Intelligent design [was] old news to Darwin

Chicago Tribune ^ | 13 September 2005 | Tom Hundley

[PatrickHenry]

So what would Charles Darwin have to say about the dust-up between today's evolutionists and intelligent designers?

Probably nothing.

[snip]

Even after he became one of the most famous and controversial men of his time, he was always content to let surrogates argue his case.

[snip]

From his university days Darwin would have been familiar with the case for intelligent design. In 1802, nearly 30 years before the Beagle set sail, William Paley, the reigning theologian of his time, published "Natural Theology" in which he laid out his "Argument from Design."

Paley contended that if a person discovered a pocket watch while taking a ramble across the heath, he would know instantly that this was a designed object, not something that had evolved by chance. Therefore, there must be a designer. Similarly, man -- a marvelously intricate piece of biological machinery -- also must have been designed by "Someone."

If this has a familiar ring to it, it's because this is pretty much the same argument that intelligent design advocates use today.

[snip]

The first great public debate took place on June 30, 1860, in a packed hall at Oxford University's new Zoological Museum.

Samuel Wilberforce, the learned bishop of Oxford, was champing at the bit to demolish Darwin's notion that man descended from apes. As always, Darwin stayed home. His case was argued by one of his admirers, biologist Thomas Huxley.

Wilberforce drew whoops of glee from the gallery when he sarcastically asked Huxley if he claimed descent from the apes on his grandmother's side or his grandfather's. Huxley retorted that he would rather be related to an ape than to a man of the church who used half-truths and nonsense to attack science.

The argument continues unabated ...

[snip]

[Doctor Stochastic]

Also Sprach Clinton.

[Coyoteman]

My picture tops your picture (nice comeback, though; just over 5 minutes).

The subject of my picture is revered in many cultures of the world, and may in fact be the "soma" of India. But more importantly for this thread, one researcher who worked on the early Dead Sea Scrolls (Allegro) linked it to Christianity.

[ml1954]

I'm thinking you simply need to up your meds.

Don't encourage. We'll end up with ten page long biblical quotes in 30 different fonts in 15 different sizes and 20 different colors, with bold, italics, underlining. My finger will get sore rubbing the scroll roller on my mouse.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

LOL. Spoken like an academic.

You use your "tracts" and I'll use mine.

[Junior]

??

[Thatcherite]

Don't encourage him. It'll be some kind of soul-destroying pun.

[Doctor Stochastic]

It's a pun on C telling the truth. (also=thus)

[atlaw]

It is apparent that a cult of book worshipers has usurped the name of Christianity, and the strangest part about it is their utter lack of curiosity concerning the inherent, metaphoric mysteries of the book they've chosen to worship. It's become a kind of reductionist book worship -- a tract or comic-book worship if you will.

[Thatcherite]

Told you. Groan....

[Junior]

Man, I really am going off the deep end.

"Two" should be "Too" and I should not have capitalized "They" in the middle of a sentence.

Bad, Junior, bad. Minus 10 for spelling and grammatical errors.

[Junior]

That's all right. I still don't get it. But then again I had to have someone explain the "Wear the fox hat" skit to me, too.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I would consider the horrendous science behind creationism to be a blatant example of something peddled by false prophets. I know them by their fruits.

Sounds like you consider "science" the highest accomplishment.

Science, like everything else, serves God, not the other way around.

[Elsie]

You ignore posts, dodge questions, and change the subject when evidence for evolution is put forth.

And I am the only one who does it, too.

What a shameless shill I am!

[Elsie]

I can accept that.

[highball]

Hey now - don't go there. They'll give comic books a bad name.

[Elsie]

Ouch!


Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln; how did you like the play?

[Junior]

Sounds like you consider "science" the highest accomplishment.

Science gives us the tools to see reality, not like we'd want to see it, but like it truly is.

Kinda reminds me of that punchline: "who're you going to believe? Me? Or your own lying eyes."

[Elsie]

So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: 'I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.'"

-Matthew 13:34-35

[Dr. Eckleburg]

*Have you read the Koran?*

Large parts of it.

And you still think they serve the same God as Christians?

[Dr. Eckleburg]

And our eyes can never deceive us?