence” for evangelical beliefs.

6. Why do we not see humans being born in the zoos from monkeys if we came from monkeys?

Perhaps because that is not how evolution happens. If this did actually happen then it would itself be an event that debunked evolution. What this question illustrates quite well is that the author has no clue what evolution actually is.

7. Why do we go to church if God is not real?

There is no “We” here, many people do not go. Of those that do, they often go for cultural and social reasons, and not because any of the claims are actually believed to be true at all.

8. How did the Grand Canyon form?

Hint: Google is your friend.

Hint-2: Nope, it was not a flood.

9. Do you know that Jesus loves you?

Would this by any chance by the same Jesus that will burn me in hell for eternity for not believing some absurd nonsense that does not have a single jot of evidence, is that the Jesus you mean? That is not “Love”, that is behaviour you would find within an abusive relationship, but happily it is all religious fiction.

10. If Christianity is false, then why is it popular?

There are 1.6 billion humans on the planet that are Muslim, If Islam is false, then why is it popular?

The variation of Christianity that is the most popular one is Catholicism. All evangelicals, such as the authors of this list, would reject Catholicism as false, so why are they not Catholic since it is clearly very popular, 1.2 billion humans to be precise.

The answer is that reality is not something we get to vote on, popular does not equate to something being true.

11. If you say Christianity is not true, then why do hundreds of people continue to become saved every day?

“Saved” is a meaningless term that does not describe anything real or even measurable. What is of course true is that lots of people join various religious groups for many different social and cultural reasons. Lots of people also quit, but that tends to get brushed over. Given the factual observation that religion in general is shrinking, then why are you still religious?

12. Why do we not see half trees and half carrots, fronkeys, and crocoducks if evolution is real?

Yet another question that demonstrates an astonishing degree of ignorance regarding what evolution actually is.

OK, so let’s make this really really (did I mention really) simple. It is all about variation and natural selection …

• You are not a clone of your parents, but are in fact slightly different … that is variation, and that is the only degree of variation you would ever observe between generations.
• You might (or might not) have brothers and sisters. Some siblings will thrive and have kids, others not so much – that is natural selection.

Over time and many many generations it all adds up. See, it is really that easy.

13. Why is Richard Dawkins afraid to debate Ray Comfort?

Richard Dawkins, a real scientist, and has far better things to do with his time than devoting his life to sharing a stage with every kook who pops up – there is no “fear” at play here. He also realises that if he did so, he would be implicitly giving credibility to an individual where none is warranted.

The counter question is the more appropriate one. Why is there not one single creationist who is prepared to publish a paper that uses real objective data to either refute evolution or verify creationism within a credible peer-reviewed scientific journal? There are a few claims of such papers, but read them and you soon discover that they do not withstand any critical analysis, there is simply no credible evidence for creationism at all, not one jot, and so there is nothing of any substance to actually debate.

14. Did you know Christopher Hitchens was saved before death?

This claim is complete BS, but then the religious have always been making such claims of famous folks converting on their deathbed. It tells us nothing at all about reality, but is does however reveal a great deal about a willingness to lie and deceive.

15. Are you aware Ray Comfort disproved atheism with a banana?

Ray did indeed make himself “famous” by posting an utterly absurd claim, and people still laugh at the banana man many years later. If curious, you can read all about the banana fallacy here. In fact, Mr Comfort became so embarrassed by everybody laughing at his daft claim that he rapidly back peddled and claimed that it was really an atheist hoax.

16. Why do people laugh at evolutionists?

See answer to previous question – they don’t, they actually laugh at the absurd creationist claims.

Try this – go to google images and key in the word “evolution”, what comes back is mostly serious. Now key in the word “creationism”, what comes back is mostly cartoons and images mocking the absurd idea.

17. How did the planets form when the Big Bang explosion all of a sudden happen? After all, you don’t see round objects form when something blows up.

Science really really is a big mystery to these guys. The big bang was not an explosion but rather is a model that describes the early expansion of the universe.

18. If evolution is real, how can it explain gravity, angular momentum, human emotions, and why we worship God?

Oh wow, I can do silly questions as well – if grass is green, then how does that explain angular momentum or why Thor makes lightening?

The answer of course is that evolution is simply an explanation for the diversity of life and that is its entire scope. For an understanding of gravity or angular momentum you should ask a physicist, not a biologist. For an understanding of human emotions or why humans are religious, you should ask a psychologist.

19. How did pond scum make living things appear out of nowhere?

There is no such claim.

What is currently a topic of interest is what is called abiogenesis. There are no definitive answers … yet, but there are many different avenues of fascinating research going on (check the link if curious).

20. How can evolution be true if we don’t see pocket watches or airplanes form by themselves?

The Rev William Paley in his 1802 book Natural Theology made this claim popular. It was also robustly debunked by the philosopher David Hume and others. Even after being debunked, it pops up, because it is an elegant argument, but it has also had its day and has been discarded long ago as not credible. ( If curious, click this link for details).

21. Did you know that dinosaurs and man lived together?

They did not, this claim deserves a Hugo award as a notable bit of science fiction. I can only speculate that the author of the list of questions appears to consider the Flintstones to be a documentary.

22. If evolution is real, then why do caring people like Rick Santorum argue that it must be challenged in the classroom?

Given the observation that Mr Santorum is opposed to pro-choice, is Homophobic, is opposed to Heath care for all, is opposed to immigration reforms, rejects the scientific consensus for Climate Change, and supports gun rights, the word “caring” is not exactly a factual description for him.

If indeed it is true that he also opposes science being taught in science classes, then clearly he is demonstrating that he is both anti-science and is also opposed to kids having a decent education and perhaps prefers kids to be taught that facts are myths, and that myths are facts.

23. Why are youtube atheists like AronRa and Thunderf00t afraid to debate Ray Comfort?

Sigh! … more fraudulent claims. They aren’t and they have.

• Here is Thunderfoot debating Ray
• Here is AronRa debating Ray

24. Why do we celebrate Christmas if Christianity is not real?

Perhaps for the same reason we celebrate the Tooth fairy, Santa, The Easter Bunny, and Halloween … or is the author suggesting all those are real because they are part of our culture.

25. If creationists can’t do science, then why does the website Answersingenesis have proven science articles from creationists that do science?

If by “Scientific Article”, you mean a paper published in a credible peer-reviewed science journal, then the answer is that they don’t. They do however have articles that promote claims such as … dragons are real … and unicorns are real, call me ever so slightly picky if you wish, but that is not science by any measure.

26. If evolution is true, then why can’t white people compete to be good in basketball like black people? After all, white people can’t jump!

And yet another fraudulent claim, they can and they do.

27. Where do you decide to fit God in your everyday life if you don’t believe in him?

Why would you integrate a myth into your life?

I would perhaps counter the author with … Where do you decide to fit Zeus in your everyday life if you don’t believe in him?

28. Why is Christianity the fastest growing religion if it’s false?

It’s actually not; the fastest growing demographic is actually the non-religious. The Internet is penetrating many belief bubbles and people suddenly have access to a vast flow of new information that they were once insulated from – it is disrupting religious belief.

The one consistent theme here within many of these questions is the degree of dishonesty in play.

29. Do you feel free to commit murders, homosexuality, go to strip bars, steal, commit adultery, and do other sins since you believe there is no God?

Nope … and to be frank, the fact that the only thing holding the author back from doing all that is a religious belief leads me to conclude that the author comes across as a bit of a psychopath.

30. Why do the fossils say no to evolution?

They don’t, they say yes. The claim that they don’t is yet more science fiction, so can we possibly add a Nebula award to these guys to sit beside their Hugo award?

31. Why did Darwin admit that how the eye formed is impossible?

He did not, it is a dishonest bit of quote mining to claim that he did. To be absolutely clear, this is not simply a misunderstanding, it is a fraudulent claim. The author is deliberately lying.

32. Where did everything come from if there is no God?

Let’s suppose a god did it … so that then leaves us with the question … “Where did this god come from?”. To which the common response is, God always existed, but that of course is simply making up more stuff to justify the god claim that has been made up in order to answer a question with an answer that explains nothing at all.

Apparently pretending to know things you don’t actually know at all is the mechanism in play here.

33. If there is no God, then why do we have laws that govern us, such as speed limits?

If we are to function as a large social group, then we need agreements, which side of the road to drive on, how fast we can drive, and what we should do about those that ignore the agreements. Such agreement yield a benefit for all.

There are also things that our basic human empathy have enabled us to grasp … that slavery is wrong, that murder is wrong, etc… no are gods required to explain any of this.

34. Do you know where you are going when you die?

Yes indeed, the exact same place I was before I was born. The billions of years that passed before I was born do not appear to have inconvenienced me at all, and so the billions of years that will pass after I am gone will be similar.

35. Why do we not act like monkeys if it is true we came from monkeys?

Another false claim, we do not come from monkeys. What is of course true is that humans and monkeys have a common ancestor.

36. Why do we display The Ten Commandments in the courtrooms if you say the Bible is not real?

Generally we don’t. It is true that some do in a few places, but the norm is to not do so. For those curious regarding the current status of all this, the following ADL statement many be of interest.

37. Why should be it wrong to rape if God is not real?

Doing any form of harm to others is clearly wrong, but why is it like this, how did we work that out, did a god whisper it in our ears?

Morality is in essence a product of evolutionary forces acting at an individual level and also at the group level. Being naturally selected for such pro-social attributes gives us a distinct survival advantage.

38. Why is The Passion of The Christ very high on the Box Office?

1.2 billion Catholics might perhaps explain it.

One of the top grossing movie of all time has been Avatar, and so we can use that as evidence to verify that aliens really exist … right?

39. How can America not be a Christian nation if there are way more churches than mosques?

The US was founded as a secular republic with a distinct wall of separation between religion and the state. No one belief can gain political power, and then proceed to dominate and suppress other beliefs, and that is why the US has such a diversity of different variations of belief. This open market for beliefs has ended up creating a space for any and every belief to thrive.

40. How is the bible not real if it’s the most popular book read by man?

The bible may indeed be the most reproduced, but it is also one of the most unread. While most christians have access to one, the vast majority have never read it from cover to cover, most cannot name the books of the bible, nor can most even tell you where exactly in the bible the 10 commandments are or for that matter articulate correctly the 10 commandments.

Pew research conducted a poll in 2010 and discovered that the one group that had the deepest knowledge regarding religious questions were atheists. This is of course understandable, the reason that atheists do not believe is not because they do not know what the bible says, but rather because they do, and the implication of the inverse of that is that the reason that many do believe is because they do not really know what the bible actually says because they have never actually read it cover to cover, but have instead simply digested the cherry-picked nice bits.

41. How did the moon form?

Asking an astronomer might be a good start … or perhaps you could just google the question.

42. Did you know that famous scientists like Newton, Sir Richard Owen, Einstein, Galileo, and Copernicus were creationists?

No, they weren’t, to claim that they all were is grossly dishonest. Einstein was not even religious.

43. Why do we not see black people come from white people?

We are all related and all have common ancestry, slight variations in skin pigmentation is simply populations adapting to local conditions via natural selection over many many generations.

44. Why are fruitflies still fruitflies in the lab experiments if they are claimed to prove evolution?

The specific experiment being referenced here concerns Diane Dodd’s examination of the effects of geographic isolation and selection on fruit flies. The fact that the author asked this question clearly demonstrates a complete lack of what Ms Dodds experiment was actually all about.

45. Did you know that the Piltdown Man was a hoax used for Darwinist propaganda?

This is pure unadulterated nonsense. From the outset, scientists expressed skepticism about the claim and eventually the whole thing was revealed as a hoax, not by creationists, but by scientists using evidence.

46. Why do we not see frogs turn into birds?

Because that is not how evolution works.

47. Why is Fox News dishonest if it is a network run by truthful Christians?

I think you have your answer right there in the question … because it is run by “truthful” Christians such as the author of this list.

48. Why did Hitler fail to make a superior race if evolution is true?

What has evolution got to do with the ravings and actions of a genocidal lunatic?

 

So there you go then.

I don’t know about you but I think I’ve just had an overdose of dishonest stupidity. In the past such ignorance would be forgivable, but in an age where we all have access to google, this is most definitely at best wilful ignorance by choice with a complete disregard for little inconsequential things such as facts and evidence, but to be quite frank also appears to be more akin to deliberate fraud and lying.

The posting starts off by claiming … “Are you tired of atheists claiming they are more intellectual and smarter that Christians?” … and then proceeds to prove that exact point.

So does this list of utterly absurd and fraudulent questions truly represent the thoughts of people who are religious?

No not really, the vast majority quite happily accept the prevailing scientific consensus, it is only a small majority who demonstrate a complete lack of any basic integrity by embracing such dishonest lunacy.

UPDATE Sun 16th Nov

The original article I was responding to may in fact be a Poe, there has been much debate and many simply cannot make up their minds, but the following thread has a comments section that leads me to believe that it is in fact a Poe.

Poe’s law reads …

It is an observation that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between parodies of fundamentalism or other extreme views and their genuine proponents, since they both seem equally insane. 

And the CreationScience site qualifies.

The evidence that nails it is this posting that points to Landover Baptist and endorses it. Andover is a known parody site and so by affiliating with that they are giving a strong hint.