Intelligent Design Theory: Science or Religion?

Gee wande-

That last bit's good.

Thanks, spendius! (You usually have objections about my posts.)

That is untrue wande although I object to that one.

This is a great thread.And you have helped keep it going.It's the team that counts.

I've learned a great deal on here.You can't beat reading with a purpose.I've written stuff I didn't know I knew.We have actually concentrated on something for a change.There's a little play in my head about how it all got started.Make a pretty good movie I would say.Half of it is written in the record.

Has anybody we know been in the courtroom?

I wanted to ask what the hell is going on in New Orleans.Nobody ever mentions it anymore.Is there a news blackout or something?

Keep it coming.It is appreciated.

Spendius, The IDers had planned to have this get to the USSC . Now that there have been the appropriate number of defects on both sides , it is most assured.


Dover is a mid sized ,<20000 community, churches and biker bars abound. Its about 450 ft amsl (why the geography/) Its in the outer geologic piedmont province of the Appalachian foothills. It was an agricultural area now being infilled by commuters from Baltimore where living expenses are much higher due to tax structures. Id say its mostly Protestand denominations with a number of Evangelicals like Eastern Baptists and SDA's and a number of Jehovahs. (Some Catholics) THere is a growing Hisopanic population because theres a large farming area surrounding . Its a nice rural/suburban area

What do you have against the plaintiffs? They dont want ID to be taught in science and they are intelligent enough that this will lead to major problems in dispute with the state ed board and funding .

The people , once they realize that they are footing the bill for the defense of one megalomaniac whoacts "in the name of" the school students, will have different feelings.
Home rule issues usually have less to do with D's and R' s and party politics. They are things like
"Who the hell is driving my property tax out of site so that I can no longer afford to live in this community"
In much of PA, we tie half the school funding to local taxes. WHen an area gets a huge influx of people and their larvae, the property taxes go up due to increased services. U of Wisconsin did a study and concluded that , a new house generates only 3/4 of the service costs in itself ,The rest if passed among the other taxpayers. So here in Pa, the population of the state has remained fairly static since the 1960s (12 to 13 million) Were just shuffling around, leaving rotting city cores and totally destroying farmland so that a single developer can get rich. The houses are built, the developer splits and isnt heard freom and the townships and boroughs are left with road maintenance, sewage, new service lines, schools etc.

James Joyce-eat your heart out.



Well fm,I once read in my formative years that polyandry was de rigeur above about 8000 ft.I have no idea why.I suppose it might be something to do with oxygen but there could be other explanations like lichens or goat milk or freezing winds.I thought that if Dover was in that sort of range it could be an explanation for what we are witnessing but I wouldn't like to attempt an analysis of the dynamics just at the moment.

What I would like to see from SD ers is a scientific explanation of how evolution could have presented male humans with the conundrum of the female human.It doesn't make sense how an ordinary Joe like me could be perplexed by females unless it was some sort of joke and evolution doesn't do jokes.If science triumphs would laughing be selected out?

From your post I would hazard a guess that it is no contest.The appeals might provide a tighter finish.

fm.Is this true?



That is the most thought provoking sentence I have ever read on A2K.

All this thing about Intelligent Design should focus not on a defensive posture of scientific knowledge and methods but on the non-intelligence of the Biblical Genesis. Genesis describes the Universe filled with pre-existing water. All God did was separate the water into two halves and create Heaven (firmament) and earth in the middle. But this is a Flat Earth. It is implicit. The best defense is quite often the offense.

talkie-

That's contempt of court.

hey talk, welcome.Nobody expects ya to read back through all this but your very point was discussed quite a bit. This thread has gone and swung between the sacred and the profane through its many pages. Id venture to say that if there was a position, someone has taken and tried to defend it.

spendi--Jeezus H Chrise 8000 ft? thats Himalayas foothills. Anyway, I dont think that "polyandry" is our problem in the Bible belt. Quite the opposite. Why in West Virginia alone there are examples of multiple generational families having a single father.

I gather there's an item on our Sky News tonight at 7 discussing the Dover case.

I now gather it might be cancelled due to the ministerial resignation today.Big deal!

Well, the case will rest tomorrow and we should have a decision after the election sometime (Ill bet before Christmas cause this is a "rent a judge") The rent a judge concept is a unique Pa adaptation of the system. They keep senior judges on circuit and ship them around the state to handle such trials where they know the budgets could be blown.
I undesrtand that the LAncaster Newspapers is going to do a detailed cost analysis of this trial and let us do the math . Ill post it when they do it

An evolved judge.Sheesh!

We need a new glass case.RENT A JUDGE.

Fm-

You expressed a degree of incredulity recently about my hint of geographical determinism being a factor in the Dover "has the cheque come yet?" battle.

There was a programme on BBC2 tonight,which I only saw glimpses of,concerning geographical factors influencing sperm and eggs (I'm being crude to save space) which suggested that your surprise at my idea is born of a lack of knowledge of modern science.

Even the type of wheat seems to create inter-generational differences when such things are studied in fairly minute detail.Perhaps we ought to look at the weather and harvest patterns existing when the protaganists were conceived to get to the root of this dispute.

Religion is really a theory or hypothesis made up by shamans, priests and such like to explain the universe, physical phenomena, the meaning of life, etc. They posited that spirits did all the work using magic. This was all plausible in the pre-scientific age. Religion is system of beliefs made up over the centuries, even millenia. Faith is accepting things without proof i.e. like accepting things blindfolded. Notice how they target children as they are more accepting of nonsense.

How does religion accept criticism? Violently by labelling critics as pagans, heathens, infidels, etc. liable to attacks or condemnation. Heresy, apostasy, inquisition all conjure up images of great violence. These words are religious folks' version of difference of opinion. Notice "contempt of court" comment when I questioned the "intelligence" of the Bible after all the religionists say creation is from an "intelligent" source.

Dialogue with a religionist is like having two combatants armed like gladiators but blindfolded.

But there is good feature of religion. They are social organisations promoting good behavior and social justice. They form the cultural life of a society. This science doesn't do atall.

All indicative of power. If I have power I can accuse of heresy, apostasy and I can use inquisition.

talk wrote-



And isn't that rather the most important point of all?

Which one? Which is "the most important point of all?" ?

Not really. Religious organizations may play a part in forming present day culture, but today, unlike the Middle Ages when The Church held sway over every aspect of life, museums, theatre, television, radio and even blogs and podcasts all exert huge pressures on the way we live.

Advertising and marketing push at the culture's moral edges and our pocketbooks. Newscasts and journalism, investigative reporting (when done in a manner more professional than say a Judith Miller who acted as if she were taking dictation.) can expose social injustice to the public eye.

And the nightly morality plays, sorry, the nightly broadcasts of Criminals -who- do -bad -things -get -caught -and -are -taken -to trial -and -are -punished fill our little minds with reminders to do good or be good or both.

Besides those are the various social clubs which are not affiliated in any way with religious doctrine yet provide, maybe not purposely, examples of good behavior. These would include running and biking clubs, book discussion clubs, bird watching, hiking, and even bowling, football and, the USA, baseball leagues.

Science, of course, is not left out of all this. The effects of scientific discovery have always challenged the notions of whatever the current culture was, usually those being championed by the religious until the weight of fact and truth supersede superstition.

Joe(there is more preaching in hip-hop then from the pulpits)Nation