| JonnyAtlas said: ... Oh, and perpetually referring to someone's beliefs as a "fairy tale" simply because you disagree with them is some seriously hateful bigotry. There's a reason we have laws that defend against discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability or religion. |
While I would never discriminate against someone because he doesn't know calculus, I would certainly not respect a religion-based opinion of his about integrals. How is creationism different? Respect for people doesn't imply respect or aquiescence for each and every of their opinions and stances.
Thus, out of respect I'll never go knocking at doors on a sunday morning to call people's religious beliefs a fairy tale, because that could be important and dear to them and quite uncalled on my part.
But if on the contrary they enter of their own will a debate about scientific theories, then what they bring to the plate is fair game. If they square up a theory and the related evidence with an apodictic quotes from the bible, then I would feel free to use a similitude to fairy tales to underline my point about fantastic narrations with a symbolic meaning, but ultimately no supporting hard evidence.
If they get offended by seeing their opinions demeaned under the lens of scientific dissection, they should not bring them to a scientific debate. No scientist ever threw a fit in seeing other scientists trying to take his/her theory apart. That's harsh, but that's how science works.
