Tuesday, January 10, 2006

O, biological evolution, we stand on guard for theeeeeeeee.


As part of a new program to make you readers do some of the work, I want folks to keep a close watch on Canadian newspapers and periodicals and bring to my attention any articles, letters, op-ed pieces, guest columns and so on that tout the value of "Intelligent Design" or anything remotely resembling that pig-ignorant, fundamentalist swill.

Every such example will be publicly and thoroughly humiliated in this space, and readers will be encouraged to write nasty letters and/or e-mails questioning those writers' education, literacy, ancestry, personal hygiene and sexual habits. (Well, OK, maybe not their sexual habits. I still can't get the mule thing out of my head.)

In short, the goal will be to make the life of any proponent of pseudo-scientific stupidity as unpleasant as possible. We'll tear them a new one, but with a touch of class. :-)

4 comments:

M@ said...

From "A Year of Debate and Discussion" by Mirko Petricevic, The Record, Dec 31 20005

http://www.therecord.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=record/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=1024322398726&c=Article&cid=1135985420798

INTELLIGENT DESIGN

The intelligent design debate is a litmus paper for deep rifts in U.S. society, Michael Ruse of Florida State University, author of The Evolution-Creation Struggle, said in an August interview.

The former University of Guelph professor, who doesn't believe the intelligent-design debate will flare up in Canada, said the dispute in the United States is more than just political.

"It's also about fundamentally different world views. I see this very much as a reflection of a fairly massive divide that we've got in American society."

M@ said...

And from a letter to the editor by a certain Randall F. More, P. Eng (!), on December 27, 2005, again in the Record, entitled "Evolution is Just a Theory"



The ruling by Judge John Jones in the District Court of the U.S. to exclude intelligent design from the scientific classroom is appalling.

If evolution is to be taught, and it should be, then creation should be taught in the same classroom.

Many people wrongly elevate the study of evolution to some exclusive level. From a scientific perspective, both creation and evolution are hypotheses or theories only, and that is all that they will ever remain.

Science can be used to explore either theory, but neither evolution nor creation conform to the scientific method because, essentially, they can neither be repeated nor observed. Unlike gravitational, thermodynamic, hydraulic, chemical, biological, structural, electrical or other laws about our universe, the study of our origins will always be outside the realm of scientific proof.

Does it matter what our schools teach about our origins? It sure does. It shapes our entire world view.

How do we teach our children, for example, to adopt moral accountability if we teach them that they are no more than the chance product arising out of the muck and slime of a primordial Earth and that their ancestors are monkeys and amoebae?

The pathetic irony in all of this is that it is the same God of creation who is the God of all science.

Randall F. More, P. Eng.

Waterloo

Jerry550 said...

It's amazing this deception is being discussed in Canada. "Intelligent Design" is just a sneaky attempt to get around the separation of church and state, as well as a state sponsored religion. Those who advocate "Intelligent Design" as a type of science will say that they're not claiming "gawd" is responsible for evolution, but a higher being is, and that force is a scientific theory. But keep asking questions, and you'll soon see that their science is "gawd". I don't have a problem with people wanting to claim that "gawd" had something to do with evolution, but be honest and say that, instead of creating ersatz science like "Intelligent Design."

Rev.Paperboy said...

Of topic but here is the main reason we need to hold our noses and vote Liberal. The most terrifying 16 words in the English language right now are:
"Stockwell Day is perhaps the most experienced and most talented member on the Conservative front bench." - the Konservative Keystone Kabinet can be found here:http://rickmercer.blogspot.com/2006/01/conservative-cabinet-revealed_09.html