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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist

USA
4955 Posts

Posted - 05/05/2005 :  06:24:27  Show Profile Send Cuneiformist a Private Message
On this morning's (May 5) Morning Edition, they're discussing the Kansas Evolution/ID debate. Unfortunately, the debate is constantly referred to as "how life's origins began" which, as and SFNer knows, is not the right debate.

I only joined in the middle of the story, but from what I heard, the IDers are presented in a fairly forceful way-- people saying that students need to be exposed to the "facts" the disprove evolution, and so on. (So much for that ol' liberal bias-- would Fox News ever let an opposing statement get by unscathed?) I'll listen to the whole thing when it's finally made available on line. However, it's pretty clear that some letters will need to be sent to the Morning Edition people. If anyone else hears or has heard it, post your comments here!

pleco
SFN Addict

USA
2998 Posts

Posted - 05/05/2005 :  06:57:04   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit pleco's Homepage Send pleco a Private Message
Yeah I woke up to the creationist singing "God Bless America" and talking about that 5 ton monstrosity from my home state "judge" Moore...not a good way to start the day.

by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart.
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist

USA
4955 Posts

Posted - 05/05/2005 :  07:52:12   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Cuneiformist a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by pleco

Yeah I woke up to the creationist singing "God Bless America" and talking about that 5 ton monstrosity from my home state "judge" Moore...not a good way to start the day.
No kidding-- and then the guy almost breaking down into tears as he spoke about our "Christian Nation" and how he loves God, Jesus and the USA, and how our nation's laws come from Moses! There is no more damning indictment of our education system than this guy.
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 05/05/2005 :  08:21:47   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
I heard the whole story. It was mostly what I expected to hear from (relatively) uninformed journalists, especially in light of the coverage of the Kansas hearings by places like the Panda's Thumb.

With any luck, the guy "prosecuting" ID at the hearings, Pedro Irigonegaray - who's definitely dreaming about being Clarence Darrow - will do the job simply and directly by asking every ID "witness" questions like the following:
  • What is the theory of Intelligent Design?
  • What assumptions does the theory make?
  • What predictions follow from the theory?
  • How can we test those predictions to see if they are correct?
  • How would ID theory have to change in light of negative test results?
By asking such questions - and only such questions - he'll probably be able to make a strong case that ID isn't science, and has nothing to do with science.

Not that it'll change any of the minds involved, as the school board members who called for these "hearings" have already stated that they know how they're going to vote. But with the poor showing ID advocates would make it light of such questioning as a matter of public record, lawsuits challenging the board's decision later on will be all the more easy to win.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 05/05/2005 :  13:52:19   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
Here's hoping that he asks them those questions.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Randy
SFN Regular

USA
1990 Posts

Posted - 05/05/2005 :  17:34:31   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Randy a Private Message
Well, you just gotta love this timely/irony new release....
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/05/04/dinosaur.diet.ap/index.html

"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."

"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 05/05/2005 :  21:04:21   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
Yeah, I posted a link to that in this room. Yet another transitional fossil.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 05/06/2005 :  00:16:51   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
A democracy of convenience is what we're talking about, here. Dembski and all of the other ID blathers insist that teaching should be 'fair' and the students should judge and decide on what they are taught. Surely, everyone can see the fallacy in this.

The classroom by it's very nature is not a democracy. ID wants the student to dictate to the teacher, when in reality, it's exactly the other way 'round. The teacher instructs, to the best of his/her knowledge and ability, the facts of the subject as currently known and the student keeps his/her gob shut and learns. They can bitch about it between classes.

A democracy of convenience. To these amature autocrats, democracy is just another tool to use in propagating their willful ignorance and increasing their own authority. If they should get enough authority, there will be no more democracy, anywhere.


"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard

USA
3834 Posts

Posted - 05/06/2005 :  01:50:59   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send beskeptigal a Private Message
Runs...looks for the escape hatch....but the storm troopers are close behind...Is it really happening or is it a dream nightmare? Is it really getting that bad....Whoa! I think it might be.... Nah!... Sticks head into sand, that's better...all is well now.

I guess I am having "it can't possibly be that stupid" issues.
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