Fundy/Creationist dictionary and translator

Atheism

Faith

Faith is often considered a virtue - if a person has strong faith he/she is somehow a better person for it. The more outlandish the belief, the stronger the faith, and the better the person is. If you can sincerely believe in something that is demonstrably false, illogical, self-contradictory or just ridiculous, you must be a very holy person indeed. Or a kook, depending on who you're trying to convince.

Common usage : "It doesn't matter what you say, I have faith and so you're simply wrong."

Fundy

Abbreviation of Fundamentalist. Sometimes used affectionately. Not usually intended as derogatory.

Guided Evolution

God

Macro-Evolution

- speciation; the change from one species to another.
Fundies have a hard time with evolution. When they finally admit that it actually happens, they divide it into "micro-evolution" and "macro-evolution", as do biologists. However, Fundies then attempt to make the two sound completely unrelated. Micro-evolution is change within a species, eg. rabbits evolving a resistance to myxamatosis. Macro-evolution is commonly used to refer to change from one species to another, either by splitting off a "daughter" species, or gradual change into a new species. Many fundies deny that this happens, and usually throw in the strawman "Dogs do not give birth to cats, so macro-evolution is false". Speciation happens almost on a daily basis. More details here.

"Micro-" and "macro-" evolution are the same thing, but over different periods of time. The same processes that drive micro-evolution (usually accepted by creationists) over a relatively short time also cause macro-evolution over a much greater length of time. Evolution is most simply defined as a change in the frequency of genes over time. Obviously, given more time more changes can occur, but the mechanisms behind those changes are exactly the same.

Occam's Razor

A good definition would be "The simplest solution consistent with the facts is more likely to be true". Basically, if you have two or more explanations for a particular phenomenon, it makes sense to go with the simplest one. This can cause trouble for people using "God did it" as an explanation, as a God is an exceptionally complex entity and there is usually a simpler explanation (not requiring the involvement of an omnipotent, eternal being).

Open-minded

To the typical internet fundy, being "open-minded" means "accept whatever I say without question". For example, a common occurrence on my message board is for a Christian to turn up, stating that he (or she) hopes to be able to have an open-minded discussion about various beliefs. A few days later, having utterly failed to convince anyone of the veracity of his arguments, and also failed to answer any questions about them, he will leave stating that we all have closed minds (otherwise, of course, we would instantly accept everything he said as true). To a fundy, "open-minded" is what everybody should be regarding his own beliefs, but his mind is closed to the possibility that those beliefs may be wrong or even open to question.

Pascal's Wager

This is dealt with on my Atheist's Wager page, Proving your God exists page, and also by the alt.atheism FAQ.

Second law of thermodynamics

"Ilya Prigogine won the Nobel prize in 1977 for his work on the thermodynamics of nonequilibrium systems. He wrote a related article in 1972 explaining how nonequilibrium thermodynamics solves the puzzle of how life can originate and increase its state of order in spite of entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics (Prigogine 1972). Simply put, the Second Law states that in a closed system, "useful" energy that can do work becomes gradually converted over time to energy that is unavailable for use-entropy, or an increase of disorder. Creationists interpret this to mean that complex living systems could not have evolved from simpler forms because overall, things run down rather than build up. However, living things are open systems and as Prigogine emphasized, are far from a state of equilibrium. They acquire energy from the sun and can locally decrease entropy and even increase their order and complexity without a violation of the Second Law."

Another good description can be found here. (plus lots of other neat stuff).

Sexiness

An attribute of atheists. (see also : wit, charm and modesty.)

Strawman

Attacking a caricature or false description of something you oppose, and then claiming victory when you refute it. For example, a common creationist strawman argument is to claim that the process of evolution is like a hurricane blowing through a scrapyard and spontaneously building a Boeing 747. The speaker would then go on to show how impossible and absurd this is to demonstrate that evolution is false. However, evolution does not work at all like that, so the speaker is attacking and defeating a strawman, but the impression given is that the original target has been destroyed.

Theory (of anything)

A guess; a wild guess; only to be contemplated if it agrees with the Bible; a satanic conspiracy to discredit the Bible; something made up at a drunken party; an idea with no basis in reality or any sort of supporting evidence; a circular argument; an incorrect argument; not compatible with religious facts. Most commonly used when talking about the theory of evolution, as in "It's only a theory, so it should not be taught as fact". See my Evolution page for an explanation of the flaw in this argument.

A scientific theory is a robust explanation of the observed facts. Evolution is a fact - things evolve - and the theory of evolution is an explanation of that fact. One of the most common misconceptions about evolution is to confuse the fact and the theory - they are not the same thing.

Xian (and Xianity)

Internet shorthand for "Christian" (also sometimes written as Xtian), in the same way that "Xmas" is used instead of Christmas. This is often used when discussing Christianity online, for the simple reason that it is easier to type, especially when the word is being used often. No insult is intended by this usage, it's just less wearing on the fingers.