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Comment by barryfandango | Hacker News Reader

The cambrian explosion is really interesting but I'd rather read about the thing itself, not framed as a polemic against creationism. I don't care about creationism.

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Science education is so damaged in the United States now that a survey of people on the street would probably find a worryingly high percentage of people believed either a) the "Cambrian explosion" was an asteroid impact, b) involved explosives, or c) took place over a matter of hours or days.

It's not only science education; what I see here in the US (and I am saying that as a practicing Catholic from Europe) is a problem with people's faith. They think it's under assault and in need of defense, they think God's word isn't strong enough to hold its own in the world, and that's where these weird arguments in favour of creationism comes from. I think they have crossed the line into blasphemy.

You even have this phenomenon of Cleanflix, this Mormon endeavour of beeping out rude words in Hollywood movies, because they are seen a threat to their worldview. This is for the same reason; they have weak faith.

Exactly. If someone's "faith" needs proof, then it's hardly faith anymore, is it?

You can't really frame conflicts with these people in terms of "science vs. religion". It's more like blocking trolls who have failed at both, stopping them from taking violent swings at civilization.

I'm not a Catholic, or a classic religious person at all, but when I hear Catholics speak like this, I often go "this is not my world view, but it does make sense, relative to its premises".

I don't get the same sense at all when listening to folks from many American churches. Their stuff seems... cartoonish.

Much of the blog (and the accompanying book) appear to be constructed as a counter to intelligent design and religiously-influenced arguments. Which is all well and good, although not knowing this while reading it, I found the periodic call-outs surprising.

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