Johnny Hart: Creationist
PZ Myers links to a recent comic in which Johnny Hart demonstrates his credentials as a creationist and an ignoramus.
The strip is undeniably about evolution — Hart tries to not be too overt, but it's clear from the references to "Charlie D." who sailed aboard the "H.M.S. B." That, however, is about the extent of any connection between Hart's comic and reality. Throughout he dredges up standards creationist tripe like describing Darwin as a "preacher" (a reference to creationist claims that evolution is a "religion"), that Darwin's development of a theory of evolution only occurred because he let his Christianity "slip," putting the word theory in scare quotes as if evolution weren't a "real" theory, and stating at the end that evolutionary theory is "designed to make monkeys of you and me."
The comic is probably amusing if you are a creationist, which means that the only people being entertained by Johnny Hart are those who are just as ignorant as he is. That's not saying much, either about Johnny Hart's skill as a cartoonist or about the quality of his remaining audience.
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Comments
Mr. Cline,
I strongly protest your calling me an “ignoramus” because I am a creationist. You may just be an ingoramus yourself. Until it is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that God didn’t create the earth and every living thing, I suggest you not call any more people ignoramus. Everybody to their own beliefs. There is no good reason to get upset about what other people believe. I uphold your right to write about what you believe, but there is no need to attack other people.
I’m sorry if I offended you, but I didn’t call anyone an ignoramus for being a creationist. I said that the only people who would be entertained by Hart’s misrepresentations of science and history are those who are ignorant of the facts. This is because no one can or should be entertained by misrepresentations - the only excuse for finding Hart’s comic funny is to not know he’s misrepresenting things.
But since you bring it up, believing that life was specially created rather than evolved does require being ignorant about a number of aspects of science, biology, geology, and more. That’s no more an “attack” than saying that someone who believes incorrect things about Chinese literature is ignorant of some things. I’m ignorant of many things, including Chinese literature for example. In that context, I am indeed an ignoramus. Go ahead and say it: Austin Cline is an ignoramus about Chinese literature. I’m not offended. It’s not an attack. Unless I try to act like I’m not ignorant, it isn’t even a criticism.
Saying that someone is wrong and doesn’t know something isn’t an attack. No one has a right to not have their beliefs criticized, disagreed with, or pointed out to be wrong. After all, you can’t ever learn anything new unless you find out that you have been mistaken about something in the past.
I don’t need to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are no gods or that no gods created anything. All evidence from all branches of science point to natural evolution of life on this planet. Absolutely no evidence points any other way. The scientific support for evolution is as great as that for the basic theories in every other branch of science and far greater than the scientific evidence which puts people in jail every day. To reject evolution in the face of this means rejecting every principle of sound reasoning that people use in pretty much every other circumstance - every other branch of science, law enforcement, engineering, you name it.
There is no reason for rejecting evolution outside of how it is perceived as contradicting some traditional religious beliefs. Rejecting the facts and discoveries of science because it’s inconvenient for one’s religion is no better than rejecting plate tectonics because it’s inconvenient for one’s religion. Life will continue to evolve and plates will continue to shift.
Anyone who says that life did not evolve is wrong and I will say so, just as I will say that someone is wrong if they claim that the Earth’s plates do not shift.