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Cornell president condemns intelligent design
©2005 Syracuse.com ^ | 10/21/2005, 12:03 p.m. ET | By WILLIAM KATES

Posted on 10/21/2005 10:26:36 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines

ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell University Interim President Hunter Rawlings III on Friday condemned the teaching of intelligent design as science, calling it "a religious belief masquerading as a secular idea."

"Intelligent design is not valid science," Rawlings told nearly 700 trustees, faculty and other school officials attending Cornell's annual board meeting.

"It has no ability to develop new knowledge through hypothesis testing, modification of the original theory based on experimental results and renewed testing through more refined experiments that yield still more refinements and insights," Rawlings said.

Rawlings, Cornell's president from 1995 to 2003, is now serving as interim president in the wake of this summer's sudden departure of former Cornell president Jeffrey Lehman.

Intelligent design is a theory that says life is too complex to have developed through evolution, implying a higher power must have had a hand. It has been harshly criticized by The National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which have called it repackaged creationism and improper to include in scientific education.

There are brewing disputes involving evolution and intelligent design in at least 20 states and numerous school districts nationwide, including California, New Mexico, Kansas and Pennsylvania. President Bush elevated the controversy in August when he said that schools should teach intelligent design along with evolution.

Many Americans, including some supporters of evolution, believe intelligent design should be taught with evolution. Rawlings said a large minority of Americans — nearly 40 percent — want creationism taught in public schools instead of evolution.

For those reasons, Rawlings said he felt it "imperative" to use his state-of-the-university address — usually a recitation of the school's progress over the last year — to speak out against intelligent design, which he said has "put rational thought under attack."


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: academia; atheist; cityofevil; cornell; crevolist; evolution; hellbound; intelligentdesign; ithaca; scumbag
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To: dmz

I'm sure you wouldn't understand anyone trying to explain God. Either you believe or you don't - kind of like evolution.


101 posted on 10/21/2005 12:19:05 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: mlc9852; PatrickHenry
I will never, ever believe humans descended from apes until I see irrefutable proof, which I don't believe exists.

Now that's an open mind!


PH -- you have room in your list for this one?

102 posted on 10/21/2005 12:19:33 PM PDT by Coyoteman (I love the sound of beta decay in the morning!)
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To: fortunecookie

LOL - I bet you're right.


103 posted on 10/21/2005 12:21:14 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: Coyoteman
It is an open mind - I just demand proof. Just like in court - hearsay doesn't carry much weight.
104 posted on 10/21/2005 12:24:51 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: Ichneumon

Ok..

A 'hypothesis'..

But doesn't theory start as a 'hypothetical' until observed causes and effects either prove or disprove the 'theory' based on it's conclusions?



105 posted on 10/21/2005 12:25:34 PM PDT by Bigh4u2 (Denial is the first requirement to be a liberal)
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To: mlc9852; dmz; Dimensio
I have proof

No you don't.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." -- Inigo Montoya.

look around you.

I have. The evidence around us overwhelming points to evolution.

106 posted on 10/21/2005 12:25:37 PM PDT by Ichneumon (Certified pedantic coxcomb)
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To: mlc9852

All rightee, then.

I appreciate the insightful discussion.


107 posted on 10/21/2005 12:28:02 PM PDT by dmz
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To: Right Wing Professor

He's a secular humanist. How's that?


108 posted on 10/21/2005 12:28:17 PM PDT by RexBeach ("The rest of the world is three drinks behind." -Humphrey Bogart)
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To: mlc9852; hawkaw; Dimensio; Coyoteman; PatrickHenry
I will never, ever believe humans descended from apes until I see irrefutable proof, which I don't believe exists.

If you applied that same standard (requiring "irrefutable proof"), then you would believe *nothing*. There is no such thing as "irrefutable proof" in this world, only in artificial realms like mathematics. Do you really set the bar so high on everything before you believe it -- or only on things you don't *want* to believe?

Never mind, the answer is obvious.

109 posted on 10/21/2005 12:28:32 PM PDT by Ichneumon (Certified pedantic coxcomb)
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To: mlc9852

>If you spent more time presenting your "facts" of evolution ...

150 years worth.

> You all come off as very mean-spirited, which does nothing to promote your case.

Huh. Coming from the side that declares that all evolutionists are evil commies, that doesn't really carry much weight with me.

> Time and again I see where those defending Darwin just make fun of others.

And how do you feel about those who make fun of astrologers?

> Suppose you're wrong and we all have the last laugh.

Suppose you are wrong and God slams you into Hell for misleading people about how he made the world, as a consequence driving many people away from religion. Suppose you are wrong and the Muslism are right. Suppose you are wrong and the Hindus are right.

See, here's the thing: you get snippy for evolutionists callign your side names. But you don't seem to have trouble threatening evolutionists with eternal damnation.


110 posted on 10/21/2005 12:29:41 PM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: Ichneumon

"But doesn't theory start as a 'hypothetical' until observed causes and effects either prove or disprove the 'theory' based on it's conclusions?"

That was lousy sentence structure, but I hope you get the idea of it.


111 posted on 10/21/2005 12:30:27 PM PDT by Bigh4u2 (Denial is the first requirement to be a liberal)
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To: mlc9852
Doesn't mean it isn't something supernatural, either.

Sure it does. The foundation of ID is that evolution is impossible, therefore an intelligence must have brought about the species. But if evolution is impossible, then there's no source for an "intelligence" other than a supernatural entity.

It's the old "who designed the designer" problem.

112 posted on 10/21/2005 12:31:49 PM PDT by narby (Hillary! The Wicked Witch of the Left)
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To: mlc9852
Well, you certainly took the fun out of it!

I was just summarizing the thread for all you good people.

113 posted on 10/21/2005 12:33:06 PM PDT by Disambiguator (Making accusations of racism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.)
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To: Dimensio

PseudoDarwinism, not quasiDarwinism or Darwinism, is what masquerades as science in most American classrooms today. Darwin never claimed, never even hypothesized, that men hailed from apes; yet this hypothesis is taught as fact and as fact attributable to Darwin. Belief in purportedly Darwinian theories (when they apply at all) takes at least as much credulity as belief in creationism or intelligent design. No proofs exist, period.


114 posted on 10/21/2005 12:33:24 PM PDT by Mach9 (.)
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To: VadeRetro; Junior; longshadow; RadioAstronomer; Doctor Stochastic; js1138; Shryke; RightWhale; ...
EvolutionPing
A pro-evolution science list with over 310 names.
See the list's explanation at my freeper homepage.
Then FReepmail to be added or dropped.
See what's new in The List-O-Links.

115 posted on 10/21/2005 12:34:46 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (No response to trolls, retards, or lunatics)
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To: Mach9

Asserting that there is no evidence for common descent of humans from ancestral species does not make the last 150 years of researched evidence go away. Claiming that it's just speculation when it is not only demonstrates that you've not actually studied the relevant science behind the claims.


116 posted on 10/21/2005 12:35:14 PM PDT by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: Mach9
No proofs exist, period.

Are you implying that no evidence exists? Or that it does not meet your standards for belief?

117 posted on 10/21/2005 12:36:05 PM PDT by Coyoteman (I love the sound of beta decay in the morning!)
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To: mlc9852
I'm sure you wouldn't understand anyone trying to explain God. Either you believe or you don't

Where's your proof?

118 posted on 10/21/2005 12:36:07 PM PDT by shuckmaster (Bring back SeaLion and ModernMan!)
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To: Ichneumon

And I see the evidence as pointing to God. I guess it's all in the interpretation.


119 posted on 10/21/2005 12:36:11 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: mlc9852
I will never, ever believe humans descended from apes until I see irrefutable proof, which I don't believe exists.


120 posted on 10/21/2005 12:36:38 PM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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