"A Man's a Man for all that!" - Rabbie Burns

"Religion? No thanks. I prefer not to outsource my brainwashing."
Trying to get your average Joe creationist to understand the phrase scientific theory is as hard as getting a fish to enjoy mountaineering. Its an unimagined world for them - it requires a complete reversal of their normal modes of thinking and being. The fact that humans could explain the complexities of this world without a creating God is a world view they cannot grasp. It's like asking a tuna if it appreciates the view from the top of Mount Everest.

Oct 15, 2008

Official: this blog is smarter than Looney's blog

I stumbled across a blog widget that caught my eye earlier. It's a widget that tells you what reading comprehension level your blog is pitched at. The blog I saw it on was showing a Junior school level and I wondered what this blog would rate as.

Blog readability level

Apparently it rates as Post Grad College. Which immediately set me wondering what comprehension level my creationist blogging sparring partner Looney's blog would come in at. High School it appears. That's what fundamentalism does for you I guess. So it is clear from this (hrrr hum) "scientific" experiment that your average Atheist blog is a bit brighter than your average fundamentalist blog. Nothing surprising there then.

I fully expect that Looney will fail to see the force of this argument and I anticipate a full blast response from my High School correspondent as part of his course essay submission. I can already anticipate a few of his likely counter arguments.

I must remember to get out of the right side of the bed tomorrow .....

14 comments:

Looney said...

Um, most of my life I have lived among foreigners who learned English as a second language, so I tend to use simple sentence structures and common words. Anyway, that is my excuse!

Anonymous said...

B+
Defending the use of simple sentence structure and common words is the obvious rebuttal. However you could have made a wider point and claimed that you CHOSE to write in plain English because this is preferable and clearly incapable of doing so.

Had you tackled the topic in that way and broadened your argument then your submission would have merited A+

Your next assignment:
Bankers are a bunch of bankers. Discuss.

Marf said...

That's interesting... I'm an Atheist and my blog was College (Postgrad) as well.

Anonymous said...

QED I guess then Marf eh?

Marf said...

As long as everything involved is "scientific". lol

Anonymous said...

About as evidentially based as the Bible I would say, Marf.

Maybe even a little more so.

Techwiz said...

Hi Bunc,
Thanks for the comment!

I tested my blog with this little widget and I scored in the "elementary school" group. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Surely something wrong there. If I remember rightly when I read your blog I only understood about half of it. Guess it must have been too far below my reading comprehension level. ;-)

Looney said...

Techwiz, the beastie that evaluates these web sites has an IQ of about 12 (double the Loch Ness one), so with a little thought you could get your rating higher and sleep soundly knowing your dignity is intact. Most of the systems look for polysyllabic vocabulary under the assumption that expression involving multiple contractions of the vocalizing organs is an indicator of enhanced intellectual abilities.

For example, here is one of your sentences from your blog: "Snopes is a really good place to check the truth of FW[re:] fw: RE: type emails", most of the words only have a single syllable, but some only half a syllable so that the average number of syllables is less than 1. No wonder it is elementary school level!

Now with some rework: "Snopes remains a fantastically incredible location to verify the validity of FW[re:] fw: RE: derived electronic transmissions." Even though you would have said the same thing, this rework raises the IQ of the discussion tremendously and drives away all of those pesky kindergartners who previously perused your brilliant essays.

I am sure prof. Bunc could also give you some helpful pointers on making your writing more abstruse!

Anonymous said...

Looney pulls no punches!
My difficulty is that I went to a school which demanded that I was able to read and write words of more than two syllables.

Unfortunately as you are aware it didn't always teach to check that I had spelled them correctly before I post them.

You get an A++ for your last submission Looney which means that you have now officially graduated and been promoted to college level.

Can we get an invite to the Frat party?

Looney said...

Bunc, I am regretting my slander of Nelly.

BTW: Have you ever been to a Fundamentalist Frat party? They can be a bit rough on soft city folk, but if you have maintained your traditions, you should be up to it.

Anonymous said...

I am sure that Nelly, having an IQ of only 12, is probably too dim to have understood. To speak the truth is no slander.

Didn't really have Frat parties when I was at Uni Looney. Just "fresher" weeks when I would perhaps a little light refreshment or two ...

Anonymous said...

What a lot of rhetorical bunkum, I did one of mine a while back, can't remember if it was the original blog or II. Managed a Genius level, which underscored the system's failure. It's all "done in the best possible taste."

Haven't checked out the other posts yet, but will. Looks like you've got a good following so there must be something behind the verbosity. Will be back.

AV
http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/
http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/

S McLaren said...

http://salesmans-antics.blogspot.com/

I am a genius. Wow

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