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]

[VadeRetro]

Some cats have friends, but stable friendships seem rare in my experience.

For years, my Mom's neighbor had a cat and and old dog that would pal around all day, mostly the cat following the dog. Go figure!

[b_sharp]

"Now we got magnetic bracelets and aroma therapy.

I'm still waiting for the magnetic bracelet with the built in aroma therapy I purchased from the Shopping Channel.

[js1138]

We have to lock up the tom when we take the dogs for a walk. He tries to go with us. The first time he did this he crossed a busy street to follow us, nearly causing a major pileup. He still tries.

[Paloma_55]

--- You know Socrates immortal last words, don't you? ---

No. I saw the story done on SNL with Steve Martin.

He drank the hemlock and then suggested to his followers that they should go get some pizza.

One of them said "But Socrates, hemlock is poison!"

At which he exclaimed "Hemlock is poison?!?? Why didn't anyone tell me this?!?! Everyone always asks me questions, but nobody ever tells ME anything...couldn't you just once have said "Oh Socrates, by the way, hemlock is poison!?!?

[Amish with an attitude]

"By the same token evolution only "cares" about the properties of living organisms"

If evolution's origin is assumed to be a cell capable of mitosis, I can indeed understand abiogenesis as being a separate issue.

[b_sharp]

My mother had two toy poodles that started to lactate in order to feed 4 motherless kittens and a runt pig the sow tied to kill.

Sounds like inherent morality to me.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Our cat trained me to open the door for her so she can get in and out of the house.

When I get home from work, she runs right to me and meows.

[js1138]

You must be proud, but many humans are capable of being taught this trick, with some patience.

[b_sharp]

"Hovind, you're an unintelligent, criminal, noxious charlatan, who would in any civilized society be making license plates for a long time. And by the time the IRS are done with you, you probably will be.

"Please all feel free to add to this.

You forgot to mention that Hovind is a pathological liar.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Thanks. :)

[b_sharp]

"Oscillating eye sizes, head shapes that shift back and forth, teeth that are large, then small, then large again."

Has the height of your family members gradually increased or decreased, or is it more or less random through the generations?

Yes I know, that's just 'micro-evolution' at work. However, larger changes take much longer than a couple of generations to become observable and I don't think you want to wait around for a few tens of thousands of years, just to find out I'm right.

[VadeRetro]

It's not much about going out anymore with my old guy. "Meow!" means "Food, please!" Lip-smacking means "Food, please." Any attempt at all to get my attention is far more likely to be about food than anything else.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Strangely enough, a single score of years ago, two Air-Force guys were hiking in the Jemez mountains and tried eating "wild water cress." Unfortunately, it was hemlock (the poison kind, not the tree), and one of them was Socracided.

[VadeRetro]

"Meow!" means "Food, please!" Lip-smacking means "Food, please."

Then there's that crazy trilling noise.

[js1138]

Any attempt at all to get my attention is far more likely to be about food than anything else.

We have four cats. They seem to assign someone every morning to sit on my head until I feed them. They only use their claws if I try to sleep late.

[b_sharp]

"The family without, attacked them while they slept, and now are enjoying have their neighbors for dinner; often."

Could you please warn me when you are going to be funny? I just lost a mouthful of Dr. Pepper....through my nose.

[VadeRetro]

Big Al lacks claws in front but when he puts his weight on his front legs on my ribs he is impossible to ignore.

[PatrickHenry]

... tried eating "wild water cress."

If it doesn't come from a supermarket shelf, it's forbidden.
-- [From the secret archives of the Grand Master.]

[PatrickHenry]

It's a little known fact that 74.69% of creationists own cats, while 86.66% of evolutionists own dogs.
-- [From the archives of the Grand Master.]

[VadeRetro]

I've had both. If you want to be loved, get a dog. If you want to be tolerated with some amusement, get a cat.