Thinking that dp is crazy or stupid?

[hotCheeseBURNS]

He doesn't "believe" in evolution.

He's not well educated, having left school before doing his GCSEs, and he doesn't read. But still... I thought that it was only a few mental fundamentalist religious types who believed in creationism? Am I wrong?

I've always thought it was just ignorance (of science in general) on his part but he's disturbingly closed off to the whole concept...

People have the right to believe what they like. They don't have the right to be taken seriously.

agreed TCNY.

Re Evolution taking away the "magic". Evolution is a fact not a theory - this does not make it any less wonderful or magical. I think that the fact that we and other life have come about through random chance is much more magical than "Something made us".

Creationism is a religious concept and deserves no place in scientific teaching

'I may not agree with him but I absolutely respect his right to believe what he does."

He haws the right to believe what he likes. He has the right to believe that the world is flat if he likes.

But he would be ignorant and stupid if he did - and I see no reason why I should respect people who are ignorant and stupid.

It is impossible to be well read, well educated and intelligent and still believe that the world is 6000 years old. Which is what creationists believe.

Er, my friend is neither stupid nor ignorant. He is a professor of law at a top university and regularly has papers published globally which are highly acclaimed. It is possible to hold strong beliefs and principles that others chose not to believe in. I respect his beliefs and values, however implausible they may be to others.

Can you tell us which university so we can avoid it?

And WTF have values got to do with science?

He may be very good at Law - but in other areas of life he is stupid and/or ignorant. I repeat, it it impossible to believe that the world is only 6000 years old without being stupid and/or ignorant and/or uneducated.

"a staunch Catholic and a creationist"

How can you simultaneously be a staunch Catholic and disagree with the doctrine of the Catholic Church?

"Er, my friend is neither stupid nor ignorant. He is a professor of law at a top university and regularly has papers published globally which are highly acclaimed. "

Shockley quite properly got a Nobel Prize for the invention of the transistor. It didn't stop him being totally wrong about racial differences. Linus Pauling quite properly got a Nobel Prize for his work on bonding. It didn't stop him being totally wrong about Vitamin C. Einstein quite properly got a Nobel Prize for his work on photoelectricity, and should have got another for relativity. It didn't stop him being wrong, or at least not right, about Quantum Mechanics, which is now probably one of the best supported and well understood theories we have. High achievement is no barrier to being wrong, and the Dunning-Krueger effect is particularly noticeable in people working out of their specialism.

What those three up there said.

Lots of interesting posts here, but in answer to the OP, is he crazy or stupid... It to me would very much depend on whether he is prepared to think deeply about it and have the debate with you or anyone else. I don't mean that you should have an argument about it with the aim of winning or not, but to debate the issue, explore why he believes what he does, and how he accounts for the science that supports evolution along with the lack of actual evidence for creation.

I am fine with people believing weird and wonderful things, but they must be able to substantiate them and argue their point (well by 'must', I mean in order for me to have respect for their opinion), and in some cases accept that there are obvious holes in their ideas.

In your position for example, I would be fine if DH were to say 'I understand evolution and the evidence for it, and am sure that is how things happened, but I like to think that God had a hand at the very start'. He probably wouldn't have my respect if he said something along the lines of 'no I don't think we evolved from apes cos we're not hairy' (especially when faced with some of the shirtless wonders out in the park yesterday).

A blanket denial an unwillingness to discuss would worry me the most. I tend to think an inability to understand and accept nuance and subtlety is likely to come out in more than one area/issue.

D

I firmly believe that there is no room in a lecture theatre or classroom for discussing the 'alternative theories' any more than we should be discussing flat earth theory.

My evolutionary psychology lecturer at Goldsmiths College (I studied evolutionary theory at a degree level) was fantastic at dealing with this. At the end of the first lecture she said, "I'm a Christian and I had some problems with this issue, if you have any problems with this issue, please come and see me and we can talk about it". Job done, deals with the feelings and the beliefs but I don't have to feed your unicorn my sugar lumps!