Don McLeroy: "My wonderful opponents are wrong!"

[bloodties1]

*facepalm*

[WildcardHatesYou]

Typical creatard - ignores the 99.99% that disagrees with his magic book, and waves around the 0.01% of psuedo science that he thinks does.

[jebus6kryst]

What a moron.

[drfoxcourt]

McLeroy has stated elsewhere that he doesn't believe life on earth is more than 10,000 years old, yet he uses 550 million years ago as the date for the cambrian explosion. His is a charlatan of the first order, self-justified to lie for his God, and an exploiter of credulous people. Humanity, take a good look at your would be oppressor. Shame on anyone who thought he should lead education in Texas.

[CBALLEN]

It's amazing to see people who can't take opposition to their religion,ah theory.

[ChesapeakeBeach]

McElroy: Another fool who thinks he's got it all figured out.

[arshsingh1984]

So wait; I'm confused. The older fossils are simpler, and the newer fossils are more complex... therefore evolution is wrong?

[byteresistor]

This guy is a dentist. He knows everything about science. Better than the numerous of scientists who came to explain to him how science works.

Look mr. "know it all", the cambrian explosion didn't happen overnight, it lasted for dozens of millions of years. We have evidence from todays world that some species change "dramatically" in evolutionary terms within decades in infront of our very eyes. There's no rule in evolution that everything must always evolve at the same slow pace.

[icemachine79]

I wonder if this man has the intellectual capacity to correctly understand the theory of evolution at all, and if he does one day actually comprehend it, just how silly he will feel watching himself on video saying these ridiculous things.

[madzyzome]

Why is this guy even lecturing on paleontology if he has no education in it?

[sabertooth1980]

Cause he is acting like he is getting up behind those he is arguing against.

After all that's the only way you can stab someone in the back...

[rba718]

It did, there was a gene that developed during that time I read about that caused a lot of intricate shapes of armor to develop for different purposes such as defensive armor, claws, teeth, tails, etc. I forget what the gene was called though lol.

[robsolf]

His argument is a Time magazine cover?

[rba718]

What people don't take into account with the Cambrian explosion was because during that time period many organisms began for the first time developing hard tissue and armor. You had armored fish as well as many of the first invertebrate. Before this time period a lot of the life forms were actually soft bodied.

Do these people realize what it takes to actually get a good complete and accurate fossil? Surely they can realize that armor will be more easily fossilized over soft tissue.

[D3ltaStar]

Is this man really this ignorant and confused, or is his bible-bashingness overwhelming him to such an extent that he actually thinks what he's saying is correct?

[footloosebowler]

Haha "phylas." This dude has no clue about biology.

[Arfalarf]

The Cambrian explosion only happened "immediately" on a geologic timescale.

But "immediately" on a geologic timescale means 50 million years!

That's plenty of time for evolution to work with!

This man would make George Orwell roll over in his grave.

[dodgydogman]

Is this really the 21st centuary? How are there poeple like this, really? Really!? His arguments are ridiculous.

[alltheworldsastage]

He's Gone..... one less nut in a position of power

[GodlessEvolutionist]

This guy is so ignorant. I'm so glad he wasn't confirmed by the Texas Senate.

[unaka2012]

five stars for displaying this fool.

[BrownGargantua]

I don't trust a dentist arguing against evolution any more than I would trust Richard Dawkins to fill my cavity.

[wrongwayup]

How can they even be discussing this? I thought teaching Intelligent Design (which is just creationism) was already made illegal by the US Supreme Court? Why are they still trying to get it back into the classroom?

[wolfman49er]

@wrongwayup

actually the kitzmiller vs. dover trial was a federal court ruling, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, not a supreme court ruling, and I may be wrong but was only binding for that area, even though it establishes a huge precedent meaning others are not likely to try to submit ID as curriculum outside of that court's jurisdiction. i hope this helps.

[wrongwayup]

Ok, thanks. I guess I could have looked that up.

And yes, they are probably hard headed. I doubt another court would come to a different verdict, given the clear ruling of the court in the Dover case.

[wolfman49er]

@wrongwayup

i might also conclude that some of these people are hard headed and learned no lessons from Dover.

[theshredator]

What an ass puppet

[2020bane]

This man is a religous zelot who has no place deciding what should be in science text books. i watched this and thought you bastard over and over again.

peace

[bajorjor1]

can some1 replace that man from the board of education it is really embarrassing to americans

[chodaboy51500]

First off, the Cambrian was 50my long. Secondly, It was the era where colonies of cells actually stuck together rather than drifting apart after dividing. That opened up an infinite number of possibilities for morphology for organisms with no competition. Of course there is going to be an explosion of different creatures. It has always happened in the absence of competition.

[boonw]

"First off, the Cambrian was 50my long." correction, it was 5-6 MY, in evolutionary terms thats pretty much in the blink of the eye. Thats only 600 times longer than human civilization.

[chodaboy51500]

You're wrong. Look it up.

Cambrian was 543 to 490 Million Years Ago. That's 53 MY.

[boonw]

"Cambrian was 543 to 490 Million Years Ago. That's 53 MY. "

-

-Actually, I did look it up, and I have to say that you are actually correct than. I was using the data Tf00t used, but watching the video again, its obvious he was just toying with creationist made up statistics. What I looked up said that between 570 and 530 MYA a huge diversification, though the explosion itself was only 30 million years long.

-

-I am wagering that there is still speculation to how long it exactly was.

[chodaboy51500]

Also, we need to consider that these early multicellular organisms were entering a world of absolutely no competition. Life that adapted to any niche would be ahead of the game. So you would expect to see a rapid diversification.

Not to mention that in simpler organisms, small changes to genetics make for much larger changes in morphology.

I am not an evolutionary biologist but i would expect something like the Cambrian explosion.

It's not a problem for evolution, just not well understood.

[DonExodus2]

I am an evolutionary biologist and fortunately, the cambrian explosion is well understood.

Talkorigins has a good article on it.

[chodaboy51500]

Thank you. I'll look that up.

[boonw]

"Also, we need to consider that these early multicellular organisms were entering a world of absolutely no competition."

-

-I think that its comparable to what we saw with the Internets. As soon as computers could manage it, the entire web was available to millions with virtually no websites set up for them. Look how much the internet had progressed from 1994-2004.

-

-"It's not a problem for evolution,"

-

-Creationists like to think that it fits the literal biblical model lol.

[j0kerman2]

We now know that many of the phyla that "emerged" during the Cambrian Explosion were actually around before. What really occured during the Cambrian Explosion was a radiation of previously existing phyla. And using modern statistics, it wasnt even an explosion; only slightly faster than normal evolutionary rates.

[boonw]

"What really occured during the Cambrian Explosion was a radiation of previously existing phyla."

-

-Actually, it could be considered an explosion by evolutionary terms. Increases in oxygen caused multicellular life to be possible. The new species had a lot of new opportunities to fit into new environments and thus an "explosion" happened. Consider how the internet has boomed since computers became affordable. Once it was possible to make money, the industry literally exploded and still is.

[rba718]

This is somewhat true because it was during the late Cambrian that we started getting the first real plant life on the Earth so the Oxygen did increase slightly.

There was another contributing affect though, I forget the specific detail or the name of it but it was a gene or string of DNA that appeared that really started giving beneficial shape to the bodies of many of these organisms. If somebody can list the term I'd really appreciate it lol.

[boonw]

"This is somewhat true because it was during the late Cambrian that we started getting the first real plant life on the Earth so the Oxygen did increase slightly."

-

-Well actually, most the oxygen came from algae. We know that there was a lot of oxygen forming because right before the cambrian explosion we began seeing oxygen rich compounds such as iron oxide in seabeds, entire layers. An abundance of oxygen made multicellular life possible. oxygen is like high octane feul for life.

[Echo5joker]

Run for the hills, modern biologists. He's got a Time magazine cover!

[InfectedDaemon]

Hum... so Evolution explains observed speciation, all the fossils, the way fossils are found in different temporal strata, separation of species in different continents, current models of bacteriology, parasitology and virology... but its incorrect since it can't explain many new species taking the place of extinct ones over a period of 70 to 80 million years...

Yeah, I got to agree with McLeroy, that argument is a clincher. No way around it. Magic Man Done It!

[tomaselvis]

He thinks the Cambrian explosion was with dynamite...

[beastlt12]

That poor guy. His brain is broken.

[Fordi]

"Chairman Don notes the both the sudden appearance of new groups in the fossil [...] and stasis in others is clear evidence that evolution doesn't work. "

It's important to note that "Chairman Don" is chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, not chair of the NCSE, as was my first impression in this video.

He is a dentist, and an appointee to his position.

Also, the Cambrian explosion occurred over 70-80 million years - only "sudden" in the geologic sense.

[tikielvis]

How in the world is the TX state legislature not breaking every posted speed limit to get themselves back to Austin in order to remove this clown from his chair? So he's a dentist...does he offer bloodletting, too, just like in the old days?

[JRBendixen]

Mr. Don makes a laughing stock of the texas citizens :)

[luc59457]

Have you ever seen the video on youtube, made by this lady, forget her name. Titled "Youtube Made me Retarded" It has loads of views thus good advertising. Youtube is no much different than bankers and many in government. When there's nothing pursued vigilantly for optomistic economical changes, lets be retarded for the remainder of time. If we continue to prosper for another 100yrs, many videos on youtube will be looked upon as incompetent by many more. Youtube is blocking this from views.

[thunderpants10]

Go back to bed Texas, your government has everything under control

[mediametalhead]

This has to be one of the most dissapointing arguments I've ever heard for anything... To consider it was in a school board meeting seems really sad. It's not even clear to me what the hell he was getting at.

[Desertphile]

"It's not even clear to me what the hell he was getting at."

As far as I can tell, McLeroy is arguing that space aliens from another galaxy came to earth in a flying saucer and colonized the planet around 550,000,000 years ago. We call them "Trilobites."

[mediametalhead]

Ah ok thank you Desertphile. So the earth was settled by Cambrian era arthropods.... Anything is possible in Texas! lol

[Cyrathil]

The theory of evolution doesn't explain every piece of data perfectly, as far as he can see, so it must be something else, which he isn't going to mention of course, but he'll be happy to accept any alternatives presented which fit into his definition of "science". You can trust him, because he is a dentist, and dentists have to study biology for a couple of semesters, so it obviously means he's qualified to speak on the topic of evolution; and he's speaking from his HEART. Go heart power!

[mediametalhead]

Try doing some research for yourself. Just because this man has biology experience doesn't make him an anthropologist. Fossil records that are incomplete are just that, incomplete. Recently a new link in the chain of human evolution was discoverered, and the missing pieces to every story are out there somewhere waiting to be discovered. Your argument along with his has NO grounds. You are defending a bias position and I hope you realize that.

[Cyrathil]

"this man has biology experience doesn't make him an anthropologist.." Thank you for summing up my comment.

"You are defending a bias position and I hope you realize that. " No, failed sarcasm. I'm trying to get better. I seriously thought it was obvious I was joking... "dentists have to study biology for a couple of semesters"? I thought that would be a dead give-away. Back to the drawing board!

[mediametalhead]

Ok my bad... I'm sure you realize though that there are folks on youtube foolish enough to fully support the position you were satiring... After all the guy in the video obviously was confident in what he was saying to the Texas board of education... Satire's ruff no doubt about it. I only jumped on you because I noticed you favorited the vid, so I assumed you agreed with it.

[Ansonidak]

Cambrian explosion happened "immediately" and "All of a sudden"

Yeah if you blinked twice you would have missed 10 million years.

[carrierexchange]

10 million years "just happened"

[masticina]

Another incompetent idiot, then again..he is a politician what a surprise!

[TheRetardedChristian]

this man is incompetent, how the fuck can you put him as chairman of the board of education.

lucky texas, gonna be even more retarded.

[TheRetardedChristian]

RETARD

[pfarabee]

1:38 - The word is "author", not "arthur"

1:45 -  The word is "picture", not "pitcher"

The Cambrian Explosion... LMAO. Uhm, let's see, how about this... uh... oh darn you stumped me... oh wait a minute:

1) Single celled organisms leave far fewer fossils that are exponentially harder to find than more complex organisms.

2) Multi-celled organisms have such a distinct advantage over single-celled that the arrival of them on the scene would have been fertile ground for "rapid" growth.

[pfarabee]

But of course, I understand, thinking about things and trying to use logic of any sort is painful... hurts the brain... therefore, God did it.

[theblackhand2]

Looks like the coming generation of Texans are going to have the intellect of retarded turkeys thanks to Mr. Dumb McLeroy.

[crazycrazycaleb]

*Facepalm*

[leafybean]

Way to go Texas! Now maybe the other southern states can pull ahead of your sorry asses.

Also Darwin didn't get his hypothesis for evolution from looking a fossils. He got his hypothesis from the finches of the Galapagos.

It took quite some time after the publishing of on the origin for the large scale categorizing of fossils.

On a final note, leave the discussion of what does and does not constitute evidence to scientists. DO NOT ASK CHILDREN TO DO WHAT PEER REVIEW GROUPS SHOULD DO.

[GodKillerAtheist]

Texas officially the retard state.

hey weren't they going to leave the USA and join up with Mexico LOL

[milwrift]

Does this guy even know how to put a sentence together? My IQ drops at a rate of 2/second listening to him speak.

[omiteru]

Don McLeroy seems to be living in a bubble, and doesn't realize that their a world that exist outside the Texas state board offices. There is a news report that reads "Lawmakers trying to strip some powers from State Board of Education."

[omiteru]

Don McLeroy is not ignorant. His goal is straight and simple to undermine the teaching of evolution. He is very smart. He manipulates English to present his argument. The tries to make people believe that the CE was less that 20 million years. Also, he tries to make people believe that he has a greater understanding of the theory of evolution than all the biology scientist around the world. The students in Texas will be confused about biology.

[Saromatae]

What I wonder is, is Chairman Don really this ignorant? Or is he just lying? I honestly can't tell by this series of videos.

[fourthirteen]

I didn't know Time magazine was a peer reviewed scientific journal.

[hwk1969]

Lying for Jesus. Why does McLeroy want to dumb down the kids of Texas. No one should be proud of his attempts at distorting science in school. Keep creationism/ID out of school and in church where there are no standards of scientific method. Or, let science teachers in church and try and convince the congregation otherwise.

[TheFallibleFiend]

Evolution utterly fails - it fails to meet the false criteria established by people who don't understand science. Fortunately, this failure is not important to the progress of actual science.

[Desertphile]

If Rev McLeroy wasn't working so hard at destroying America, I would pity him.

[altfish2]

This man is dangerous

[miraenna]

Does he even know how long cambrian explosion lasted? Would he still be comfortable to call it an explosion?

[Desertphile]

"Would he still be comfortable to call it an explosion?"

He's a Creationist: he doesn't give a crap what the evidence says. A time span of 45 million years or so is an "explosion" only in the reality-based view of geology, which McLeroy rejects.

[miraenna]

Unfortunately it is true and I know it. He only gives crap about the evidence that fits his dogma and all the rest he manipulates around as he pleases to promote his dogma.

[biologin12]

Is not honesty. They are pursuing an agenda. There is not interest in honesty. All this circus is for creating a false perception that there is a scientific debate in the issue when in reality there is no scientific debate at all.

[magick205]

Just the "Wedge Strategy" in action. NCSE has got the orginal document up at tehir website. It's all about confusing the public to gain a foothold and get around the establishment clause.

[seth3481]

"Fighting Darwin's God"??? I'm fairly sure it's, "Finding Darwin's God" you twit! Time Magazine cover? That's your evidence? By the way, Hitler salute at 2:52 and 2:54.

[iglooin64]

Can someone direct this guy to the section of the High School Biology text book that explains Punctuated Equilibrium.

[Blkphoenix7]

Can it really be possible to be this stupid and still be considered Human?

[Nades129]

why is no one throwing a shoe at this guy?

[Desertphile]

"why is no one throwing a shoe at this guy?"

Because clowns are supposed to be hit with cream pies.

[Nades129]

Even though hes a clown. I prefer throwing my winter boot at the guy... There are too many hungry children, so wasting food on that greedy liar wont benefit the human race.

[Politicimo]

This man makes me so mad.

[jbz3]

All these phyla in the Cambrian.. and the ones that began the chordates were not even fish yet. Does this mean creationists that argue with the Cambrian explosion already accept that we originated as early chordates that eventually became fish?

[jamesball1]

I wish NatCen4ScienceEd would stop posting so many videos of this guy.

Every time I watch the latest one all it does is depress and anger me. Heh i guess I should just stop watching right?

They should have piece of text at the end of every video featuring this guy explaining why he's wrong.

Otherwise his views are just being promoted without sufficient critical analysis. Free air time.

[JRBendixen]

I wonder if he actually cable of reading.

Evolution, Damn god, sometimes it sucks big time and Don is the perfect example. Ffs, my toilet paper is more intelligent than he is.

[JRBendixen]

Quench ignoramuses like this man. He cannot make the simplest of statements, which does not amount to anything but total garbage.

[sakar181]

Watching this creotard makes me fear for my states children....

[CousinoMacul]

Actualy Don, Darwin was convinced by similar morphologies, not the fossil record. And the molecular evidence is even STRONGER. And the "Cambrian explosion" actually supports evolution when you look at it closely.

*facepalm*

[CauseIHadToAsk]

After watching mctard I never know if i should give 1 or 5 stars.

[notbendable]

Don't rate the video low because McLeroy is such a fool... rate it high to thank NCSE for putting it up for us to see!

(If you rate it low YouTube's algorithm will drive down the video's exposure and less people will see it)

;-D

[CauseIHadToAsk]

Oh i would never rate down the work the ncse does and that is not because of my huge nerd crush on Eugenie either. They do very valuable work, but this asshole pisses me off on many levels.