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Scopes Trial symbolism co-opted in the climate change controversy?

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Recall the February 3 debate at the Dayton Tennessee Scopes trial courthouse? Between Todd Wood, president of Core Academy, and Darrel Falk, former president of BioLogos? Here’s a writeup:

Wood said he “knows the evolution community intimately” but has never encountered any piece of evidence that he considers “irreconcilable” to his belief in a literal six day creation.

After learning more about evolution, Falk has come to believe that “biology is the process of discovering how God created.”

This chapel discussion was more about modeling respectful dialogue about controversial issues than swaying students to one side or another.

Podcast.

So NBC wouldn’t be interested. No sex, no drugs, no murders. All smart people. = No news.

But the appeal of the Scopes trial endures as an exposition of the fundamental divide: traditional outlooks vs. scientism (= whatever current science lobbies want is the only source of values and truth).

One result is that the idea has got co-opted in the climate change controversy:

Image

 

Steyn, a Canadian commentator, is being sued by a Penn State climate prof (and climate change advocate). The details are here. The choice of symbolism is interesting. The only thing one can be sure of is that Steyn, an able communicator, reckons that everyone knows what, in the most basic, external sense, he is referring to when he talks about the Scopes Trial. It will be interesting to unpack similarities and differences in the months ahead.

Steyn is a veteran of Canada’s free speech wars and a key player in getting a vague law against free speech struck down. See also Yes, we CAN say that.

See also: Scopes courthouse debate February 3 probably representative, sources say

and

Geneticist Todd Wood offers an apology (Feels Tim Stafford’s book misrepresented him)

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Comments
Reported yesterday:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a stern warning in a speech Sunday, calling climate change "perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction" and saying that those who "refuse to believe it are simply burying their heads in the sand."
It would have been more appropriate for Mr. Kerry to have used the word "snow" instead. "Burying their heads in the snow." ;-) -QQuerius
February 17, 2014
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The infamous 'Hockey Stick' was debunked 4 years ago by 'Climategate':
Hide the decline - satire on global warming alarmists - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMqc7PCJ-nc
Yet Mann, in pure Darwinian tradition, continues to parade the falsehood of the 'Hockey Stick' as if it is undeniable truth. And apparently he is using the now falsified 'Hockey Stick' to pummel Republican candidates who oppose the extreme draconian measures on the economy that Democrats want to impose to try to curb their imagined climate change:
"Dr. Mann has been brandishing his hockey stick out on the campaign trail against Republican candidates. In Virginia, he appeared in the Democrats' attack ads against Ken Cuccinelli, and helped get Clinton's bagman Terry McAuliffe elected governor. When his candidate Mark Herring also prevailed over the GOP in the attorney general's race, Mann crowed and published tweets from his acolytes congratulating him on "two fresh notches on your hockey stick." That would seem, definitively, to move the hockey stick into the realm of political speech explicitly protected by the First Amendment"... http://www.steynonline.com/6017/slappstick-farce
Quote:
"There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it." William James (1842-1910) The father of modern Psychology
bornagain77
February 8, 2014
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