Forgetting about fundamentalists<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So I was skimming over a blog that deals with the history of role playing games. A uniquely specific field of study. But I like it because the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/04\/forgetting-about-fundamentalists.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forgetting about fundamentalists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So I was skimming over a blog that deals with the history of role playing games. A uniquely specific field of study. 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{"id":3446,"date":"2011-04-14T12:24:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-14T12:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/04\/forgetting-about-fundamentalists.html"},"modified":"2011-04-14T12:24:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-14T12:24:00","slug":"forgetting-about-fundamentalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/04\/forgetting-about-fundamentalists.html","title":{"rendered":"Forgetting about fundamentalists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So I was skimming over a blog<\/a> that deals with the history of role playing games.\u00a0 A uniquely specific field of study.\u00a0 But I like it because the author, James, writes well and has wonderful historical insights.\u00a0 Anyhoo, he posted a whimsical post wondering about the physics behind fantasy creatures \u2013 like dragons \u2013 being able to fly.\u00a0 Not being a physicist, I thought I would sit that one out, my interests being in other places.<\/p>\n

But I decided to have a look at the posts to see if anyone smarter than me could offer insights into this ancient dilemma.\u00a0 There were actually some fairly decent stabs at it, I must admit.\u00a0 Then one fellow wrote about a theory of dinosaurs evolving into birds.\u00a0 He expressed his skepticism of the argument he mentioned.\u00a0 No links or anything, just light hearted stuff.\u00a0 So I decided to throw my two cents in and mentioned a physicist I knew who once explained to folks that flight was his big hang up on putting everything into the modern evolutionary basket.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t trashing evolution per se.\u00a0 He just mentioned that flight has problems as do most complex interdependent biological systems like the senses, various symbiotic relationships, and flight.\u00a0 After all everything has to be in place for flight to work or it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 And there is no evidence to prove that any of the characteristics needed for flight are, in themselves, beneficial for the survival of the species.\u00a0Hence I suggested if you are going to concede dragons at all, I wouldn\u2019t worry about it.\u00a0 I thought that was fun.<\/p>\n

Then BAM!\u00a0 A fellow posts a response saying nein, Nein, NEIN!\u00a0 You are wrong, wrong, a thousand times wrong.\u00a0 And he linked to this article<\/a> from the University of Berkley.\u00a0 OK, I went there to read it, and basically concluded that the physics professor I heard those years ago was right.\u00a0 If you read it, you\u2019ll note there is a lot of theory based on guess based on assumption based on theory, but it all starts with birds and bats already able to fly.\u00a0 There\u2019s a significant gap there, which was the point.\u00a0 So I just mentioned it looks to me that the fellow I heard all those years ago was right, there are some significant gaps and leaps of faith there, but the purpose of the blog is probably more light hearted than a bare knuckle brawl over this issue, so reiterated my own corpus doctrina<\/em> regarding dragons and flying. <\/p>\n

To which he responded, in a not so pleasant tone, that he at least linked to a link.\u00a0 All I had was \u2018heresay (a polite way of saying I may have been making it up).\u2019\u00a0 At that point, I let him know it was just a silly blog post.\u00a0 I read what a fellow wrote, and that came to my mind.\u00a0 That was all.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t mean to take on the eternal questions of the universe.\u00a0 It was no big deal.\u00a0 And then I realized I had forgotten the main issue.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

There are two types of evolutionary theory.\u00a0 One is a scientific approach to understanding the development of life on earth, using evidence and data and admitting what do know, don\u2019t know, and at least now, may never know.\u00a0 The other is a religion, a faith, an \u2018all explaining answer to everything that I can use to make myself feel good about ignoring any other faith tradition and suppose I\u2019m superior since at least mine is based somewhat on science.\u2019\u00a0 I have a feeling I know which group the fellow falls into.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"