Good morning everyone.
Today’s extra credit opportunity takes us into the world of fine argument-crafting and rhetoric. Below I’ve posted a link to a great example of someone using persuasion to respectfully and creatively show why he does not agree with someone’s position. The link is a to a piece called “Dear Emma B,” which is a letter from a science educator and blogger to a creationist and member of a “young Earth” group, (someone who believes the Earth was created by God in 7 days, that the Earth is 6,000 years old, and that humans have no genetic links to monkeys). The creationist in question is a leader of a young Earth group and tries to teach children at a young age to doubt scientific facts about the age of the Earth, and the blogger is responding to these actions.
For extra credit:
- Read the article here: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/06/23/dear-emma-b/
- Respond to this post with a one page letter of your own that writes a letter to the author of an article/source/text that you do not agree with
- Post a link to the original source you are disagreeing with in your post
In your response, try to maintain a reasonable tone. Avoid any “bashing” of the source. You’ll notice in “Dear Emma B” that the author appears very cool and calm while taking part in what is actually a very contentious debate, creationism vs. evolution. One aspect that I really admire about the “Dear Emma B” letter is how the author in the second half of the letter details the scientific process of dating rocks; in other words, he describes the process of something he feels to be “true” as solid evidence for his claim. See if you can mimic his techniques.
