Biology Professor calls author “incompetent idiot”

University of Minnesota biology professor, PZ Meyers, in commenting on his blog about the conspiracy to take down Ray Comfort’s new book, You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence But You Can’t Make Him Think on Amazon.com, said, “Rather than a conspiracy of atheists falsely downrating his book, there is a simpler explanation for his lousy sales: it's a piece of cr-p written by an incompetent idiot, and his complaint just confirms that he doesn't know what he's talking about.”[1]

There is a running contention between the author and atheists about the “evolution” of male and female. Comfort said, “I don’t have the evident faith the professor has to believe in the theory of evolution, and so I am glad that he took the time to explain his beliefs as to why females had evolved along with males in every species in creation.” Meyers said on his blog, “I know Ray is rather stupid, but who knew he could be that stupid. This has been explained to him multiple times: evolution does explain this stuff trivially. Populations evolve, not individuals, and male and female elephants evolved from populations of pre-elephants that contained males and females. Species do not arise from single new mutant males that then have to find a corresponding mutant female — they arise by the diffusion of variation through a whole population, male and female.”

Comfort responded, “Okay, I’ve got it. Your belief is that species do not arise from single new mutant males that then have to find a corresponding mutant female. So, let’s take it slowly for those of us stupid folk who like empirical evidence. We are looking at a contemporary male and a female elephant. They are part of a population of elephants. Let’s go back to their elephant ancestors 10,000 years ago. They are still male and female elephants (they had to be because that’s how elephants reproduce). Let’s now go back one million years to what you called ‘the populations of pre-elephants that contained males and females.’ Obviously, they are still male and female way back then because that’s how pre-elephants reproduced.”

Comfort continued, “Let’s go back even further (100 million years ago) to pre-pre-elephants that also contained males and females. At what point of time in evolutionary history did the female evolve alongside the male? And why did she evolve? Then explain, if you would professor, why horses, giraffes, cattle, zebras, leopards, primates, antelopes, pigs, dogs, sheep, fish, goats, mice, squirrels, whales, chickens, dinosaurs, beavers, cats, human beings and rats also evolved with a female, at some point of time in evolutionary history. Professor, I know you believe, but please, give us who are healthy skeptics some emperical evidence. Remember, stupid people like me want good hard evidence before we, like you, become believers in Darwin’s theory.”

The best-selling author added, “One of the latest beliefs that is being pushed on the National Geographic channel, is the wild speculation that the dinosaur may have evolved into the modern-day turkey. There are no bounds to beliefs. Evolutionists have done to science what hypocrites have done to religion. They leap through the so-called paleontological record like a Disney cartoon kangaroo, making statements that have more to do with an overripe imagination rather than with true science. They are unregulated speculators with ridiculous theories that are leaving the minds of today’s youth bankrupt, and they need to be held to some sort of intellectual accountability. I’m just one incompetent idiot that’s trying to do that.”

[1] http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/03/its_a_conspiracy_1.php