Another fundamentalist fights to preserve ignorance as a way of life!
Posted on 05/27/2004 8:16:55 AM PDT by Michael_Michaelangelo
Why is it that they want to teach religion in the public schools? As I hear of the debate going on about teaching evolution or intelligent design, I have to protest. There are those who want to teach creationism from Genesis. No one wants this, as this is not science. Let's leave history to the historians, religion to those trained in theology and science to scientists. I do not want my child being taught religion, of any sort, by anyone but a member of the clergy -- one whom I have approved of. My neighbor may pick someone else. This is as it should be.
When it comes to science, we assume that our children are being taught the scientific method, from the development of a hypothesis, to the gathering of evidence to the formulation of a working theory. Science knows that most things cannot be established as absolute fact. It works with reasonable theories that more often than not hold true under scrutiny. So far, science.
This is the problem: Our children are being taught that evolution is a fact. There simply is not enough evidence to even make it a theory. At best it is a hypothesis. This is fine, but this is not how it is presented. Anyone remember the TV show Cosmos? Carl Sagan said that evolution is a fact. By saying this, he was telling us about his faith and belief, but not science.
Intelligent design is science. Let's take it out and away from Genesis and leave it there so that we can explore scientifically a body of evidence. Even many scientists have decided that life here on Earth was seeded by an alien race, as the data just does not support Darwinian evolution. Not one link to bridge any species-to-species jump has turned up.
Intelligent design is based on information theory. Information theory states that the least bit of randomness introduced to an information system creates chaos and destroys that system. It will never lead to positive change.
Our DNA is an information system, and all life has it. Mathematics sides with design rather than chance. The probability for chance to create such great diversity of life, let alone one strand of DNA, on this planet is very close to impossible. Design, on the other hand, is most highly probable.
All this is science and ought to be taught. Just because it requires a super-intelligence is of no concern to science. There are many things we have discovered that are bigger than we are. Not all things can be known.
I wish humanity would get off this arrogant kick that it can get its little finite and mortal brain around everything.
Why can't there be something far bigger and superior in the universe (or outside it) that we never can explain? Let's deal with what we do have and look at it scientifically.
Evolution has simply become a religion -- the opiate of the masses. It takes faith to believe in something that lacks so much in evidence to support it. Let it become extinct with the dinosaur. We have invested so much time and money into it, but it is time to be honest and let it go. As a great society that leads the world in its information technology, we ought to turn this talent to good use. The wonders of life have the imprint of a great mind, which we ought to be thrilled to investigate.
Pingo
and high time that it should.
In the same show, Carl Sagan also said that in science: .."the only truth is that there are no truths." Evolution is only a theory in science. It has no place in religion, just as religious doctrine (not morality) has no place in science.
And yes, I know Sagan was an atheist. So what!
Intelligent Design dittos. Students should be taught to think for themselves and analyze facts associated with issues such as evolution, creation, global warming, intelligent design. Just give them the hypotheses and theories and state that we haven't a clue how we got here.
What a stupid leap in logic. Organic life is not the same as a computer's database. If this is indeed the basis of ID, then it's a "theory" predicated on a faulty analogy.
The Bible makes no mention of dinosaurs, therefore they cannot have existed. The fossil evidence to the contrary.
With this phrase the author stepped into the abyss of ignorance.
Typical logical error. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Would you care to place bets?
The author just seems to want to go from one unprovable, not-able-to-be-tested theory to another, while calling one science (ID) and the other religion (evolution).
No thanks. I prefer my science to aggressively pursue that which is not known, over a science that shrugs and says, we cannot know this, so let's stop trying (as the author seems to want with the quote "Why can't there be something far bigger and superior in the universe (or outside it) that we never can explain?"
This needs to be said over and over. Evolution is not based on evidence, it is a Religious postulation.
"What a stupid leap in logic. Organic life is not the same as a computer's database. If this is indeed the basis of ID, then it's a "theory" predicated on a faulty analogy."
Exactly. The simplest example is the influenza virus. Every year, new mutations appear in the virus, making old immunities obsolete. We work really hard to create new vaccines to keep up with the mutations in the flu virus.
Every change in an information system does NOT necessarily destroy it. And DNA is, indeed an information system.
What nonsense. Evolution is fact as recorded in recent history. Dachsunds have evolved from other breeds. That this evolution is not the result of natural selection is beside the point; there were no dachsunds on the ark. They have only existed in recent times. They were selectively bred for hunting badgers. That is evolution.
Where did the article say that organic life was the same as a computer's database? But DNA does certainly contain information.
Thanks for your reply!
If evolution is a fact...then why do mothers still only have two hands?
Because they can still get by with only two. I don't see mothers "dropping the ball" too bad yet.
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