Sunday, December 5, 2010

#120: Dallas Ellis

A completely unimportant schmuck, Dallas Ellis is a pastor and, uh, hobby-scientist who apparently attempts to emulate the intellect of the great Ray Comfort when it comes to scientific rigor and brilliance. His only claim to fame is the circulating clip of a public hearing in Orlando when people were allowed to stand up and explain their views on evolution (this was before the Florida wedge proposal met its timely demise). As an argument to match Comfort’s banana argument, I give you Dallas Ellis’s argument from oranges.

The basic argument is that no commonsensical person could conceivably believe that people or pets could be related to an orange – hey, round orange fruits ain’t looking nothing like furry, cute animals that jump around and lick your face; hence evolution is bunk (the fact that he doesn't notice that an orange isn't really an organism and that the analogy from the very start is like questioning whether I'm related to my grandmother's left foot, is the least of his problems).

If nothing else, he kinda elevates the argument from ignorance fallacy to an art form. More here.

Diagnosis: Astoundingly moronic nincompoop. Probably relatively harmless.

No comments:

Post a Comment