In the combox to my last post Jerad and Neil join to give us a truly pristine example of Darwinist Derangement Syndrome in action. Like the person suffering from Tourette’s they just don’t seem to be able to help themselves.
Here are the money quotes:
Barry: “The probability of [500 heads in a row] actually happening is so vanishingly small that it can be considered a practical impossibility. If a person refuses to admit this, it means they are either invincibly stupid or piggishly obstinate or both. Either way, it makes no sense to argue with them.”
Sal to Neil: “But to be clear, do you think 500 fair coins heads violates the chance hypothesis?”
Neil: “If that happened to me, I would find it startling, and I would wonder whether there was some hanky-panky going on. However, a strict mathematical analysis tells me that it is just as probable (or improbable) as any other sequence. So the appearance of this sequence by itself does not prove unfairness.”
Jared chimes in: “There is no mathematical argument that would say that 500 heads in 500 coin tosses is proof of intervention.” And “But if 500 Hs did happen it’s not an indication of design.”
I do not believe Jerad and Neil are invincibly stupid. They must know that what they are saying is blithering nonsense. They are, of course, being piggishly obstinate, and I will not argue with them. But who needs to argue? When one’s opponents say such outlandish things one wins by default.
And I can’t resist adding this one last example of DDS:
Barry to Jerad: “Is there ANY number of heads in a row that would satisfy you. Let’s say that the coin was flipped 100 million times and they all came up heads. Would you then know for a moral certainty that the coin is not fair without having to check it?”
Jerad: “A moral certainty? What does that mean?”
It’s funny how often when one catches a Darwinist in really painful-to-watch idiocy, and call them on it, their response is something like “me no speaka the English.”
Jerad, let me help you out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_certainty