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]

[RightWingNilla]

By golly, I think we have outselves here a bona fide, true-blue Christian Reconstructionist here.

Its getting scary.

Free(?)Republic?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Worry not about the ethernet cables. Worry about the 120 volt power cords. I had a cat chomp on one of those. Fortunately I was home. A scary scene but no permanent damage to the cat.

[Coyoteman]

Again, just as an exercise, what would be so terrible about a government guided by Scripture and the will of God, just as most of the founding fathers envisioned?

Not all would agree. Is this a sinner, to be condemned?

Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor’d mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk, or milky way;
Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv’n,
Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav’n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac’d,
Some happier island in the watry waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fields torment, no Christians thirst for gold!
To Be, contents his natural desire,
He asks no Angle’s wing, no Seraph’s fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.

Alexander Pope, An Essay On Man.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Not a witch church.

[furball4paws]

Wasn't just a few weeks back that there was a thread about the oldest chimp remains? Seem as if it was about 300,000 years. Anybody else remember this?

[Junior]

Shades of that scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...

[Vive ut Vivas]

Are you making the ridiculous assumption that all evolution is directed to the end result of humans? Because that would be really silly. I'm amazed at how many Creationists think that all other animals are like they are because they just haven't "got to the human stage yet". It doesn't work like that. More sun revolving around the earth mentality.

[HiTech RedNeck]

All are sinners in need of salvation -- injun, cowboy, beggarman, bakerman, thief. The bible does not squarely address the question of individual special revelation, whether or not Christ could or would show himself to someone who has never met a mortal missionary.

[furball4paws]

I, too, have good taste in cats. I go to the local Chinese restauranr regularly and order chicken.

[HiTech RedNeck]

No, that's good taste in dinosaurs. Any evo'll tell you so.

[PatrickHenry]

800. What's my prize?

I'll ask the Grand Master. But sometimes he doesn't answer.

[Junior]

That's actually an Oriental concept. Animals are ranked along a scale of least to greatest (with humans being the latter). One's actions in life determine which life form one ends up as.

It is interesting seeing the cross-pollenization of religions taking place.

[RightWingNilla]

Not a witch church.

Nah, they've all been torched.

[b_sharp]

Everyone has multitudes of personalities within them, parents, siblings, role models and composites of those. In most of us, the decisions we make are made based on the interaction of multiple synaptic paths through those personalities. We normally ignore those 'arguments' at the conscious level, much as we ignore the huge amounts of information that actually reaches our senses. Of all the sounds we hear, sights we see, odors we smell, thoughts we think, only a small fraction makes it to our consciousness.

You just notice more of the thoughts than do the rest of us.

[Junior]

Cats aren't passed off as chicken. They're passed off as rabbit. I have personal experience in this regard.

[furball4paws]

What"? Is there a picture of a chicken hatching from a dino egg? Hey, that'll answer which came first won't it?

[Junior]

I'll ask the Grand Master. But sometimes he doesn't answer.

You need to turn the eight ball over, and then turn it back upright.

[Coyoteman]

I, too, have good taste in cats. I go to the local Chinese restauranr regularly and order chicken.

You know, they say rattlesnake tastes just like chicken too. Too greasy and bony for my taste, even with a good saute in white wine and olive oil.

[VadeRetro]

b_sharp just linked another article on the same find.

[Junior]

Well, that also explains the nocturnal visits from my deceased parents...