2008

D’Souza has been debating lots of atheists lately. One atheist who won’t debate him is Richard Dawkins. Dinesh comments: [M]y challenges to Dawkins to step into the arena have only met with pathetic rationalization: “Richard is simply too busy and smart to debate you Dinesh.” Busy doing what besides being caught with his pants down by Ben Stein? And I guess he’s smart because he doesn’t want to risk further embarassing himself and destroying his public reputation! Won’t it be hilarious if the “party of faith” is unafraid of opposing arguments while the “party of reason” cannot withstand the arguments of its critics? This is what Henry James might describe as a most interesting turning of the screw. READ WHOLE Read More ›

According to Box Office Mojo, Expelled is estimated to have

– earned $5,282,000 in 10 days.

– it is currently ranked 6th in political documentary, 12th in Christian, and 15th in documentary.

– It is currently ranked 13 in films, but every film ranked above it was released in far more theatres.

Meanwhile, Read More ›

This just published at the STANFORD REVIEW: The Impact of Darwinism By Tristan Abbey With the premiere of Ben Stein’s new movie, Expelled, many people are pondering the long-term impact of Darwinism on society. We touched base with two experts on the subject. Arguing that Darwinism has had a largely positive impact on society is Michael Ruse, the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. Arguing that Darwinism has had a largely negative impact on society is Richard Weikart, Professor of History at California State University, Stanislaus. . . . ACCORDING TO WEIKART: “[I]n the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries most leading Darwinists, including Darwin, tended to stress human inequality more than equality, in part because evolution Read More ›

I went down to the demonstrationto get my fair share of abuse — The Rolling Stones, “You Can’t Always Get Want You Want” But you might just get what you need, if you’ve got a burning question or two about the Expelled controversies. Darwin-to-Hitler, doesn’t Sternberg still have his Smithsonian position, the Pepperdine students were extras, the cell animation is plagiarized, Dawkins and P.Z. Myers and all the rest were tricked into granting interviews, Darwin’s Descent of Man was quote-mined, why didn’t Ben Stein just use Google Maps to find the Discovery Institute, ID is religious ’cause Expelled admits it, Yoko Ono is suing…whatevah. Bring Your Questions for Profs. John Bloom, Mike Keas and Paul NelsonMonday, April 287:30 p.m. to Read More ›

Yoko Ono, as many readers of this blog by now know, is suing the producers of EXPELLED for using a brief clip of John Lennon’s song “Imagine.” One of the stanzas of the song reads: Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world Is it possible to copyright a song that disavows possessions (copyright being a form of possession)? Once Ono realizes the self-referential incoherence of her suit, I trust she’ll drop it. [[Addendum: Then again, Elvis Costello may be closer to the truth: “Was it a millionaire who said ‘imagine no possessions’?” — go here]]

In a prior post EJ wrote:  “I think natural intelligences are to be preferred above supernatural intelligences in design detection, for the simple reason that we have experience with the former, but not the latter.” 

I replied:  “Says who? You are repeating Hume’s error of circular reasoning. “Miracles do not happen because they are counter to universal experience.”  In other words, “miracles do not happen because miracles do not happen.”  That may satisfy you and Hume.  Those who would like to have their conclusions demonstrated rather than assumed might not be as impressed.” 

Then evo_materialist wrote:  “BarryA, you may have experience with miracles.  Alas, I do not, and neither has anybody I know in a way that’s not better explained naturally.” 

Pace evo’s comment, I never said I personally have had experience with miracles.  My comment is a matter of the application of logic to EJ’s (and Hume’s before him) position.  In other words, my point is that Hume’s position fails on logical grounds, not because my experience is different from his.   

Hume (and EJ and Evo) asserts a univeral principle of natural law, which Karl Popper calls ‘the principle of causality.’

This is what Karl Popper says about this principle in The Logic of Scientific Discovery (which, as far as I know, is the only scientific text with the force of law in the United States): 

Read More ›

You know: teach the controversy, and all that. Meaning — after you watch this clip from bloggingheadstv — he’s going to come in for heavy criticism in the comments. Horgan has always kept his own counsel, which makes him interesting to read (one is bound to find something provocative — I remember thinking that his book The End of Science was wrong wrong wrong, but it made me reflect deeply about the nature of scientific inquiry) and to watch. In the same clip, George Johnson wonders about the “niche” occupied by non-religious critics of evolutionary theory. Why do such people exist?

Nancy Pearcey will be addressing After Expelled, on NewsTalk 1260 WFTW 9:30 AM EST Friday April 25th, 2008 Then on May 5th Events at the Mattie Kelly Fine & Performing Arts Center Okaloosa-Walton College Mattie Kelly Fine & Performing Arts Center 100 College Boulevard, Niceville, FL 32578

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!!!
Read More ›

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.

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 ›