The Huge Entity: The Ignorance of The Faculty

The Ignorance of The Faculty

Wednesday, September 28, 2005 → by Danieru

Intelligent Design's last chance has come: In a court of law:

"The opening shots were fired on Monday in the first court trial to scrutinise the Intelligent Design movement. ID proposes that life is so complex it cannot have emerged without the guidance of an intelligent designer - it is seen as a religion-friendly alternative to Darwin’s theory of evolution.

"It is going to be the role of the plaintiffs to argue that ID is a form of religious advocacy," says Eugenie Scott of the US National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California, which is advising the plaintiffs. "The defence will argue that ID is actually science and is valid. We will argue the opposite." - link"

Strangely enough the ID defence's main line of argument repeats a statement which has almost become the Intelligent Design community's catchphrase-cliche:

Evolution is JUST a theory...
I suggest that the pseudo-scientific/religious babbling advocates of ID should consult a dictionary before they spout their latest defence of ignorance:

"Theory: A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena - from dictionary.com"

That says it all for me - UPDATE: Please go to the 'comments' section of this post to see why this is NOT the whole story...

Categories: ID, Intelligent Design, Creationism, News, Politics, Science, Religion

Archived Link

posted by Danieru at 2:39 AM

Anonymous said...

what says it all for you, exactly? The fact that evolutions is a theory and the proponents of ID are pointing that out?

A theory is merely a guess. It is a guess based on probabilities, but in the end, it is just supposition, nothing more. A theory, although generally accepted as true, can be disproven. After all, Einsteinss theory of relativity is no longer accepted as true by those who study quantum physics. A theory is not a law.

The advocates of ID are perfectly in the right to say that evolution is just a theory and to mean that it is not proven fact. And yes, I followed your happy little link. If you had read on, or even really understood the definition that you stopped at, you would know that saying that something is a theory is the same as saying that it has not yet been proven.

Maybe next time you should be sure you know what you are talking about before you look ignorant.

September 28, 2005 5:28 AM

Danieru said...

The problem here is not with the ID community stating Evolution is just a theory, but in trying to suppress that theories mean nothing.

Intelligent Design has no true theoretical basis in that firstly it can not be tested by experiment (like any real 'theory' can) and secondly it can not be DISPROVED by experiment. Evolution is testable, unlike ID, and this seemingly slight aspect of what any theory should be able to stand up to is what throws ID into the Creationist camp without any more examination.

'JUST a theory' is a nonsense statement when applied to scientific teaching. Schools are there to teach that Science is all about theory, predication, testing and verification or BEING ABLE TO REDEFINE THE THEORY...

ID could not be taught like this in a science classroom because it is not a true theory.

Case dismissed

September 28, 2005 5:58 AM

Heathen Dan said...

Ah, the advantages of anonymity! Only with such can one exhibit blatant dishonesty and ignorance and not be held accountable. Unfortunately for you, Anonymous, evolution is both a fact and a theory (http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_fact-and-theory.html). The fact of evolution is the observation, in several independent fields within the natural sciences, that populations and species change over time. The theory (or theories) of evolution is a proposition as to the process of how the fact of evolution came about. Charles Darwin championed one such theory, natural selection. His predecessor Jean Baptiste de Lamarck introduced another (Lamarckism).

Now, before you embarrass yourself again with your lack of knowledge in the subject, I advise you to crack open a biology textbook. It will save us both the trouble.

September 28, 2005 12:33 PM

Sally said...

Anonymous, The main difference between the theory of evolution and intelligent design is the theory of evolution is observable whereas intelligent design is not. Yes, the theory of evolution is a theory but gravitation is a theory as is germ theory.

Intelligent design does have a place in education...but, it does not have a place in science classes.

September 28, 2005 8:44 PM

great to see such well formulated opposition to non-formulated nonsense - keep it up!

September 30, 2005 9:54 AM