8:13pm, September 25, 2005
The ACLU is putting the latest version of Creationism, aka "Intelligent Design," on trial starting Monday September 26, 2005 in a Pennsylvania courthouse. Opening statements start tomorrow.
The ACLU is suing because the school district in Harrisburg adopted a rule that Dover High School had to "teach intelligent design" as an alternative to Natural Selection.
This is somewhat similar to requiring teachers in Driver's Ed to teach students that, although most people think it's wise to drive safely, while sober and calm, that some people find driving recklessly, while taking meth, or in a constant state of road rage, is perfectly effective. Truck drivers, Air Force pilots and New York cabbies would have to be brought in as evidence that you can even hold down a job with this behavior.
We don't do that, because it would be irresponsible, and would plant stupid ideas in their head about how we drive. Similarly, teaching Creationism under any name will plant stupid ideas in a kid's mind about how we do science.
We don't do science by reasoning backward from our chosen conclusion, then selectively identify "evidence," pull it out of context, and project a fantasy of a theory that might somehow be supportable, if all of the other evidence weren't against it. That's not science, because science is a method that leads to further discoveries. Science outdates its old theories. The best way to identify good science is when it nullifies or forces radical modifications to its own prior conclusions. This will never happen with Creationism, because its purpose is to bulwark faith with pseudo-logic for those ashamed to stand naked in their absurd faith.
This is too bad, because the main benefit of believing something outlandish is that you develop character from defying the obvious truth. This can lead to the discovery of truth, on occasion, when popular beliefs turn out to be flat wrong, as in the case of Galileo's assertion that the earth is spherical. While it is unlikely that Christians will turn out to be correct about the age of the earth, the origin of life, and the way it all ends, if they want to keep their faith burnished, they will avoid bulwarking it with intellectual sophistry. It all becomes too absurd. The intelligent Christian keeps his mouth shut about how God performed his miracles. If God could engineer a virgin birth, he could do anything. One miracle per religion is enough. Believe and be saved. Disbelieve and go to the eternal pit.
As Science, Intelligent Design is a joke. And as religion, it fails the KISS test: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
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This Post Was Updated to Reflect the Decision by Judge Jones' December 20, 2005 Opinion excoriating the Stealth-Creationists for lying about their motives. A PDF of that opinion is attached directly below.
The Original Post wrote:
The ACLU is putting the latest version of Creationism, aka "Intelligent Design," on trial starting Monday September 26, 2005 in a Pennsylvania courthouse. Opening statements start tomorrow.
The ACLU is suing because the school district in Harrisburg adopted a rule that Dover High School had to "teach intelligent design" as an alternative to Natural Selection.
This is somewhat similar to requiring teachers in Driver's Ed to teach students that, although most people think it's wise to drive safely, while sober and calm, that some people find driving recklessly, while taking meth, or in a constant state of road rage, is perfectly effective. Truck drivers, Air Force pilots and New York cabbies would have to be brought in as evidence that you can even hold down a job with this behavior.
We don't do that, because it would be irresponsible, and would plant stupid ideas in their head about how we drive. Similarly, teaching Creationism under any name will plant stupid ideas in a kid's mind about how we do science.
We don't do science by reasoning backward from our chosen conclusion, then selectively identify "evidence," pull it out of context, and project a fantasy of a theory that might somehow be supportable, if all of the other evidence weren't against it. That's not science, because science is a method that leads to further discoveries. Science outdates its old theories. The best way to identify good science is when it nullifies or forces radical modifications to its own prior conclusions. This will never happen with Creationism, because its purpose is to bulwark faith with pseudo-logic for those ashamed to stand naked in their absurd faith.
This is too bad, because the main benefit of believing something outlandish is that you develop character from defying the obvious truth. This can lead to the discovery of truth, on occasion, when popular beliefs turn out to be flat wrong, as in the case of Galileo's assertion that the earth is spherical. While it is unlikely that Christians will turn out to be correct about the age of the earth, the origin of life, and the way it all ends, if they want to keep their faith burnished, they will avoid bulwarking it with intellectual sophistry. It all becomes too absurd. The intelligent Christian keeps his mouth shut about how God performed his miracles. If God could engineer a virgin birth, he could do anything. One miracle per religion is enough. Believe and be saved. Disbelieve and go to the eternal pit.
As Science, Intelligent Design is a joke. And as religion, it fails the KISS test: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Click here to download USDC.ID.pdf.