So I got into a "discussion" with a theist about evolution (which amusingly had started out as a morality and decline of religion discussion...). Now, they seem to be an old earth creationist, but don't buy into ID because that doesn't directly acknowledge god (I guess he didn't get the memo). After going round and round, I made the comment that anytime we find something we don't know the answer to yet, the theists instantly jumps in with "It's biblegod MAGIC" and the case is closed. As I argued that magic should never be a way to answer a question, he did squirm out and finally admit that it shouldn't be a scientific answer.
Well, I gotta take exception to that. Magic should NEVER, EVER be the answer! The only thing that resorting to magic says is, "Shut Up! Stop Asking Questions! I'm too cowardly to say I don't know the answer yet." Instead of having the courage to admit that an answer isn't known, they replace inquiry with the certitude of magic, and stop any line of investigation. I personally find that to be almost as dishonest as all the IDiot and creationist lying that goes on...
I don't know, I just have to get it off my chest. Why are people so afraid to admit that they don't know an answer? And why is admitting to a lack of absolute knowledge cause them to go to an absolute answer of magic?
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From Star Trek: The Next Generation -- "Where Silence Has Lease":
Lt. Cmdr. Data: "It is a void without matter or energy of any kind."
Commander William T. Riker: "Yet this hole has a form, Data; it has height, width..."
Lt. Cmdr. Data: "Perhaps. Perhaps not, sir."
Capt. Picard: "That's hardly a scientific observation, Commander."
Lt. Cmdr. Data: "Captain, the most elementary and valuable statement in science, the beginning of wisdom is: I do not know. I do not know what that is, sir."
I love that episode! :)
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