Okay, I just can’t let go of this one. The other problem with this silly pseudo-science is that Intelligent Design purports to have some great interfaith universality when in fact teaching Intelligent Design would be contrarian to many other religious beliefs as well. Many Buddhists have little need or no need for a creator/personal god guiding the direction of the universe and for a fundamentalist the god of Intelligent design would weaken the power of their personal god or their fundamental belief in a 6,000 year old earth. Intelligent design, as advocated by Expelled, is not only bad science but bad religious dogma for many people as well and is specifically a tired, rehashed Judaic/Christian fundamentalist dogma.
Furthermore, Intelligent Design is a belief structure that is reduced to disingenuous nitpicking at the edges of scientific theory called evolution, looking for a foothold where none is forthcoming or where the ground is forever shifting. And does anyone care the least bit that Intelligent Design actually destroys any illusion of free will? I mean when does god’s hand comes down and beginning squeezing the jaws of the chosen people so that the next generation can have one less molar? I am of course referring to the observation that our wisdom teeth have become superfluous in modern man as our jaws continued to be downsized. And if god is removing teeth as part of his great evolutionary plan what else is god mucking with? If all of this sounds rather silly as an argument well that’s because it is. Rather than being liberating like religion, Intelligent Design is a bastard child of Creationist’s convenience and is not terribly convincing even as a pseudo-science.
The loss of ‘free will’ is of no concern to Rush Limbaugh, after all he believes life should be scripted as per his own neo-conservative credo and no dissenter need apply. Rush skewers the scientific community with such dismissive comments as “the condescension and the arrogance these people have, they will readily admit that Darwinism and evolution do not explain how life began.” Hey, lard ass, it’s the theory of evolution and not the theory of creation! Jeez, can’t you follow any discriminating, structured argument?
So now the great vicodin-fueled gas bag himself has added his own personal endorsement to the movie Expelled. And why not? Minimal critical thinking is required to embrace Intelligent Design and with Intelligent Design god’s chosen species is once again returned to the top of the proverbial spiritual food chain. I should point out since man made god in his own image it comes as no surprise that most fundamentalist religions make it a point to exclude women from their own theocracy. When does the madness and stupidity stop?
Alright, I know I said that insults have to stop but really isn’t Rush Limbaugh just an escaped caricature from some perverse adult theme park? Al I can say is just be careful Rush or scientists will stop inventing new pain killers for you to buy from your housekeeper. And that cheesy photo of him with a cigar! Doesn’t he know cigars go best with a tacky Hawaiian shirt!
You forget this nation was founded on fundamental Christian principles reaped from the Word of God, the Bible, and the one and only God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. America was not founded to worship other gods and, in fact, God commands us not to worship any other gods nor even let their names come out of our mouths. It sounds all well and good to allow everyone in America to worship anyone they please no matter how pagan and wicked, but that is man’s idea and not God’s. God nearly destroyed Israel because of their turning to heathen gods and He’s going to do the same thing to America. He likens running to another god to a bride becoming a prostitute. So it is not so weird that the majority of Americans believe they were created by and in the image of God. Yet the Christians are called the idiotic and stupid ones. No, it is the minority of atheists and heathens who have tried to take over a Christian nation who are the ignorant ones and America is finally getting fed up with it. The Christians have been told to sit down and shut up but that time is over. We will no longer be oppressed and run over by a minority group of people trying to convince us we evolved from an ape when in fact we were created just a little lower than the angels. Maybe all the evolutists should go find their own little island somewhere where they can jump through the trees and eat bananas and be like their descendants and leave the normal, sane people here.
“Maybe all the evolutists should go find their own little island somewhere where they can jump through the trees and eat bananas and be like their descendants and leave the normal, sane people here.”
Yes, and us scientists will take that silly “science” stuff with us and let all of you folks who are “just lower than angels” get by on prayer. If your kid gets sick, all you’ll have to do is pray to you “abrahamic” god and they’ll get better! No need for nasty drugs of science. Seems I saw a story about this on the news yesterday where prayer didn’t work and a little girl died of a VERY treatable disease…
I wouldn’t call you idiotic/stupid. I would call you deluded.
I won’t tell you to sit down or shut up. I would ask that you learn to respect other humans and the real world around you, and put down foolish bronze age myths that are nothing but divisive and controlling.
Also, we most definitely did diverge from a common ancestor of the great apes a couple million years ago. The genetic and fossil evidence for this is staggering, and growing. You have more ground to stand on disputing Gravitational Theory than you do Evolutionary Theory. Cheers!
Lgpars,
Do you realize the Islamic Fascists in the Middle East make exactly the same argument you are making for their cause? Everybody, and I do mean everybody, should be free to practice or not practice the religious or belief structure of their choice. That is democracy, that is the essence of the American way. That is what our soldiers have died for, they did not die for your specific belief system but for your right to have one.
Religion should not be taught in school and if so I say let’s teach all of them. And by the way do you call the original Jews prostitutes for joining Christ?
If you want to deprogram your children after hours from the Scientific thought that is being instilled in them then that is your business. But before you deprogram this future generation ask yourself if your family regularly get vaccines and a flu shot? Take a step backward in science and we won’t have to wait for god to smite us, Nature will do the job for him.
Erik John Bertel
lgpars: Actually the United States was founded on principles derived from the “Age of Reason” marking the scientific basis for government. Almost all the Founding Fathers were Freemasons, which has precious little to do with “fundamental Christian principles reaped from the Word of God”. That’s one reason there’s a “pagan” symbol on the back of the dollar bill.
http://watch.pair.com/mason.html#fathers
The movie is about the absolute refusal in most cases to even allow the investigation or mention of another point of view. From what I have heard Mr. Stein say, the movie isn’t explaining intelligent design, only showing that this line of thought is not allowed. It would seem this would be an excellent time for evolutionists to show how “open minded” they are. The free exchange of ideas is a valuable thing, in this instance it is squelched at every turn. To believe that God placed everything in it’s place takes less faith than to believe that EVERYTHING came from NOTHING. As for Christians only needing prayer. God also gave us brains those people that allowed their daughter to die from diabetes should be brought up on charges of child abuse.
Sorry, this fight is not about not allowing another valid, alternative scientific theory to be taught, this is about not alowing the teaching of religion, which has no place in a public shcool biology class. ID is not even close to being a scientific theory, after all “god did it” is kind of limiting and not subject to valid scientific observation. In short, “god did it” is a matter of faith not science, nothing wrong with faith but it is not a science. Should I begin to demand the teaching of evolution in a Sunday school in order to be fair? Stupid right? So how does religion and a Christian dogma at that, belong in a Biology class? And you are right on about the child abuse, the wackos in Texas are proving this once again.
Again, if you see a wooden box in the forest you would think that some one somewhere made it. To look at any living thing even the most “simple” organisms and to tell your self that it happened by accident is turning a blind eye to the whole process. If you have a problem with God that’s between you and Him. You may not even know that it’s going on, but He does. I know it’s VERY fashionable to deny God; it isn’t a new idea by any means. How ever thinking that nothing created everything and then have every physical law was ignored by nature makes even less sense.
Once again a creationist confuses faith with science, a believer with a non-believer. By the way I am cool with god but unlike other men I do not claim to go on double dates with him nor do I speak for him. Faith is faith, science is science.
Erik John Bertel
Anarunjando — the issue is not believing in God or not. The issue is whether “intelligent design” as taught by its current advocates is science. What they try to do is find holes in evolutionary science, things that are not yet explained, and park an intelligent designer there in the gaps.
One can come to a philosophical or theological conclusion that the universe is designed, but unless some parts of the universe are more designed than others, in other words there is a detectable difference in just how designed things are, they cannot make that a scientific conclusion.
Science is about studying the natural world. If there is a supernatural, it is not the subject of science.
Erik,
Why then have no new phyla appeared since all known phyla first spontaneously appeared at roughly the same time? Don’t you think it is interesting that all complex lifeforms just randomly came into existence, from nothing, essentially at once? Sure intra-phylum (and higher) transitions have been documented, but why nothing earlier? It doesn’t seem for lack of fossil record, the fossil record is well documented at this period.
Given the complexity of the protein sequences required for each phylum, how could they have even appeared as early as they did in the history of Earth. By pure probability alone, DNA for phylum should not exist for billions of years *from now*!
I don’t claim that evolution does not occur on the small scale, I just reject that it occurs on the large scale (phylum).
What say you?
Joshua
I would hazard an educated guess that most of the early ancestors consisted of soft bodied organisms that were not particularly good candidates for fossil preservation. And I hate to say it but really how many paleontologists are actually looking for them? To be quite frank with you most of the scientists are either into dinosaurs or homonin fossils.
My college marine biology teacher was in love with one of those phylas called Porifera, aka the sponges. We were biology majors and we thought he was nuts, after all it’s just a freaking sponge! Let’s face it looking for a fossil sponge just ain’t that glamorous, people do do it but not many nor is it likely to get funded. Yup, just like religion and sports there are certain superstars even among the fossils.
However, I would say our ascent from an hominin ancestor is fairly well documented. There might be some dispute as to the exact species but the macro trend to bipedalism, larger brain capacities and smaller jaws is fairly self-evident in the fossil record but is that considered small scale by your account? And how does god turn on and off their intervention with living organisms? Is god actively selecting among individuals to this day, perhaps to guide the next generation to even smaller jaws? How does god do this and what of free will?
Believe me when I say I have my own spiritual beliefs but I call it faith and I don’t confuse it with my science.
Erik John Bertel