October 21, 2005

YA Intelligent Design Debate In which we forego the Flying Spaghetti Monster in favor of a Louisville Slugger.
posted by es el Queso 18 years ago
  • This melted my buttah when I read it yesterday.
  • eggcellent.
  • So what does come first? The kneecap or the baseball bat?
  • The wood
  • Would what?
  • This reminds me of a famous philosopher's rebuttal to the argument that the world is a mere illusion (much as in The Matrix). Though I forget the philosopher's name I recall the argument: the philosopher stubbed his toe on a rock and said "ow!"
  • wow! I just read this and I have finally found a reason to like baseball...excellent. six.oh.six I think you might be thinking of Zeno of Citium?
  • Zeno knows all.
  • Abiezer_Coppe: that's the one!
  • Vera nice postremo. - Sr. Cardgage
  • Unfortunately I think, having seen the opinion polls, that if it comes to baseball bats you unrighteous Darwinists are going to be the ones getting whupped. It remains a mystery to me why the USA suffers the anti-Darwinist affliction (and I think it is really just the USA, rather in the same way that Prohibition was not replicated elsewhere), but if you want a successful strategy, maybe I can suggest three. First, instead of arguing rationally, you need to appeal to ignorance and prejudice. "Did you know that Intelligent Design is endorsed by the Taliban? When it comes to interpreting Genesis, you can basically choose Osama Bin Laden or Charles Darwin. You can go with the Iraqi if you like: I'm backing the American" Second, you need to be subversive. Some of you should declare yourselves to be supporters of ID, but insist that ID is an explicitly atheist theory. If that's challenged, you say "Well, don't you think both sides of the argument within ID should get a hearing?" Third, how about this? If you relaxed the separation of Church and state a little, and allowed prayers to be said in school, is it possible that the impulse to thrust religion into science teaching instead might be reduced?
  • Risking the kind of nationwide ridicule it faced six years ago, the Kansas Board of Education approved new public-school science standards Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution. In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena. Brilliant!