Pa. professor [Behe] to testify in landmark case [Dover evolution trial, 16 Oct]

The Wichita Eagle ^ | 16 October 2005 | MICHAEL RUBINKAM

[CarolinaGuitarman]

" CarolinaGuitarman.., sigh..., master of the absurd as always."

Wolfie, Master of the non-answer ad hominem. Never with anything to add.

And you're still a creationist.

[dmz]

Huh? What about Britney Spears? /sarc

[MineralMan]

And Adam answered, "It's not the fig leaf, dear."

Thus began the war of the sexes.

[MineralMan]

"Makes me wonder what some of these folks who take the Bible "literally" (which to me is superficially), would have done with any of Jesus' wonderful parables. Instead of getting THE POINT, they'd be arguing about the existence of a vineyard where the owner paid those who started at dawn, noon and near dusk the same pay...(one of my personal favorites)."

---

A worthwhile wonder, no doubt. From reading so many of these and other threads, it appears to me that there is a large group of Christians out there for whom the Bible is a truncated document. It appears that these folks have only read the first two chapters of Genesis, a couple of chapters of Leviticus, bits of one or two of the Gospels, and some parts of Paul's letters.

Conspicuously absent is a reading of the 6th chapter of Matthew.

[WildHorseCrash]

Jesus taught that God created man male and female "from the beginning" - not a billion years down the line.

Either Christ is wrong or Darwin is wrong.

Which one is it?

Christ is wrong. (...that is assuming he even existed, that he said this, that he meant it to be a historical statement, that the people who heard it accurately passed it on to those who wrote it down, and that it is being interpreted by you in the manner intended.)

[furball4paws]

Ah now PH - he started it.

I did not!

Did too.

[b_sharp]

Isn't polygamy only practiced by religious groups? In North America at least? And where are the groups practicing polyandry or polygynomy?

Or how about polylaundry?

[highball]

Hitler thought his race was the superior race. etc.

Ah, but Hitler thought his race was created by God to be the superior race. Not a point against Darwin at all.

[furball4paws]

At least in this country it's polygon.

[balrog666]

You mean fighting?

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!

[StJacques]

One the "wipeouts" . . .

I noticed, so allow me to express some words of praise for your excellent stand in support of reason.

Kudos!

[balrog666]

In other words, the Nazi's were Intelligent Designers.

Yep.

[longshadow]

"Festival of the Insane Trolls" placemarker

[PetroniusMaximus]

*** Christ is wrong.***

Vey bold. But that's your choice.

"The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day."

- Jesus, John 12

[js1138]

...it appears to me that there is a large group of Christians out there for whom the Bible is a truncated document. ?

Expand a few pixels from John 3, and the whole "love thy neighbor" thing is out of the picture. It's so messy and time consuming, and it's unnecessary when faith give you a get out of jail free card.

[b_sharp]

Still working on the Lucy fossils?

[dmz]

or cleaning out the garage...

[PetroniusMaximus]

***Didn't Jesus use the parable periodically as a means of making a point?***

He did. At it is almost always prefaced with something like, "And he spoke a parable unto them, saying..."

But in the case at hand he is clearly making reference to the historical account of Genesis an not making a parable.

[Aquinasfan]

Marginalized by his university colleagues, ridiculed as a quack by the scientific establishment, Michael Behe continues to challenge the traditional theory of how the world came to be.

No bias here. Oh well, just spell the name right.

This week, Behe will testify in a federal courtroom in Harrisburg in a landmark case

Excellent.

"The fact that most biology texts act more as cheerleaders for Darwin's theory rather than trying to develop the critical faculties of their students shows the need, I think, for such statements," Behe said.

Excellent. I'm surprised the editors let this slip through.

"For us, Dr. Behe's position is simply not science. It is not grounded in science and should not be treated as science," said Neal Simon, the biology department chairman.

MSM SOP.

Behe said he was a believer in Darwin when he joined Lehigh in 1985, but became a skeptic after reading Michael Denton's book "Evolution: A Theory in Crisis."

Excellent. Someone in Wichita will now pick up Denton's book.

Overall, every newspaper mention of ID, no matter how slanted, represents a victory for the ID movement.

[Stultis]

***even though Darwin never advocated anything remotely resembling Nazi policies;***

The ideas are implicit in his though. Man is an animal. Only the stong and well suited survive. Hitler thought his race was the superior race. etc.

No, that's not implicit. Evolution only "cares" about adaptation, and an organism can adapt by cooperating with other individuals or other species as well as by "struggling" against them. Sure, agonistic strategies are often produced by evolution, but so are cooperative ones. And "struggle" is not a good in and of itself as the Nazis thought. It is only adaptive or maladaptive ("good" or "bad") in the context of some specific environment.

Again, the Nazis appealed to a cartoon version of evolution. If you engage in guilt by association at that low level, then any doctrine is vulnerable; including Christianity, cartoon versions of which are practiced by racist groups TODAY (not 60 years ago) by groups such as the Christian Identity sects.