The Case Against Intelligent Design. The Faith That Dare Not Speak Its Name.

The New Republic ^ | 8/11/05 | Jerry Coyne

[hc87]

Exactly eighty years after the Scopes "monkey trial" in Dayton, Tennessee, history is about to repeat itself. In a courtroom in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in late September, scientists and creationists will square off about whether and how high school students in Dover, Pennsylvania will learn about biological evolution. One would have assumed that these battles were over, but that is to underestimate the fury (and the ingenuity) of creationists scorned.

The Scopes trial of our day--Kitzmiller, et al v. Dover Area School District et al--began innocuously...

[ml1954]

It's late. I'll let you rethink that one and reformulate in the morning.

I'll ignore the condescension.

There is no controversy in the scientific community. There are just a relatively small number of renegades (as there often are in science, and everywhere else). Their positions are being used to attempt to teach a religious belief in public schools and call it science.

This is an attempt to proselytize.

[shuckmaster]

I guess you can point out all the articles in right leaning media criticizing "Intelligent Design".

Sure! Right here on Free Republic. Just type "evolution" in the search box and hundreds will come up.

[b_sharp]

"There are four words on all US coins; "In God We Trust" are not they.

Were they not placed there at a much later date? Around 1954?

[pby]

For example...The Ten Commandments carved on the Supreme Court's wall (Is marble an imposing stone?);

Or...the printing of "IN GOD WE TRUST" on our monies;

Or...The standing and reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, with "under God", in our public school classrooms;

Or...State law that requires a political offfice holder to be a "born again Christian"(Is that cumpulsory?).

And etc.

[Matchett-PI]

"Conservatives are ignorant about science in general, and willfully blind about evolution"

What an ignorant, willfully blind, "just so" statement.

Do you believe there is a God?

[js1138]

Can you provide a citation for your statement that the Bible's writers were accepting of slavery, or not?!

The Bible gives explicit permission for the taking of slaves, and codifies the treatement of them. Among other things, it says you can't beat a slave so severely that he dies within 24 hours. But it's OK if you beat him to the point of a lingering death. After, all, it's your money your are wasting.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

" Or...the printing of "IN GOD WE TRUST" on our monies;

Or...The standing and reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, with "under God", in our public school classrooms; "

Both of which happened in the 1950's.

" Or...State law that requires a political offfice holder to be a "born again Christian"(Is that cumpulsory?)."

Which state would that be?

[L,TOWM]

Then you, I, and the other 6 Billion+ animals with evolved reason on this planet are free to act in whatever manner we see fit, knowing that the only thing that awaits us is a personal end to our universe and an eternity of nothingness after a few trips around the sun.

A life wihtout hope can be a rather bleak thing, FRiend.

[pby]

There is only one Jesus Christ that was born in Bethlehem, died on a cross, without bones being broken, speared in the side, lots were cast for His clothes, and He rose again on the third day.

Only time I am aware of these prophecies being fulfilled.

Do you have direct knowledge of others?

Citations please.

[ml1954]

For example...The Ten Commandments carved on the Supreme Court's wall (Is marble an imposing stone?);

Aren't the ten commandments of Jewish origin? So Judaism has also been imposed by your definition.

Or...the printing of "IN GOD WE TRUST" on our monies;

Ditto. And if 'God' is used more generically, we could also include Islam and other any other monotheistic faiths.

Or...The standing and reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, with "under God", in our public school classrooms;

Ditto. Ditto.

Or...State law that requires a political offfice holder to be a "born again Christian".

You've got me there if this has been upheld in the courts. However, in any event, this is a state law, not a federal law applying in the entire United States.

[RightWingNilla]

My conservatism is shaped by my own experience, not by what was said two hundred years ago. I respect the actions of the founding fathers (yes fathers) and I admire the power and poetry of their language, but it does not alter reality. I have nothing against the belief in a creator God, but I don't know anyone smart enough to know the mind of God in enough detail to lecture me about it. I believe the people who wrote the Bible did thge best they could to convey their knowledge of God, but they accepted slavery, even codified the rules. They did not know the mind of God.

Well said js.

[b_sharp]

" Or...State law that requires a political offfice holder to be a "born again Christian"(Is that cumpulsory?)."

This one is scary if true.

[DBeers]

So when the left gets a genuine hard science in their hands like evolution to demonstrate how superstitious and uneducated conservatives are, you don't think this will damage our electability?,/i>

LOL -electability -your anti-religious bigotry cloaked as science is the most unelectable thing I have ever seen on FR... IT is the same as the dimwit liberals -they seem quite electable NOT... The left are idiots EVEN if you agree with them...

[pby]

Shall we also name many evolutionists who were also ,"loveable old reprobates and frauds"? There are many there.

Will this naming somehow destroy the theory of evolution?

I don't think so...and likewise with Christianity.

[pby]

It is true.

[b_sharp]

"Then you, I, and the other 6 Billion+ animals with evolved reason on this planet are free to act in whatever manner we see fit, knowing that the only thing that awaits us is a personal end to our universe and an eternity of nothingness after a few trips around the sun.

We have genetic, cultural and intellectual constraints that limit that.

A life wihtout hope can be a rather bleak thing, FRiend.

It doesn't have to be without hope.

[bobdsmith]

Shall we also name many evolutionists who were also ,"loveable old reprobates and frauds"? There are many there. Will this naming somehow destroy the theory of evolution?

We might as well give it a shot

[ml1954]

Please don't tell the MSM about it.

[LiteKeeper]

YEC INTREP

[L,TOWM]

The same way multidimensional physics, theoretical mathmatics, astronomy that postulates origins of the universe, "unified" theory physics, etc., are pursued.

Look at everything. Test what you can. Discard only that which is proven false. Develop models and test them. Build better equipment, more ingeius and esoteric devices to gather data. Dream. Explore. Add to the growing list of things we do know.

Newton and other Enlightenment thinkers believed that their explorations into physics would reveal God and His nature. I beleive they were right.

I won't live to live to see it, but I dream of a time when science and religion cherish each other.