Thursday, April 28, 2005

Bobo's world -- locally speaking. Creationism comes to town.


If you're local to K-W and are bored stupid this coming Saturday and you just don't have enough flat earth-style quackery in your life, well, have I got a seminar (or two) for you.

Courtesy of the K-W Record, we have the following (sadly, unable to find an online link):


Two exciting free seminars!
...
Sat., April 30, 2005, Adult Recreation Centre, 185 King St. S., Waterloo

2 p.m. "The Bible and Physics"
7:45 p.m. "Darwin vs. Genesis"


Now, personally, I'd love to see a face-off between Darwin and Genesis, considering that one of those two is an ancient collection of absurd myths while the other's been dead for over a century.

And our speaker?


Dr. John C. Bilello, Professor Emeritus, U. of Michigan, Materials Science and Engineering. Dr. Bilello has spoken and written on issues relating to Science and the inspiration of the Bible for many years and he is currently writing a book on the subject.


And as we all know, there's no one more qualified to discuss topics related to biological evolution than a Bible-inspired professor of materials science and engineering.

So what scintillating issues will be covered? Well, there's:

  • How can modern scientific discoveries regarding the age of the universe and the formation of life be reconciled with the teaching of the Bible?

  • What does the Bible have to do with modern physics? [Yeah, I'd kind of like to know that, too.]

  • Is life the product of chance and "natural selection" or is it the work of an Intelligent Designer? [Gee, based on what I've read so far, I'm betting "Designer". Call me wacky.]

What's particularly amusing is that Belillo is competing against another wingnut organization giving creationist talks locally the very same day. The humour comes from the fact that the competing group, Answers in Genesis, has at least a fleeting grip on reality, given that it's actually published its own web page of creationist arguments even they think are bogus. And wouldn't it be amusing to use one creationist group's work to beat up on another creationist? Irony, sweet irony.

Anyway, I'm probably going to check out both of them, but not to raise any kind of ruckus. I will be there to, as they say, just document the atrocities. And if, perchance, the local paper covers this, it might be fun to see just how accurately (or inaccurately) they describe what eventually happened.

So, come on down. Regardless of how wretched this turns out to be, we can always go for beer afterwards to dull the pain.

EXTRA INFO:
Here's an online piece that gives you some insight into Bilello's thought processes. I can't say it's so much wingnut maddening as just confusing and inconsequential. But, hey, I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

In that piece, Dilello says of religion: "It gives a very straightforward and unambiguous answer to the question of why man is here on earth..."

How can you have an unambiguous answer to an ambiguous question?

And speaking of why, why would you subject yourself to an evening of this kind of nonsense? Isn't there a hockey game on?

CC said...

Isn't there a hockey game on?"

Um ... apparently, you don't follow the news. :-)

olivia said...

Hey CC - don't you follow the Rangers? We're waiting up here in Ottawa to see what happens next.

CC said...

I'm pretty sure you'll be playing London, dear.

olivia said...

Yeah, it's likely . . . but I used to live in Waterloo, so I'd like to keep a little hope alive for the Rangers.

M@ said...

I'm rather annoyed: I'll be in Ottawa all weekend. Otherwise I'd have joined you -- obviously I have a lot to learn...

Lindsay Stewart said...

hmm, i'm working saturday otherwise i'd subject myself to some wingnuttery. in the mean time i've begun a dialogue with a rep from defendmarriage.ca. i received a note suggesting that if i support same sex marriage then my logic must extend to include incest and polygamy. my new friend also insists that there is no, absolutely no oppression of homosexuals in canada and then rattles off a a list of persons whose religious freedoms have been damaged by speaking to the issue. i wonder if they're scientists too. any suggestions of source material to counter his arguments would be appreciated as i'm busy busy the next few days. cheers and cc, have fun on saturday