April 2008

I just got back from a couple of weeks in Israel, where I visited the ruins of the ancient city of Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and saw this stone: An “expert” at the site insisted that this stone bears the marks of a 1st century Jewish stone carver.  “But,” I asked him, “as a scientist are you not bound by the strictures of methodological naturalism?  Your explanation for the markings is a classic example of the ‘stone carver of the gaps’ fallacy, and you should be ashamed of yourself.  The methods of science demand that we favor a naturalistic explanation for the markings on this stone, and it seems to me that ‘weathering’ is the best Read More ›

Go here On Friday, it was revealed by ABC News that one of the famous shots of supposed Antarctic ice shelves in the film [An Inconvenient Truth] was actually a computer-generated image from the 2004 science fiction blockbuster “The Day After Tomorrow.” And here it is!

Richard Dawkins continues to be indignant about being “duped” into taking part in Ben Stein’s EXPELLED. His indignation is a pose. Dawkins and his TV production company tried to dupe those who disagree with him into taking part in his “Enemies of Reason” series. Some of the people in that series (and in his previous polemic against religion, “The Root Of All Evil?”) felt that they had indeed been duped into taking part. For details about Dawkins the Duper, go here. In this vein, here is something I posted last week at UD (click here for the thread): [Denyse O’Leary] hit the nail on the head in noting that Darwinists redefine “lie” to mean anything that does not promote the Read More ›

Richard Dawkins posts a letter on his website by an anonymous individual who, supposedly inspired by his viewing of EXPELLED, now holds Dawkins and fellow Darwinists responsible for the Holocaust. Dawkins then shifts the blame to Ben Stein and EXPELLED. This is the same Dawkins who in books and videos rails against religious people for their credulousness and stresses the need in science and all aspects of life to examine things closely and follow the evidence. So, what is the evidence that this letter is genuine? And who’s benefitting from the letter? We don’t know who the author is. Moreover, Dawkins is clearly putting it to good use in excoriating Ben Stein and EXPELLED. Until Dawkins provides some compelling evidence Read More ›

A star of Expelled, biologist Caroline Crocker, will be making an appearance at:

McLean Bible Church
8925 Leesburg Pike
Vienna, Virginia
12:30 PM
Sunday, April 27, 2008

I hope to meet some of you at Dr. Crocker’s talk!

Caroline Crocker is the Executive Director of the IDEA Center, an organization devoted to supporting pro-ID students and faculty at universities, high schools, and various other locations.

In 1999, there was only one IDEA club. By 2006, there were 30 IDEA clubs throughout the world and a central headquarters in San Diego known as the IDEA Center.

With the appointment of Caroline Crocker as Executive Director in 2008 and her appearance in the movie Expelled, the IDEA Center is now poised to recognize as many as 1000 IDEA clubs!!!
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On Saturday, 19 April 2008, philosopher of psychology Angus Menuge debated blogger and biologist P.Z. Myers at the University of Minnesota-Morris. What follows is Menuge’s summary of their interaction; his slides are available here.

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Would you go to see a film about a pregnant New York waitress from a deprived background – estranged from her family, dumped by her lover, fired for being late, and about to arrange an abortion? Really? If you said no, you would certainly be affirmed in your decision by critics at the top Entertainment sections. But then Bella stunned film mavens by winning the Toronto Film Festival People’s Choice Award. Audiences have since made Bella a popular, award-winning – and well-rewarded – movie. There is currently an enormous cultural divide between elite culture and popular culture in North America, and film’s future rests with popular culture. To understand what will happen next for Expelled, ignore the derision of the Read More ›

Like the choice between competing political institutions, that between competing paradigms proves to be a choice between incompatible modes of community life. Because it has that character, the choice is not and cannot be determined merely by the evaluative procedures characteristic of normal science, for these depend in part upon a particular paradigm, and that paradigm is at issue. When paradigms enter, as they must, into a debate about paradigm choice, their role is necessarily circular. Each group uses its own paradigm to argue in that paradigm’s defense. — T.S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions The book fascinated him, or more exactly it reassured him. In a sense it told him nothing that was new, but that was part Read More ›

I received this email today from Rupert Sheldrake: You might be interested to know about an excellent new web site about atheism that is hosted on the Cambridge University server and is factual, informative and non-polemical, and puts the “new atheism” into a broad historical and philosophical context. It would be good if you help draw people’s attention to it: www.investigatingatheism.info

Win Ben Stein’s Monkey By Chuck Norris Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Evolution. Intelligent design. These are terms that can cause great consternation in the minds and hearts of many, particularly opponents of each view. Now, that anxiety and debate have resurfaced in theaters everywhere with Ben Stein’s new documentary, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.” The press kit says, “(‘Expelled’) exposes the widespread persecution of scientists and educators who are pursuing legitimate, opposing scientific views to the reigning orthodoxy.” (To see a trailer of the movie or access its free resources, go to www.getexpelled.com.) I like Ben Stein. I think he’s funny, creative and an insightful commentator on a host of issues. I’m not bent on defending him or “Expelled,” but I’m Read More ›

Details here. I wish their ship of inquiry calm seas and a prosperous voyage. To invoke the University of Chicago’s motto, which has never failed to inspire me: “Crescat scientia, vita excolatur” — “let knowledge grow from more to more, and so be human life enriched.”

Chris Mooney writes: I am Labeled a “Creationist Apologist” …by Greg Laden. Or as one of my own commenters put it, “Either you really are just [bleep]ing stupid, or you’re a closet creationist in this blog group. Pick one.” I won’t be deleting that comment despite the profanity, because I want to have it all on the record–the record of what now happens at ScienceBlogs if you say certain thing that people don’t want to hear. All this happened, I suppose, because I dared to point out the obvious: Expelled is a success. I mean, it’s the eighth highest grossing political documentary of all time…after its first week. Randy Olson of course knows this, because he’s, like, a filmmaker. But Read More ›

One of the worst things about one side making connections to Hitler is it invites return fire of the same kind. This should be filed under the category “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”.

How many of you knew that beloved evangelical Christian minister Jerry Falwell shared Adolf Hitler’s views about the importance of maintaining the purity of the white race?

I’m not saying “modern” evangelicals feel this way, any more than “modern” Darwinist are that way, but… as long as we’re dredging up the past of one side it’s only fair to dredge up the other’s too.

Addendum: No one seems to have picked up on the point that Falwell, as an evangelical Christian biblical literalist, did not believe in “Darwinism” yet he still shared his racial thinking with Hitler. Further proof that you don’t need Darwin to be a racist.

From The Nation “Agent of Intolerance”

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With so many extreme reviews and reactions to Ben Stein’s EXPELLED, it’s hard to get a sense of proportion about the film. To that end, check out: www.arn.org/expelled

ROFLMAO – to the Church Burnin’ Ebola Boys, their mothers, their fathers, and their professors – I TOLD YOU SO!!!! What a bunch of maroons.