Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

A word about Uncommon Descent…

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Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings! May you and all your friends be cheerful.

Posting at Uncommon Descent is a pleasure for all of us authors, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank our generous donors.

Recent posts explain why we put so many hours into the site: Evidence and honest discussion of evidence.

But now, suppose I told you that a theory about how life forms change over time has been known since the 1960s to be mathematically impossible (assuming evidence-based circumstances). Yet courts order it to be taught to all children uncritically in tax-supported schools. Anyone who raises doubts, public or private, is not only demonized or silenced in the academy but trashed by a swampful of overpaid trolls.

I am talking Darwinism, of course.

Good news: You needn’t think that life’s pattern is best accounted for by design in order to give yourself permission to doubt Darwin’s tale and despise its current function.

Darwinism is the only “science” most lifestyle editors and their writers will ever know (except, perhaps, dubious environment apocalypses, one-a-month). So an endless stream of stories filters through to the public, about how Darwin the liberator has freed us evolved apes to follow our selfish genes. The fact that there is little evidence for the selfish gene’s existence doesn’t matter.

Naturally, few who benefit from the Darwin industry can tolerate a rational assessment of its fact base. But some of us think evidence matters. You do, and that is why you come to this site. You come for what you won’t read in the Journal of Confirmation Studies or hear on Airhead TV.

We need a few things to keep the site up: authors with guts and something worthwhile to say, caffeine, and a bit of money. In fact, we’d like to offer more services, like pod and video. If you remember us now, we will use the money to expand services.

No, our ship is not sinking, and no orphans will starve if you use our service free. We are giving you an opportunity to invest in what you do use and value. And the best of the New Year to all our kind readers!

Comments
An online course--or, at the very least, lectures and some quizzes--would be great, especially since my 15 year old came home the other night stating that she was learning about evolution in school and found it "confusing" and "boring."Barb
December 24, 2010
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Merry Christmas all! Celine Dion - O Holy Night * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O1siM3Nm-kbornagain77
December 24, 2010
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Maybe UD should offer an online degree too. :) Merry Christmas everyone!CannuckianYankee
December 24, 2010
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I second kairofocus's idea. I'd like to present such a course to my kids when they are old enough.Collin
December 24, 2010
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Mrs O'Leary: Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Let me take this opportunity to thank you and the others "on the masthead." UD is a -- if not the -- leading ID blog in the world. As such, it is a key part of the remnant that is the real hope for a future worth having for our gravely wounded civilisation. I think it is important to support UD, in many ways, including by simple reading, and by participating seriously in dialogue -- note, my contrast to "debate." I also take this opportunity to suggest (again) that UD should expand its education corner [BA 77 tries to be a one-man education corner . . . ]. Such would enfold not only the present glossary and correctives, but maybe at least a link to the IDEA or a similar general FAQ and primer [BTW, some links to the key NWE articles on ID related topics would be helpful -- cf Mr Wells on this], and if possible, eventually a Wiki and an online course or two suitable for community level, interested high schoolers, educators and college students who need an independent perspective on origins studies. [My own attempt here, developed with some help from key members of the UD community -- is an early, rough draft. I think the scope of such a course should be at least as broad as this draft survey: summary and overview, worldview roots, the design alternative, cosmology, timelines, OOL, OO body-plan level biodiversity, origin of man [including mind and morality], origins science in society, a primer on doing science in light of the design insight, reference resources, where to go from here in school, community, and career.] I look forward to podcasts and videos. They would certainly enrich the work, and open up interesting possibilities for education. A happy Christmas to all, and may the new year be a great one. All the best to all. GEM of TKIkairosfocus
December 24, 2010
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OT: Ms. O'Leary, you will like this study: Placebos Work -- Even Without Deception http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101222173033.htmbornagain77
December 23, 2010
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But some of us think evidence matters. Sadly, evidence -- and, dare I say, simple logic and elementary mathematical probabilistic considerations -- no longer matter to those consumed by the ideology of Darwinian orthodoxy. This is a very dangerous corruption of true scientific endeavor, which has unlimited potential for disaster, much of which has already taken place.GilDodgen
December 23, 2010
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