Pikaia – Il portale dell’evoluzione
Darwin Day 2007
Thursday, Feb 8, h 9 pm
Natural History Museum of Milan, Italy
Panel for the Italian edition of Daniel Dennett’s “Breaking the Spell”
With: Daniel Dennett, Edoardo Boncinelli, Giulio Giorello, Telmo Pievani
Chairperson: Armando Massarenti
http://www.pikaia.eu
Source
Daniel Dennett – Breaking the Spell – 2007
There's a slightly annoying thing that creationist do that I'm sure Dennett knows, but he doesn't elaberate on it here. Creationists talk about a 'designer,' and then suddenly switch to 'builder.' Whether cell has an 'intelligent designer' or not, it certainly doesn't have an intelligent builder because it was built by another cell. A building that doesn't have a designer? A termite mound, a birds nest, or paper wasp's nest. They seem to switch between builder and designer to suit.
It a good job that 'believing' is a poor substitute from knowing a fact. You can't swallow a gram of arsenic survive by 'believing' it isn't poison. Believing things that are 'wrong' isn't a good policy (remember that wrong and evil are close bed fellows.) Darwin was a kind man who campaigned against slavery. He was almost sent home on many occasions for chiding Captain Fitzroy about his racism.
2. I wonder if you have the guts to really listen to find out who people like Darwin, Turing, Alfred Russel Wallace really are, or does it satisfy you to see evangelists lying about them, flouting the commandment about 'bering false witness.' It's very easy to pin the word racism on people who wrote on this subject in the 1800s; there was no word for sub-speces (groups of organisms that are different but close enough to breed) like the Carrion Crow and Hooded Crow. They used the word 'race.'