I just noticed a spike in my hits today, and it’s thanks to that reprehensible Internet rag “World Net Daily.”
It seems that I was quoted in an article about my infamous reviews* of the worst book on evolution out there: “Evolution the Grand Experiment,” by Dr. Carl Werner. You remember all the great reviews (scroll down) I did, right?
From WND the article:
Still, Werner’s work is not without its critics. In separate commentaries devoted to each chapter of “The Grand Experiment,” blogger Jeremy Witteveen calls it “a coloring book for Christian parents to impose on their children to keep them ignorant and far from successful academic pursuits.”
Witteveen also writes that his “personal goal is to help American Christians finally accept evolution as fact.”
Well, hellfire and broomsticks, If you’re reading from WND, make yourselves at home. I love visitors.
And if you’re visiting and you’re wondering why it is that I would make it a personal goal to help American Christians accept evolution, it’s because I’m tired of apologizing for you all for not accepting a simple concept. This is one aspect of the American cultural argument that is easily researched and understood.
I had a strict evangelical Christian education, and taught that evolution was absolute donkey poop. But once I researched the science outside of the Christian classroom, the Christian discussion points against evolution didn’t hold water.
Please, pretty please, stop dragging your collective feet on this discussion. The perception of American Christianity is often bad enough already.
The outsiders’ perception of Christianity tends to be that its flock isn’t well educated. I know, I used to be one of you. There are many great believers among you who accept evolution, and they are the shining examples in your midst. For instance, evangelical Christian and scientist Francis Collins is a proponent of evolution and he encourages believers to accept science.
Dinesh D’Souza is also a strong believer and his advocacy of evolution and the big bang is crucial to his debate tactics which can frequently embarrass non-believers.
What’s amazing to me is that you’ll all get behind a Mormon like Glenn Beck, which most people at one time or another condemned Mormonism as worse than any other religion, but this one simple provable concept called evolution is too difficult to get behind.
For the love of your own PR, speak out for the acceptance of evolution.
Or maybe just opening your eyes to nature. Or reading a few books instead of repeating what you hear from the pulpit, that could help.
In any event, continue your education so we can all pursue the discussion intelligently.
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*Scroll down from that link and you’ll find all the reviews.
Le Café Wittypoots 
Congrats… I think?
I agree.
I feel like Billy Crystal’s character in Monsters, Inc. when he sees himself on TV only to be covered up by the logo and then says, “I’m on TV!”
There’s a sadness to the thrill.
“But once I researched the science outside of the Christian classroom, the Christian discussion points against evolution held water.”
Is that what you really meant to say, or did you forget a “didn’t”?
Totally. Thanks for the headsup. I needed that.
What’s worth noting, is that WND.com has no following like PZ or even Hemant Mehta. There’s been just under 100 hits from WND’s web site. I thought that it was going to swing higher when I initially saw the “spike.”
How deflating.
Jeremy,
You may indeed have had a “strict evangelical Christian education”, but it’s obvious that you do not now, nor did you ever, know the Lord Jesus Christ. That Sir, makes all the difference.
Gary,
What’s the difference?
How is it that you know I didn’t have a relationship with Jesus? Were you there?
Have you ever had a loving relationship with another person that stopped and then someone said to you, “You didn’t nor ever did know that person”?
Have you ever tried to find out whether or not Jesus existed from scholarly work from someone who doesn’t claim to be a Christian?
How is it that you have a relationship with god now? Does he talk to you? Or do you only talk to him and he talks to you through his word?
Please explain.
Best,
Jeremy
A tiny, tiny nitpick: The reprehensible rag (which it is) you referred to is entitled “World Net Daily”, or as so many others have described it, “World Nut Daily,” not “World News Daily.” There’s no news on that site at all.
Otherwise, I applaud you. Many evangelical Christians who so bitterly oppose evolutionary theory have no idea how much damage they do to their cause by tying their religion to the kind of evolution denialism seen on WND. They seem to completely disregard Augustine’s warning:
“Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he hold to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion.”
Your so right, CH. It’s World Net. I got over zealous at the time of posting. Thanks for the correction and the quote.
Again, great job Jeremy. If you ever want some laffs, go over to Ray Comfort’s blog Atheist Central. It’s a riot. Free range fundies.
Oh, and sorry about the length of my above post. That Augustine was kinda gabby sometimes.