An unusual headline, admittedly. Bear with me. First though, if anyone needs to know what to cite as a comprehensive debunking of Ann Coulter’s ludicrous anti-evolution shtick, they could go to Talk Reason or (via Respectful Insolence), to this extremely detailed rebuttal of literally dozens of Coulter’s claims, in Media Matters.
I’m just going to write about one of Coulter’s alleged arguments, one I hadn’t heard before, as reported by Orac and Media Matters:
How about this: Imagine a giant raccoon passed gas and perhaps the resulting gas might have created the vast variety of life we see on Earth. […] That's basically how the argument for evolution goes.
At first I thought this was a ridiculous Straw Man of evolution, but it appears Coulter thinks this is a parody – her equivalent of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) parody of Intelligent Design. But she has it ass-backward: it’s actually another parody if ID. Take the FSM letter (paragraph 2), replace a few words, and you get:
Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a giant raccoon passing gas. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel.
Agreed, I would prefer to be “touched by his noodly appendage”, but I can’t help it if Coulter has an anal fixation. Coulter’s Giant Racoon Theory is clearly a perfect analogy for intelligent design: the variety of life we observe on Earth was created by an intelligent designer (giant raccoon) who used an unknown method (farted) at an unknown time (probably at night – raccoons are nocturnal) for an unknown reason (perhaps some dodgy crayfish). Someone should start a web page.
But it gets better (or worse, if you’re Ann Coulter). As Orac pointed out, it suffers from another of the deficiencies of ID, namely: who created the designer (giant raccoon)? Because if life on Earth is so complex it must have been created by a designer (giant farting raccoon), then who designed the designer (who farted and made the giant farting raccoon)? To mix my metaphors, it’d be turtles all the way down.
And apparently Dembski thinks this is a problem for evolution, not ID.
I’ve often wondered if Coulter really is as stupid as she seems or if she’s just cynically milking the ignorance of her fans to make a buck. If she can’t see that this oh-so-clever analogy of hers is really a spoof of ID then I have to conclude: yes, she really is that stupid. Dembski too. Hard to believe, but I think we finally have the proof.
I have no doubt that Coulter is cynically milking the ignorance of her fans to make a buck. It doesn't matter if her raccoon story is really a parody of ID. Her dittoheads are incapable of critical thinking, and she knows it.
Posted by: Harold blog | July 10, 2006 at 06:48 AM
Sadly, I've found that the answer to the question "Can anyone REALLY be that stupid?" is almost invariably "Yes."
Posted by: Leebot | July 10, 2006 at 02:13 PM
Like mankind in general, it seems Ann has no quantifiable upper bound to her stupidity.
Posted by: Bronze Dog | July 10, 2006 at 02:16 PM
Carl Zimmer has a post up at his blog confessing that he inspired the Giant Raccoon Flatulence theory. Coulter wrote it in response to one of his articles.
Posted by: Hume's Ghost | July 11, 2006 at 07:01 AM
Ah! The Giant Raccoon farted on the html for the color pallete! Repent, for the end is near! ;)
Posted by: Bronze Dog | July 11, 2006 at 08:11 AM
New color scheme?
Posted by: Eric | July 11, 2006 at 10:32 AM
Damn and blast, as my dad used to say! Too late. Looks like the same old colour scheme to me.
Posted by: pv | July 11, 2006 at 12:24 PM
This is too weird. Why would Dembski ghost write for Coulter? Could it be part of the Wedge no publicity is bad publicity strategy?
Do you know what coulter means? Coincidence?
Posted by: Txjak | July 12, 2006 at 07:37 AM
Whenever I send an email with the word "Coulter" in it, my email program always gives me the option "replace" (with one of three different spellings it suggests) or "ignore". I tend to think we should all choose the latter option. Not just in emails; in general.
Posted by: Skeptico | July 12, 2006 at 07:53 AM
Hmm, is it me, or was that last post just a tad off-topic?
Posted by: Big Al | August 10, 2006 at 05:14 AM
Yes it was Al - thanks. Spam now deleted. For some reason Typepad didn't email me with this comment so i didn't notice it.
Posted by: Skeptico | August 10, 2006 at 08:02 AM