huff & puff

Straw man

Creationists, idists, and proids frequently create straw man arguments, and then huff and puff and blow the straw man down. The frequency of this argument within creationist propaganda is a reaction to the much stronger argument presented by evidential and experimental science. Confronted with the facts of scientific knowledge, creationists and proids typically retreat into denial or arguments from incredulity. For this reason, I believe that there is often little point in explaining the facts of science to those who have a strong emotional need to believe in some form of creationism.

The point mutation is one tool of the fallacious straw man argument – creationists argue that mutations at a single locus (position) within a chromosome could not be responsible for macroevolution. The argument is fallacious because evolutionary biologists do not claim that point mutations are responsible for biological evolution, whether microevolution or macroevolution, rather they have demonstrated that other sources of genetic variation are far more important. It is meaningless to attack science through an argument that is already established within science – there simply ceases to be an argument, except with the erroneous conclusions drawn by creationists.

In their fallacious straw man arguments, creationists and idists huff and puff against a weakened version of science, and hence a weakened version of the natural world. Creationists ignore the facts in order to support their arguments against the fact of biological evolution, and no argument can be considered cogent when it deliberately, or ignorantly, misrepresents facts. The argument may have emotional appeal to those who are committed to a belief in the Special Creation of Genesis, but the argument does not achieve its ends within the realm of logic.

The Straw Man Fallacy "Straw Man is one of the commonest of fallacies. It is endemic in public debates on politics, ethics, and religion. . . . The Straw Man is a type of Red Herring because the arguer is attempting to refute his opponent's position, and in the context is required to do so, but instead attacks a position—the "straw man"—not held by his opponent." :

Purpose

The author of this site is an atheistic evolutionist.

However, the intent of this site is not an attack on religious beliefs. Religious beliefs are personal and provide much emotional comfort. Those who carry such beliefs to extremes often cause distress to others, but extremism reflects human failings and is not the fault of religious beliefs as such.

The intent of this site is to employ creationist and idist* arguments to illustrate fallacies of logic.

Most creationists who debate on the Internet (including proids) are not interested in learning science, rather they are typically interested only in attacking specific areas of science, presumably in the illogical belief that this could prove their cherished beliefs correct. Most proids* display very little knowledge of science and are merely following the fallacious arguments of other apologists. Creationists and idists typically misrepresent the facts of science, employing fallacious straw man arguments in an attempt to diminish the strength of scientific evidence.