Science Icon Fires Broadside At Creationists

London Times vis The Statesman (India) ^ | 04 July 2004 | Times of London Editorial

[PatrickHenry]

Bold font added by your humble poster. Everybody be nice.

[PatrickHenry]

Evolution Ping! This list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and maybe other science topics like cosmology.
See the list's description in my freeper homepage. Then FReepmail me to be added or dropped.

[Long Cut]

Sure, THIS'LL be a quiet thread.

[nightdriver]

I say leave the poor old reprobate alone. He can take his case up with The Creator soon enough.

[aculeus]

Professor Ernst ... will celebrate his 100th birthday tomorrow ...

Prof. Mayr... was born on 5 July 1905 in Kempten, Germany.

Does not compute.

[Strategerist]

I would suggest what is bold fonted probably isn't the actual views of the scientist, but the reporter (as they often are in science stories) being an idiot.

Evolution has NOTHING to do with the "creation of the world" and whether it was divine or not; neither does intelligent design.

You can believe in the divine creation of the world and still be an ardent evolutionist.

[Prince Caspian]

...will celebrate his 100th birthday tomorrow by leading a scathing attack on creationism.

C'mon, where's the love and tolerance? What's a matter... having trouble proving your own theory, so gotta resort to attacking someone else's? Is your theory so weak that it can't take a little competition in the arena of ideas? How pathetic. No fool like an old fool.

[goldstategop]

They meant to say he's celebrating his 99th birthday. Very few people live to be 100.

[PatrickHenry]

Here's the guy's Curriculum Vita. Not as impressive as your average creationist, I suppose, and certainly not as impressive as Jack Chick's, but this is who he is: Ernst Mayr.

[dodger]

Professor Mayr is an exceptional gentleman and scholar and, not incidentally, his argument is against the intellectual foundation of creationism rather than Christianity or, Deism generally. Moreover, he is a remarkable human being who will do well in the afterlife!

[cyborg]

It's vacation. Tomorrow :)

[af_vet_1981]

That scientist is quite old and will soon discover that it was not Charles Darwin who created him.

[Tribune7]

A good rule of thumb is that if Jimmy Carter is on your side you are wrong :-)

[Long Cut]

I've spent the last week on watch. Tonight's my last one. After it's over at midnight, I'm going back to my barracks room, pouring a drink of whiskey, and relaxing by FReepin for a while.

I'm visiting this one again...it looks to get good. Not as good as the sex toys one, but good.

[Recovering_Democrat]

I agree. Here the poor old guy is...didja ever notice the creationist scientists are just asking for a place at the table, and the ones who're angry and hateful about that request are the evolutionists? Seems that way to me.

[Recovering_Democrat]

O my gawd. I didn't really mean to write like Andy Rooney sounds. Really.

[Sola Veritas]

"You can believe in the divine creation of the world and still be an ardent evolutionist."

If you have the time, would you please explain how? I guess it would come down to what you difine as an "ardent evolutionist." Does the belief in abiogenesis fall into your description of an ardent evolutionist? If it does, then your statement would not make sense to me. If under the right conditions "life" will "happen"(abiogenesis) then where is the need for a creator? Abiogenesis implies that "life" is an intrinsic property of matter and the "laws" of the universe. That is why NASA et. al. are so desparate to find water at an extraterrestrial location. Even though they don't directly say it, they obviously believe that if the right "mix" of things is in existence then "life" will happen. IF this is true, then why the need for a creator or intelligent designer?

Theistic evolutionists are "fence stradlers" that don't want to commit to either side, and are not respected by either side (Evolutionists or Creationists).

[PatrickHenry]

... didja ever notice the creationist scientists are just asking for a place at the table ...

To have a place at that table, you have to earn it by doing good science. Theology is a totally different intellectual activity.

[P-Marlowe]

Prof. Mayr, who will celebrate his 100th birthday at his holiday home in New Hampshire with his two daughters, five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, was born on 5 July 1905 in Kempten,

Somebody need to tell the eminent scientist that he's gonna be 99 tomorrow. I always thought that 2nd grade math was a pre-requisite for a PHD. Maybe I'm wrong.

[Strategerist]

I guess it would come down to what you difine as an "ardent evolutionist." Does the belief in abiogenesis fall into your description of an ardent evolutionist? If it does, then your statement would not make sense to me. If under the right conditions "life" will "happen"(abiogenesis) then where is the need for a creator? Abiogenesis implies that "life" is an intrinsic property of matter and the "laws" of the universe.

The origin of life has NOTHING TO DO WITH evolution either. You can believe God created life and still be an ardent evolutionist.

Darwin didn't title his book "Origin of Life," he titled it "Origin of Species."

Evolution refers to the evolution of one species from another species, not life from non-life.

A common tactic of creationists is to change the debate from a debate over evolution to a debate over abiogenesis, either willfully (to try to find a more winnable argument) or just pure stupidity (not understanding evolution at all.)

We know a lot less about how life originated than we do about how species have differentiated, obviously, as the latter was a lot longer ago.