Science and the Ignorant

This is from Talk.Origins

"Scientific theories are validated by empirical testing against physical observations. Theories are not judged simply by their logical compatibility with the available data."

Imagine all possible knowledge is like a pile of jigsaw pieces, stretching out into what appears to be infinity.

Scientists take the long and labourious road - they slowly and meticulously sort through the pieces and try to see how they fit together. Every now and then, some pieces come together and a new part of the whole picture is revealed.

Religious thinkers, including creationists and Intelligent Designers, can't be bothered with that - they want the answer to everything and they want it now (the spoilt children that they are). They've already decided what they want the picture to look like. So, they take the available pieces and they try desperately to fit them together in a way which will form this picture. As we all know, spoilt children are stubborn and, even if the pieces clearly don't fit, they will force them together and hope we don't notice how clumsy it looks. They declare the puzzle finished and expect our praise - the little brats.

Scientific discovery often involves placing some of the pieces together to form a skeleton of the picture. The scientist is then able to predict what the missing pieces will look like when they are eventually found. Darwin predicted the existence of species which weren't discovered until many years later. The guy who invented the periodic table predicted the existence of elements which were then later discovered.

Religious believers have never predicted anything that has later been discovered. How could they? Their version of the jigsaw has all the pieces forced into all the wrong places, as they try to make a picture of a nice, big house, with a big friendly fairy in it, who will make all the nasty things go away.

Deny evolution if you wish. But do so out of knowledge, not ignorance.

I'm afraid there's no easy route. You have to study books and everything. Like, for years at a time. Sometimes, scientists spend their entire lives in dedicated study and make up only one tiny bit of the jigsaw. Sometimes, a genius comes along and fits a whole load together. Sometimes, it turns out, the bit they thought they made was wrong (even so, it usually helps later scientists to put the right bits together).

But the religious brats don't want that. "I can't wait! I won't wait! I want it all and I want it now!"

"I don't want to study! I don't want to listen to you! I want a god and I want an afterlife, so give it me or I'll scweam and scweam! You don't believe me? WAAAAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!"