Intelligent Design...

[Repo]

There is an argument going on in America's schools; it is not about class size, nor about teachers pay, it is about the theory of evolution. Many of the religious conservative right don't believe in the theory of evolution, nor the idea that they may have evolved from apes. Now in fairness to them, they may not have, after all their very belief suggests that they are still thinking like they have a monkey brain and show little signs that they actually did evolve. Most intelligent life accepts the idea that all things evolve including mankind, in our case most recently from apes. The religious fanatics want schools to mention the idea of intelligent design when teaching the theory of evolution. Intelligent design is a rewrite of creationism, proposing that the universe with all its complexities would have to have been designed from an intelligent higher power. The religious right wants intelligent design mentioned in school classes. Since religion cannot be taught in public schools, they spray painted creationism a little and came up with intelligent design, a newer, more colorful version of God and religion that they want to sneak into science class. Unfortunately for them science requires more than an idea but some science behind it to actually be science. The idea that everything comes from an intelligent design is actually an intelligent design to ram religion into schools under a false pretense. The false pretense that there is science to the intelligent design premise however they show no facts or studies on which to base the premise of intelligent design. The only thing to support their belief of intelligent design is faith and as we all know faith is a belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence, something that science does. Hence intelligent design is not something to be taught in public schools...

Since the government and the courts have come to the understanding that public schools should not teach about God and or religion. The teaching of intelligent design or the belief that the universe, the Earth and everything on it including each of us were designed from an intelligent higher power could only be taught if that intelligent higher power was not God. That would mean that should they allow schools to teach intelligent design, they would have to teach that the universe, the Earth and everything on it including each of us were designed by a highly intelligent alien life form. Now there is no proof to back that idea up but if they dig around on Mars and find some ancient ruins under all that red dust, they just may find some proof of where we came from and then I may too be for teaching intelligent design. As Mr. Spock might say, the idea that man's roots may have originated from Mars would then be a logical conclusion. The religious right may not like the thought but we may be the intelligent design of the Martian race. One man's God is another life form's scientist...

[multi]

in other news...


Volcano erupts on Galapagos island

Last Modified: 24 Oct 2005
Source: ITN

The 1,500-metre (4,920-feet) Sierra Negra volcano has begun to erupt on Isabela, the largest of the Galapagos Islands.

The volcano began erupting on Saturday afternoon, producing three lava flows, according to officials from the Galapagos National Park.

Television images show the massive lava flows, although it has not yet been determined whether the island's plant and animal life have been affected.

The famous Galapagos tortoises, some of which have a lifespan of more than 150 years, favour habitats that lie close to volcano craters.

The island is part of an archipelago, located 625 miles off the coast of Ecuador, that is home to a uniquely rich biodiversity and which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

The unique natural wildlife there, which includes marine iguanas and blue-footed boobies, inspired Charles Darwin to come up with his theory of evolution.

Ch4

[albed]

And so the bong sucking monkey molester takes another piss in someone else's thread.



I suppose peeing into your own mouth gets boring after awhile.

[albed]

Originally Posted by Repo

but if they dig around on Mars and find some ancient ruins under all that red dust, they just may find some proof of where we came from and then I may too be for teaching intelligent design. As Mr. Spock might say, the idea that man's roots may have originated from Mars would then be a logical conclusion.

Only if he ignored the vast amount of evidence that life originated and evolved on earth. Spock would never be so prejudiced and irrational.

[Nicobie]

Originally Posted by albed

And so the bong sucking monkey molester takes another piss in someone else's thread.



I suppose peeing into your own mouth gets boring after awhile.

Intelligent Design...

[Mazer]

Well, Intelligent Design is simply the newest name for a very old theory, one which predates the theory of evolution by many centuries.

Cicero from his De natura deorum
When you see a sundial or a water-clock, you see that it tells the time by design and not by chance. How then can you imagine that the universe as a whole is devoid of purpose and intelligence, when it embraces everything, including these artifacts themselves and their artificers?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy

In philosophy this theory is better known as Teleology and it dates back to Plato.

We're often told that the Charles Darwin's studies of the natural world were his masterpiece, yet we rarely hear that those studies directly challenged his religious faith in God's existence. As a scientist he probably didn't feel it appropriate to color his studies with his preconceptions of God. He managed to be a very impartial and observent scientist, and though personal tragedies stripped him of his faith in God he never did claim that God didn't exist. For all the evidence he found for evolution, he never managed to prove it, and nobody has managed to disprove it either.

In my opinion there is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching Intelligent Design in schools because it deals directly with reasoning and faith, not necessarily religion and God. Science is part of it, but it has its place in philosophy and history classes as well. The great thing about all the many sciences is that there are no artificial limits placed on them. Any theory, no matter how absurd or seemingly obvious, can be tested, and those test results can be published to be reviewed by other scientists. And the great thing about America is that there are so damn many scientists that nearly every theory can be thoroughly tested and reviewed. The scientific method simply works, and school curriculums should be equally inclusive and objective. We shouldn't be excluding some ideas just because of some irrational fear that students might somehow turn into religious zealots. Teach every idea, and from there let the students figure out their own belief systems.

[albed]

Students should be taught to think, not believe.


I'll have to check on your claims about Darwin's life. He lived in a time when wise men held their tongues when they could rouse the ire of the yet powerful religious elite and end their careers. I suspect you're once again creating your own version of history.


Here you go:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...ws_on_religion

On return, while developing his theory of natural selection he came to think that the religious instinct had evolved with society and gradually lost his belief in the Bible. With the death of his daughter Annie, Darwin finally lost all faith in a beneficent God and saw Christianity as futile. He continued to give support to the local church and help with parish work, but on Sundays would go for a walk while his family attended church.

[Mazer]

Geez, you're fast albed. I reread the wikipedia article and realized I might be wrong. Before I had a chance to edit my post you had already replied. That's the passage I found too, you just didn't give me time to double check myself.

And to your other comment I would say that students should be taught to believe without being taught what to believe, just as students should be taught to think without being taught what to think. Faith is every bit as important as knowledge.

[albed]

Lucky timing...or unlucky, you know how I am with you and your versions of history.

students should be taught to believe without being taught what to believe

Completely absurd. How in the world would you go about doing that?

[Mazer]

A favorite teacher of mine once told our class that we should be passionate about something, whether it's learning or athletics or politics or family or whatever. What's important, he said, isn't what you're passionate about but that you have passion. It was a short little speech and he only gave it a couple of times, but it stuck with me as it probably did with many other students.

Belief and passion go hand in hand, though of course I know they aren't the same thing. Really you don't have to teach people to believe in things, for the most part everyone already has beliefs. But I think teachers should make it clear that faith is the right of every human being, that beliefs are personal, and that they cannot be forced upon others. It's a very simple concept, albed.

[multi]

Originally Posted by albed

And so the bong sucking monkey molester takes another piss in someone else's thread.



I suppose peeing into your own mouth gets boring after awhile.

you can hardly talk about pissing in 'someone else's ' thread dipsh1t..

[albed]

Is this your version of explaining yourself, just switching from one pronouncement to another without noticing the contradiction?

All you seem able to do is believe things without understanding them. You can't explain what you believe or why you believe it, and you can't know if what you believe is true or not because you just don't understand; though I doubt that you really care. You just seem to adopt whatever belief you've been told instead of figuring out for yourself what the truth is.

So belief for you and many others is just a poor substitute for understanding and teaching students to believe instead of understand simply ensures that they will be unable to distinguish between truth and falsehood and so will be easily manipulated by those who tell them what to believe.

Originally Posted by Mazer

Faith is every bit as important as knowledge

What a perfect statement to demonstrate your belief in a falsehood with no understanding at all of how absurd it is. Do you think you could survive for any time at all without knowledge of how to obtain food, water, shelter, etc.? Can you explain how faith is in any way necessary for survival or any aspect of modern living?

But somebody told you to believe that, and lacking the ability to understand, that is all you can do.

[RoBoBoy]

Originally Posted by albed

And so the bong sucking monkey molester takes another piss in someone else's thread.

I suppose peeing into your own mouth gets boring after awhile.

As long as I've been coming here, I've been watching you for for signs of phylogenesis. Have you ever said anything that might suggest you're on the path to higher intelligence?

You're like a germ, always looking for something to attach yourself to because you can't make it on your own and should be isolated in a Petri dish, locked away in deep freeze.

Sorry to the rest about getting off topic but contempt breeds contempt.

[Mazer]

So now you're trying to tell me what my beliefs are? Do you really know these things about me or do you just believe them? Might I point out that your opinion that belief is absurd is also just a belief?

People don't simply believe the things they're told, albed. Skepticism is a time honored tradation among philosophers and scientists. If most people rejected their own original ideas and believed only what they were told then philosophy and science would still be known as heresy and witchcraft. People have to have enough faith in their own faculties of logic and observation to go out on a limb and challenge the beliefs of others. albed, my friend, you have that kind of faith in spades, but so far it hasn't done you any good in this discussion. You obviously disagree with me, but you haven't used any sort of logic to prove your belief.

[theknife]

teach intelligent design anyway you want, just don't teach it as science. since it is not observable, predictable, or testable, it has no place as theory in a science class.

[Mazer]

Intelligent Design is precisely as observable, predictable, and testable as Natural Selection. There is evidence for both and there is proof for neither. Both should be taught as case studies in the difference between scientific fact and theory.

[theknife]

Originally Posted by Mazer

Intelligent Design is precisely as observable, predictable, and testable as Natural Selection. There is evidence for both and there is proof for neither. Both should be taught as case studies in the difference between scientific fact and theory.

you're on: cite any published accredited scientific experiment where intelligent design (i.e.the presence of a higher, and therefore superhuman, power) has been observed, tested, and/or successfully predicted.

[Mazer]

Show me proof of speciation and I'll see what I can come up with.

[albed]

This should get good. A liberal using facts and logic to convince a religious adherent to believe something that's against his religion.

[Mazer]

And with you to moderate this debate, albed, it should be pretty wild.

And to clarify, I don't believe in Intelligent Design either, but I think it's silly to test just one theory and not all of them. Good science is never so selective or prejudiced.