"LOL"

Gettin' down & dirty with Bill.

btw, evolution is not a fact but is a theory...the best one we have, and supported by copious amounts of incontrovertible evidence, but it is a theory, as any real scientist will tell you.

Jeremy Scahill was the only member of the panel speaking any sense. I'm amazed he was even able to mention the fact that Clinton was murdering Iraqi's with sanctions.

While it is completely accurate to say evolution is a theory, it is very misleading to say evolution is just a theory.

In science a theory holds much more value than a fact. Unfortunately in common usage theory has incorrectly come to mean hypothesis.

Saying a theory is a fact is much closer to the true meaning of the word.

This was Bill's best New Rules segment of the new season.

btw, evolution is not a fact but is a theory...the best one we have, and supported by copious amounts of incontrovertible evidence, but it is a theory, as any real scientist will tell you.

Were you aware theories in science explain facts? Were you also aware that facts without theories are pretty much useless? Scientists aren't stamp collectors who simply gather facts and not interpret them in any meaningful way.

You might be asking yourself, "If evolution is an observable fact, why not speak of the Law of Evolution as one does the Law of Gravity?" This is because the term "law" has not been used in science for over a century; it is a dead term. The terms "data" and "observation" are equivalent terms. Theories are held in higher regard (scientifically speaking) then are laws. Laws are simply an observation which is always true. Thoeries are the how and why of those laws. By the way, did you know the law of gravity is wrong? It is - it does not work for calculating gravitational attraction close to large masses, between objects traveling at high speed, or for interactions between light and gravity. This is why the law of gravity cannot be used to calculate the orbit of Mercury, attraction between rapidly moving masses (>10% c), or explain phenomena such as Einstein rings and gravitational lensing. Understand these comes from the theory of general relativity and, like Will pointed out, calling it "just" a theory is highly misleading. People tend to confuse theory in the colloquial sense, which means guess, for theory in the scientific sense.

Ha, this New Rules clip was much better than the last one! The last one was so bad the entire comment thread for it was saturated with my incessant bitching.

Why, this clip was entertaining and informative, I don't think it even had the word "penis" in it! (What is the world coming to?!)

Also why must we always use the anatomical term? Why not shake things up and say "cock"?

Cock!

I'm gonna tell !

that was pathetic Bill Maher stooping to make fun of a man killed by a shark. who the hell cares if he was Austrian - the point being what? that only Europeans would do something crazy like that? it's no wonder many outside of the US think we're pigs - and the audience laughs along - this is the most pathetic thing I have seen in a long long time.

And then for Bill to make a joke out of calling him 'chum'.

For one thing, the man did not die from a shark bite.

According to more accurate reports, he likely died from rapid ascent and pulmonary embolism.

Another thing - this man was someone's brother, son, uncle... what was his point - that the man deserved to die? that he was destined to be shark chum? that we should be making fun of a dead man?

Eric, will, unbunch yer panties. There is nothing untrue about my comment. btw, I did not use the word "just", which was slipped in there by both of youse, and which, I agree, would be misleading in that it would reduce "theory" to "guess". That definitional confusion is not a problem with any educated audience, which I was assuming. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, as Maher labeled it, and more minds that are closed this theory -- which is supported by a preponderance of fact at this point in time -- will be open to it if it (and also the scientific method) is portrayed exactly as it is.

Humility about these points is essential lest "Darwinism", like "Creationism", becomes just another dogma, protected by righteous warriors. Just my opinion.

Evolution is a theory, not a fact, as Maher labeled it, and more minds that are closed this theory -- which is supported by a preponderance of fact at this point in time -- will be open to it if it (and also the scientific method) is portrayed exactly as it is.

My comment may be partly semantic, but I don't think "evolution" is a theory any more than "chemicals reacting" or "apples falling from trees" are theories. Physical chemists use kinetic theories of varying levels of sophistication to account for the course of chemical reactions, but chemist would refer to the process of chemical reaction itself as a "theory". Physicists have gone beyond Newton's gravitational theory, but the phenomena that gravitational theory explain are not in and of themselves "theories". Evolution is a term we use to describe the observations that species change, die out, and are created over time. Darwin's theory of natural selection, supplemented by biochemical mutation, is the well-supported theory to which you refer.

...but no chemist...

sigh...

Tim, natural selection is commonly called "evolution", and therein lies the confusion.

"Evolution" has two different meanings, and so is both fact and theory.

But either way Maher was right, as most fundamentalists, being either dumbfuck, brainwashed, or willfully ignorant, accept neither the fact nor the theory of evolution. I was wrong.