Evolution? How?

One can hope . . . as judges are supposed to make findings of fact as well as of law, even the more reactionary members of the judiciary will have a hard time ignoring the loony nature of "ID" as science . . .

set, I saw, I also saw how he just kind of flipped out at the mention of "Jimmeh KAwtah"

I think Ill have to file that away for future jocosity.

Ah, yer a bad man, FM . . . my hat would be off to you, were it not for the fact that i never wear the damned things . . .

set, agreed. I believe that ID has had its 15 minutes. It bears no unique truths or does it have anything to bring to the table of scholarly pursuits other than a singleminded insistance that
Because we arent presently smart enough to discern whether this item had pre-existing(fossil) functions, it must be an irreducibly complex system. THEREFORE, (as ros likes to say) "Poof-some god did it"

However, what the Creationists and IDErs fail to realize is that almost all of the "gaps" and untestable evidence that was fashionable to pooh poo a century ago, is now a solved issue and weve moved on to problems of greater complexity. SCience has time on its side

fm-

Do you know why wande's great thread has been locked?

I understand.

spendius,
my id thread was locked because of a minor dispute. it should be resolved quickly.

Oh, will they unlock it?

spendi--It often comes down to "street" vocabulary(with which I am particularly fond and facile).On A2k One can request that another perform a distastefully vulgar act upon ones personal body, BUT, one should never identify, colloquially which part, especially when oneassumes the role of a highly trained pilot of nuclear aircraft .
Specifically, One of our regulars just ate a bale of loco weed and went on a tare about Jimmy Carter, the point of whose reference was that ex pres Carter was a reasonable observer of the present bar fight over Creationiswm in the US schools. Your and sets reference over Peanut farming was not even relevant nor was there anything offensive said about Mr Carters family business, until , somehow the Nuclear pilot wanted to have some equivalent respect and used a silly expression to solicit same. Its all in how the MODS are on a particular occassion


Yesterday I threatened to fry up the lady rabbit cuz she was urinating on my leg, and she was gonna report me to the MODS and they , on the other hand , didnt take me to task, and merely assumed that this was how we normally interact.
Like when I critcize you for posting while hammered(PUI), we are just kidding around Neh?
We will have our nuclear pilot try to develop a sense of humor in education by some in-depth training at the Ratzenhofer Institute for Advanced Pedagogical Elocution

I just read over tha last three pages. I get a better education by reading than commenting, often, on such a thread. Thanks, folks.

wande-

That wasn't even a minor spat by English debating standards.The most an educated chairman would have done is raise one eyebrow a fraction.It was a mere lapse of taste of no consequence compared to the gross lapse of pointedly ignoring the social functions of belief under a range of economic and traditional exigencies and also of continuing to assert reducible complexity without any explanations or even possibilities of them.If the judges in the USSC do likewise I would emigrate.

Hofstadter has this to say on page 126 of his famous anti-intellectualism book-

"To the fundamentalists of Tennessee and elsewhere,the effort to stop the teaching of evolution represented an effort to save the religion of their children--indeed,to save all family pieties--from the ravages of the evolutionists,the intellectuals,the cosmopolitans.If the fundamentalists deserve any sympathy--and I think they do--it must be on this count.A good deal of their ferocity is understandable if one realizes that they saw (and still see) the controversy as a defence of their homes and families."

And Hofstadter is an SDer.Why can't SDers on this thread behave with similar grace with such an example in their best literature.They seem to me to be the ferocious ones now.You haven't seen me using words like "loony" or "stupid" on this,or I hope,on any other thread.Intolerance seems to have become a characteristic of SDers who have,presumably,not read Hofstadter with the required attention.(1964 BTW).He is talking about social functions there and his-"and I think they do"is of great importance.

fm wrote-



Are you actually saying that because someone does that the mods will lock the rest of us up when we have an excellent and,I hope,important thread on the stocks.

I could close down every thread on the site simply by going on with a "silly expression"?Could I really?

Blimey!!Stone a crow!Holy smoke!Gee!!!!

spendius

who you talkin about? and once and for all, stop the SD term, its only used by you and neologisms in polite discussion are frowned upon, as it often represents someone whose haybales arent neatly stacked.

Hi farmerman, Quit wasting your energy on spendius. He´s not worth the effort.

I´m at a internet cafe in Barcelona. Visited two wineries not far from Monserat. The first one sends their wines all over the world, and they have over 180 million bottles of wine stored in their celler. They gave us a tour by train! Amazing stuff. They can produce one million bottles of wine in one day if they stick with one kind of wine, but they usually produce three andproduce 750,000 bottles. Talk to you later.

c.i.

Make a video of your hols.I'm sure we will all wish to purchase a copy.It is "amazing" that bottling plants are so fast but most six year olds already are up to speed on that.

fm-now now.ID is simply short for one side of the argument.Like UN is short for United Nations or NATO is short for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.So that's a lot of higgle-de-piggly haybales for a start.I agree it moves minds faster than those who engage in "polite conversation" might be used to but we all know that polite conversation is merely a harmless way of passing the time.

Why not comment on Hofstadter?That you don't and pick up a trifle instead suggests you only wish to play in your own yard.Why not say Hofstadter is stupid for saying that the IDers have a case and that they are Manicheans and have to be compromised with on account of the support they have even if it is a minority which in some places is not a minority all all.

I'll quote you a little more-
"[The Critical Intelligence]....accepts conflict as a central and enduring reality and understands human society as a form of equipoise based upon the continuing process of compromise.It shuns ultimate showdowns and looks upon the ideal of total partisan victory as unattainable,as merely another variety of threat to the kind of balance with which it is familiar.It is sensitive to nuances and sees things in degrees.It is essentially relativist and skeptical,but at the same time circumspect and humane."

The qualities mentioned in that last sentence are sadly lacking around here as you can easily see.

PS Assertions bounce off me like confetti does off an elephant.

Give the IDers that much and they will consolodate their bases and then seek ever more, until science is routed from the schools.

Never.What a ridiculous idea.What an insult to your political system.

Setanta Wrote:



Set,

You did not say I know of no god to exist. you said I know no god to exist. I merely asked you how you knew that.

Set, maybe hate isn't the right word to use in response to your criticisms of Christianity. I can only go by what I read and the feelings I get from those posts. It's hard not to call your criticisms hate (IMO). If you are indifferent to something then there is no passion behind it. If you love something, your passion shows positively. If you hate something, that passion has negative connotations.

I appreciated you answering my question. But, what I really wanted to know was why so forceful about your assertions that we are loonies? I know that all life experiences cause us to make decisions about things. I thought maybe there was a particular thing that caused you to feel the way you do, thus, I said if it's too personal I would understand.

I am just trying to find out why just as I have a passion FOR God, there seems to be such a passion AGAINST God by many.

You are just as wrong as wrong can be--this is what i wrote. I did not assert that no god exists, i carefully stated that i have no reason to believe that there is a god. I most certainly did not state that no god exists. I am passionately opposed to organized religion and the evils which always follow in its train. But don't put words in my mouth. I've not stated that no god exists, and i frankly don't care whether or not such a god exists.

Passion against God by many - - -
Like set, I argue against the practices of the believers. There can be no passion against nothing. - - - Unlike set, I hold out no possiblity of a God, but that's a personal matter.

Set,

I copied that quote straight from your post. It says, "As I know no god to exist."

That is the statement I was referring to. If you are elaborating with the quote you just posted, ok. But you did post that statement.