What is an assertion?

A fundie creationist made an absurd assertion about Creation "Scientists". What do educated people think.?

• What do educated people with functioning brains think about the below fundie claim: All the important inventions were based on science that was founded by CREATIONISTS. For a list of accomplishments by creationists, see here: Carl Linn (Carolus Linnaeus) - discovered there were no halfway animal species; all fit into distinct categories. William Paley - argument by design. Heinrich von Helmholz - the law of conservation of energy (FLOT) R.J.E. Clausius - the law of entropy (SLOT) Gregor Mendel - genetics. His experiments showed that there was a genetic barrier that prevented one species from transmuting into another. Louis Pasteur - disproved the theory of spontaneous generation - life cannot arise from nonliving material. August Friedrich Leopold Weismann - disproved Lamarckism (mouse tail experiment) Louis Agassiz - glacial geology; ichthyology. Charles Babbage - actuarial tables; calculating machine; computer science Sir Francis Bacon - scientific method Robert Boyle - chemistry, gas dynamics Sir David Brewster - optical minerology; kaleidoscope Georges Cuvier - comparative anatomy; vertebrate paleontology Sir Humphrey Davy - thermokinetics Jean Henri Fabre - entomology of living insects Michael Faraday - electric generator; electromagnetics; field theory Sir John A. Fleming - electronics, thermic valve Joseph Henry - electric motor, galvanometer Sir William Herschel - galactic astronomy, double stars James Joule - reversible thermodynamics Lord William Kelvin - absolute temperature scale, energetics, thermodynamics, transatlantic cable Johannes Kepler - celestial mechanics; ephemeris tables, physical astronomy Carolus Linnaeus - classification system; systematic biology Joseph Lister - antiseptic surgery Matthew Maury - hydrography; oceanography James C. Maxwell - electrical dynamics; statistical dynamics Gregor Mendel - genetics Samuel Morse - telegraph Sir Isaac Newton - calculus; dynamics; law of gravity; reflecting telescopes Blaise Pascal - hydrostatics; barometer Louis Pasteur - bateriology; biogenesis law; pasteurization; vaccination; immunization Sir William Ramsey - inert gases; isotropic chemistry John Ray - natural history; classification of plants and animals John Rayleigh - dimensional analysis; model analysis Bernard Riemann - non-Euclidean geometry Sir James Simpson - chloroform; gynecology Sir George Stokes - fluid mechanics Rudolph Virchow - pathology

• Answer:

  I've got a nearly complete Ph.D. in geoscience, so I'll give these a shot: First of all, most scientists in the 18th and 19th centuries were creationists because most PEOPLE in the 18th and 19th centuries were creationists. There is no reason that a creationist can't make legitimate discoveries about, say, electromagnetism, because his/her religious beliefs don't dictate anything about electromagnetism. In other words, any of these listed discoveries that has nothing to do with the origins or history of life is completely irrelevant to the claim this person is making. Thus, let's examine only the ones that have some bearing on the creation/evolution debate: "Carl Linn (Carolus Linnaeus) - discovered there were no halfway animal species; all fit into distinct categories." Linnaeus did NOT "discover" that there are no "halfway" animal species! Linnaeus classified organisms. Period. He never said anything about there being no "halfway" species. In fact, the classification scheme he came up with involved a nested hierarchy of groups within groups, because he noticed that some characteristics were shared by entire classes of organisms, while other more specialized characteristics were shared by groups within the larger class. This is EXACTLY the pattern of similarities that one would expect from evolution. "William Paley - argument by design." What? This is not an invention or a discovery - this is a philosophical argument (and a poor one, at that). People have been making arguments in favor of creation and intelligent design for millenia. This does not make Paley a noteworthy scientist at all. What inventions or discoveries have come about because of Paley's design arguments? "Gregor Mendel - genetics. His experiments showed that there was a genetic barrier that prevented one species from transmuting into another" The person making this claim is seriously deluded. Mendel never showed any genetic "barrier" that prevents one species from transforming into another. In fact, Mendel laid the groundwork for discovering exactly how species DO transform. His genetic discoveries form the molecular underpinnings of evolution. "Louis Pasteur - disproved the theory of spontaneous generation - life cannot arise from nonliving material" In other words, Pasteur disproved creationism. Instead, living things are descended from other living things... exactly as evolution says. "August Friedrich Leopold Weismann - disproved Lamarckism (mouse tail experiment)" Lamarckism is one particular variant on how evolution works. The results have no bearing on the validity of evolution or creation. "Georges Cuvier - comparative anatomy; vertebrate paleontology" Cuvier disovered that many species in the fossil record are no longer around today. His discoveries about extinction SUPPORT evolution rather than opposing it. In addition, among the list of sciences founded by creationists are HISTORICAL GEOLOGY and EVOLUTION. These scientists went into their studies of the earth's past not with a clean slate or an evolutionary bias, but with a CREATIONIST bias!!! They intended to find evidence of the creation. Instead, they found such overwhelming evidence for evolution that they had no choice but to abandon their old ideas. But I can see why the person making this claim chose to leave out those particular contributions! :)