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Help defend science: flunked not expelled
Author: cbit on April 18 2008 Viewed 8184 times. 29 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
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Apologies, a completely non-music related post.
The creationist/ID friendly pseudo documentary called Expelled will be screening near you soon. In the film, Ben Stein claims that scientists critical of the theory of evolution are being silenced by the powers behind "big science". Through ham fisted montages the film also tries to establish a link between the theory of evolution and Nazism and other genocidal ideologies.
Christian fundamentalists are lobbying hard to promote this film, even offering incentives to school groups to go and see it.
A counter site has been launched by the national center for science education that lists, and refutes, the lies and important omissions of the expelled film.
Publishing hyperlinks to the expelled exposed site, using 'expelled' as the visible link text, will help make the counter site more visible in search engines, and help ensure that people really do hear 'both sides' of the story. If you can, please help out.
Here's a review of the film:
link
Digging this page will help spread the word too (there's a subtle digg link beneath this blog post)
edit: "help defend science" == shorthand for 'help protect people from being robbed of the chance to understand the scientific method, to understand the crucial importance of evidence based reason in evaluating truth claims, to understand the principles or critical thought, to appreciate the enormous weight of evidence in support of evolutionary theory.' | |
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04/18/08
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dach
I think anyone who believes that the universe was once the size of a single point which then exploded outwards seriously needs their head examined.
04/18/08
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cbit
delete said: "Nope. That's not correct. The "commands from god" part isn't right either. I would try to write something about these things but i'm afraid my lacking knowledge of english plus my tiredness right know would make it at least incomplete, if not incorrect."
Ok. The passage in psalms clearly says though that god gave man dominion over almost everything he created. Wouldn't you agree that a view that positions mankind in this way is not the first thing that springs to mind when you talk about humility?
04/18/08
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delete
cbit said: " delete said: "Nope. That's not correct. The "commands from god" part isn't right either. I would try to write something about these things but i'm afraid my lacking knowledge of english plus my tiredness right know would make it at least incomplete, if not incorrect."
Ok. The passage in psalms clearly says though that god gave man dominion over almost everything he created. Wouldn't you agree that a view that positions mankind in this way is not the first thing that springs to mind when you talk about humility?"
I don't read what you're saying in the passage. I'd replace "almost everything" with "all the things he can possibly grasp by using any of his senses and spirit". This means that there could be infinitely more creations of god that man cannot perceive.
04/18/08
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dach
hey cbit, you have a little froth in the corner of your mouth
04/18/08
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p
the killers and yoko will get a chance to "win ben stein's producer's money"
edited: Apr 18 2008
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cbit
dach said: "hey cbit, you have a little froth in the corner of your mouth"
That's normal.
Sorry for getting sidetracked into a general theist/atheism discussion. That's not what i wanted this blog to be about but i find it a fascinating subject so I often end up talking about it (and a theist bringing up the subject of why he believes is impossible bait for me to resist).
In any case: I hope the theists here also agree that Stein's thoroughly dishonest film should be met with condemnation.
04/18/08
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delete
regarding humility: the fact that man can use forces of nature could be considered as a sign of him being an imperfect image of god. i guess he was given that authority so that he can understand this fact. on the other hand: in greek, the word 'human' is 'άνθρωπος'. it's an ancient word and has two parts: 'άνω' which means upwards and 'θωρώ' which means look. although man achieves stuff that seem magnificent, it only takes a look to the sky to realise that man's creations are really minor. and that's only one part of the whole humility aspect...
damn, i have to go  i wish we could meet and discuss these things in person, typing all this sucks.
04/18/08
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mlbot
cbit said: " mlbot said: "Cbit, I don't think anyone religious will stress over the appendix. there are much bigger concepts that have caused serious philisophical struggle."
Yes. But this kind of biological imperfection means that you have to do some serious metal gymnastics if you want to maintain that a perfect being designed us."
Just because you don't understand the appendix doesn't make God the idiot ;)
04/18/08
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cbit
mlbot said: " cbit said: " mlbot said: "Cbit, I don't think anyone religious will stress over the appendix. there are much bigger concepts that have caused serious philisophical struggle."
Yes. But this kind of biological imperfection means that you have to do some serious metal gymnastics if you want to maintain that a perfect being designed us."
Just because you don't understand the appendix doesn't make God the idiot ;)"
yes, thats just the kind of thing 
04/18/08
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jp
if i were a christian i would feel very embarrassed by the ID people. they just don't understand that a god who would be able to set up rules and initial conditions that in the end create complexity like humankind (imagine creating a computer program that could do that!) would be FAR more superior than their stupid sculptor-god they have in mind (a petty game level designer). they just don't understand complexity. maybe it's because they are so simple minded.
but i don't believe in a designer or programmer-god (who designed the designer? who programmed the programmer?) .
04/18/08
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RogerRoger
There was a point in my life where I believed in something like ID. The rationale to me was one based on relativity and time. An eternal and sentient "force", be it a collective intelligence spanning billions of light years to some mysterious commonality of all life, would have eons to perform that which to our perception of time would appear as evolution, but compressed into short form would be perceived as creation. ie. I couldn't distinguish one from the other aside from the reference point of time.
Now I really don't know what to beleive. At some point you have to ask why does it matter? Even if you could prove that life adapting to change was always a rationale in facist politics, dominance and oppression, that doesn't mean brainwashing people from birth to accept only one line of thought would both preserve law and order, and lead to an existence of liberty and peace of mind in regards to vanquishing mortal fears.
IMO, when you hold an idea sacred is when the trouble starts. True science holds no idea or proof sacred, so long as it can be disproven. So I gravitate towards science for this reason.
04/18/08
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tantan
My beliefs have gravitated to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
link
04/18/08
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Squeal
At the foundation of every belief system is a total void, an unmoved mover, a thing that has no beginning. Where did God come from? Where did that infinitely dense speck that burst into our reality come from? These are infinite mysteries, unknowable by nature.
What the fuck difference does it make how people try to explain it?
Now I do agree that ID is just stupid (in the face of a much more empirically convincing theory), as is faith in things which are demonstrably false. But belief in a God seems to me to be a perfectly reasonable response to the infinite mystery of our existence.
I don't understand why anyone would give more credence to faith in the face of hard evidence, though. I remember being taught that faith in God was like faith in electricity: you couldn't see it, but it was still there. I lament that I was too young and simple to see right through that lame argument. Electricity is a totally testable and verified phenomenon. With God, results may vary. If you try to "test" the God theory, it fails every time. That doesn't necessarily mean that God doesn't exist, just that it is not a provable theory(God doesn't care to interfere with us?). I know some people have personal evidence that God exists or whatever. I even thought I knew that at one point (I was raised Mormon), but after looking at everything as objectively as I could, I concluded that I had been essentially soft-brainwashed. The 'spiritual' experiences that I had had were nothing more than a little wishful thinking and misinterpreted emotional responses.
Also, what is it with organized religions? Why do most of them resist scientific discovery so much? Don't they see that time and time again religion makes an ass of itself refusing scientific progress? It's a goddamn recurring theme.
04/18/08
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mlbot
RogerRoger said: "There was a point in my life where I believed in something like ID. The rationale to me was one based on relativity and time. An eternal and sentient "force", be it a collective intelligence spanning billions of light years to some mysterious commonality of all life, would have eons to perform that which to our perception of time would appear as evolution, but compressed into short form would be perceived as creation. ie. I couldn't distinguish one from the other aside from the reference point of time.."
Evolution does not state there is no God any more than the law of gracity.
ID does not mean "I believe some sort of being created life, or the universe, or whatever".
ID states that the earth is 6000 years old, and that all creatures were created as-is at that time, and that life does not change in any way.
And now apparently Ben Stein wants to tell us that telling these people we dont want to leearn about a literal interpretation of the Bible in lieu of science class that we are as bad as the Nazi's. Somehow, I suspect this argument wont go over so well in the synagogue.
also, LOL at pastafarianism!
04/18/08
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tylth
i believe in books like hermann hesses's "sidhartha" where the protagonist does all kinds of stuff until realizing that he gains the most knowledge by watching a river flow all the time. because the river IS. children know that, they still get a kick out of watching ice cubes crack in their beverage or ants walking along their path. i should watch more ants walking along their path, all busy and everything. they can pile up HUGE anthills for sure, i've seen documentaries about ant colonies so massive you wouldnt believe. how small they are!
or just look at animals like these
link omg
there are also very small little tropical octopus thaaaaat i can't strangely find any footage about in the web which are pretty much my favourite animals, they wealk instead of swim. and are so archaic looking, lethally poisonous and awesome
uh, yeah, whats my point!? antz rulez LOL
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