Many scientific terms are defined here
See also: - BSgroup FURL & Fundy/Creationist dictionary and translator
Ad hominem - Appealing to emotions: appealing to people’s emotions and prejudices rather than their ability to think
Apologist - Somebody who defends or justifies something: somebody who argues to defend or justify a particular doctrine or ideology.
Bigot - Intolerant person: somebody who has very strong opinions, especially on matters of politics, religion, or ethnicity, and refuses to accept different views.
Brainwash - Impose beliefs on somebody: to impose a set of usually political or religious beliefs on somebody by the use of various coercive methods of indoctrination, including destruction of the victim’s prior beliefs.
Condition somebody to behave differently: to induce somebody to believe or do something, for example to buy a new product, especially by constant repetition or advertising.
Catastrophism - Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected by sudden, short-lived, violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope. - Wikipedia
Deism - is the theistic belief that a supreme god exists and created the physical universe, but shall not intervene in its normal operation. Wikipedia
Enlightenment - A European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and man were synthesized into a worldview that gained wide assent and that instigated revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and the celebration of reason, the power by which man understands the universe and improves his own condition. The goals of rational man were considered to be knowledge, freedom, and happiness. - Encyclopædia Britannica
Ethos - shared fundamental traits: the fundamental and distinctive character of a group, social context, or period of time, typically expressed in attitudes, habits, and beliefs.
Fallacies
Fallacy of false dilemma - This fallacy is committed when someone argues or gives the impression that there are only two available outcomes to an argument when in fact there are many more; they can then goe on to apparently, “prove” their position by disproving the opposing one.
This is a very convenient way of presenting a weak case because its presenter does not have to justify their position, only attack an opponents. For this reason, it is a favourite tactic of creationists of all types.
A longer definition can be found at the Skeptic’s Dictionary
See also: False Dichotomy
Fundamentalism - movement advocating return to traditional principles: a religious or political movement based on a literal interpretation of and strict adherence to doctrine, especially as a return to former principles.
Support for literal explanation: the belief that religious or political doctrine should be implemented literally, not interpreted or adapted.
Humanism - belief in a human-based morality: a system of thought that is based on the values, characteristics, and behaviour that are believed to be best in human beings, rather than on any supernatural authority.
Just-so story - Wikipedia
Manufactroversy - 1. A manufactured controversy that is motivated by profit or extreme ideology to intentionally create public confusion about an issue that is not in dispute.
2. Effort is often accompanied by imagined conspiracy theory and major marketing dollars involving fraud, deception and polemic rhetoric. See: Manufactroversy
Methodological Naturalism - Naturalism is the view that the scientific method (hypothesize, predict, test, repeat) is the only effective way to investigate reality. Naturalism does not necessarily claim that phenomena or hypotheses commonly labeled as supernatural do not exist or are wrong, but insists that all phenomena and hypotheses can be studied by the same methods and therefore anything considered supernatural is either nonexistent or not inherently different from natural phenomena or hypotheses. - Wikipedia
Metaphysical Naturalism - Metaphysical or ontological naturalism is any worldview in which the world is amenable to a unified study that includes the natural sciences and in this sense the world is a unity. According to such a view, nature is all there is, and all things supernatural (which stipulatively includes spirits and souls and non-natural values) do not exist. Wikipedia
Neo-creationism - Wikipedia
Oxymoron - expression with contradictory words: a phrase in which two words of contradictory meaning are used together for special effect, for example ‘wise fool’ or ‘legal murder’.
Postmodernism - Wikipedia
See also:
Pluralism - society with different internal groups: the existence of groups with different ethnic, religious, or political backgrounds within one society.
Sociology social policy and theory: a policy or theory that minority groups within a society should maintain cultural differences but share overall political and economic power.
Philosophy theory of varied being or substance: the philosophical theory that reality is made up of many kinds of being or substance.
Proselytize - try to convert somebody: to try to convert somebody to a religious faith or political doctrine.
Relativism - belief in changeable standards: the belief that concepts such as right and wrong, goodness and badness, or truth and falsehood are not absolute but change from culture to culture and situation to situation.
What is relativism?
Scientism - use of the scientific method: the use of the scientific method of acquiring knowledge, whether in the traditional sciences or in other fields of inquiry.
Reliance on science for answers: the belief that science alone can explain phenomena, or the application of scientific methods to fields unsuitable for it (disapproving) ‘We feel that the attitude that predominates in science at present is arrogance, which has fostered dogmatism and scientism’.Brian D. Josephson, Beverly A. RubikThe Challenge of Consciousness Research1992.
Secularism - exclusion of religion from public affairs: the belief that religion and religious bodies should have no part in political or civic affairs or in running public institutions, especially schools.
Rejection of religion: the rejection of religion or its exclusion from a philosophical or moral system.
Teach the Controversy- A detailed analysis of the, “teach the controversy” IDC propaganda strategy & its creation by the Discovery Institute can be found here. However, in everyday use, the term can probably best be described as:
Any attempt to denigrate evolution by describing it as: controversial, only a theory, requiring critically thinking about or similar unwarranted or ill informed criticisms.
Articles on teach the controversy can be found at BSgroup FURL.
Teleological argument - A teleological argument (or a design argument) is an argument for the existence of God or a creator based on perceived evidence of order, purpose, design and/or direction in nature. The word "teleological" is derived from the Greek word telos, meaning end or purpose. Teleology is the supposition that there is purpose or directive principle in the works and processes of nature. More
Theism - belief in God: belief that one God created and rules humans and the world, not necessarily accompanied by belief in divine revelation such as through the Bible. Belief in god or gods: belief in the existence of a god or gods.
Uniformitarianism - Uniformitarianism, in the philosophy of science, is the assumption that the natural processes operating in the past are the same as those that can be observed operating in the present. More
Zealot - zealous follower: somebody who shows excessive enthusiasm for a cause, particularly a religious cause.