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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: mlc9852
Where do you think God fits in evolution?

ID says God played no hand in evolution and may be dead.

381 posted on 10/23/2005 2:05:15 PM PDT by WildTurkey (My Bad)
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To: WildTurkey

I don't care what you think ID says. I just would like to know the facts.


382 posted on 10/23/2005 2:09:20 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: mlc9852
I don't care what you think ID says. I just would like to know the facts.

Those were the facts. The fact is the creos are pushing ID which is pushing teaching school children that God may be dead since we have seen no evidence of God in the evolution of man.

383 posted on 10/23/2005 2:15:49 PM PDT by WildTurkey
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To: WildTurkey

I do not understand your table at all. Please explain or just simply ask me the questions you want me to answer.


384 posted on 10/23/2005 3:02:17 PM PDT by fizziwig
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Let him "condemn" it all he wants. Then let him explain it later to the One who counts.


385 posted on 10/23/2005 3:04:12 PM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
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To: fizziwig
I do not understand your table at all. Please explain or just simply ask me the questions you want me to answer.

The table gives some of the basic tenents of ID. Do you support or do you denounce those tenents and ID?

386 posted on 10/23/2005 3:16:24 PM PDT by WildTurkey
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To: WildTurkey

"The table gives some of the basic tenents of ID. Do you support or do you denounce those tenents and ID?"

Here is an excerpt from an ID website:


Intelligent Design

The theory of intelligent design (ID) holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. ID is thus a scientific disagreement with the core claim of evolutionary theory that the apparent design of living systems is an illusion.

In a broader sense, Intelligent Design is simply the science of design detection -- how to recognize patterns arranged by an intelligent cause for a purpose. Design detection is used in a number of scientific fields, including anthropology, forensic sciences that seek to explain the cause of events such as a death or fire, cryptanalysis and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). An inference that certain biological information may be the product of an intelligent cause can be tested or evaluated in the same manner as scientists daily test for design in other sciences.

ID is controversial because of the implications of its evidence, rather than the significant weight of its evidence. ID proponents believe science should be conducted objectively, without regard to the implications of its findings. This is particularly necessary in origins science because of its historical (and thus very subjective) nature, and because it is a science that unavoidably impacts religion.

Positive evidence of design in living systems consists of the semantic, meaningful or functional nature of biological information, the lack of any known law that can explain the sequence of symbols that carry the "messages," and statistical and experimental evidence that tends to rule out chance as a plausible explanation. Other evidence challenges the adequacy of natural or material causes to explain both the origin and diversity of life.

Intelligent Design is an intellectual movement that includes a scientific research program for investigating intelligent causes and that challenges naturalistic explanations of origins which currently drive science education and research.



In general I am ok with the above. I believe that God created the universe and human beings for a purpose. I also believe that the earth is billions of years old and that the creation of life started from small and simple and "evolved" to larger and complex by divine direction. This is not a new concept and was apparently held by both GK Chesterton and C.S. Lewis, two popular Christian writers. This idea predates the ID movement.

I absoolutely do NOT believe that children should be taught that God is Dead, and I don't know where you got that from, other than a couple of posts on another thread where I, and a Darwinist, exchanged humor about Frederick Nietsche.




387 posted on 10/23/2005 4:29:07 PM PDT by fizziwig
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To: PatrickHenry
Clearly, this reveals the itinerary of the designer, as he traveled around introducing his designer DNA into various populations.

So the Name of the Designer is revealed: Giovanni Giacomo Casanova.

388 posted on 10/23/2005 6:37:52 PM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch ist der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: freeangel

Welcome the the cre-evo threads. Got a hard hat and a flame proof suit?


389 posted on 10/23/2005 6:47:15 PM PDT by Coyoteman (I love the sound of beta decay in the morning!)
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Placemarker and plug for The List-O-Links.
390 posted on 10/23/2005 6:54:17 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Reality is a harsh mistress. No rationality, no mercy)
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To: Thatcherite
Thanks, but I didn't write it. I should have marked the entire thing as a quote, my bad.

John is a hell of a source, as is PZ Myers, John Harter and John Wilkins. I've argued with them and along side them for 3 years and still can not get over their range of knowledge.
391 posted on 10/23/2005 7:35:23 PM PDT by b_sharp (Tagline? What tagline?)
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To: b_sharp

Damn, I can't believe I just called called Richard Harter - John Harter. Sorry Richard. Too many Johns at t.o.


392 posted on 10/23/2005 7:38:49 PM PDT by b_sharp (Tagline? What tagline?)
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To: mlc9852
"I just would like to know the facts."

No you don't. What you want to know are the facts, or approximation of facts that agree with your belief system.

393 posted on 10/23/2005 7:41:25 PM PDT by b_sharp (Tagline? What tagline?)
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To: Mach9
Am I missing something? When did Big Bang and pseudoDarwinism become "valid science"?

Since they are both immaculate conceptions of constipated university professors?

394 posted on 10/23/2005 8:05:27 PM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: Sir Francis Dashwood; Mach9
Am I missing something? When did Big Bang and pseudoDarwinism become "valid science"?

======

Since they are both immaculate conceptions of constipated university professors?


Big Bang is a part of science. It may be undergoing a modification, but it is not undergoing a modification because of CS or ID criticism! It is the normal working of science to learn and advance, and to discard any theory that does not pass repeated tests.

And to refer to the theory of evolution as "pseudoDarwinism" establishes your starting point way out on the fringe. What, did you hope nobody here would notice your bias? No scientific criticism, no attempt to reason, just an ad hominem attack. That reflects poorly on you and your position.

As far as "immaculate conceptions of constipated university professors" -- I think you have gone farther around the bend than I can possibly follow. That is neither a rational argument nor a reasoned criticism. It also does not do you any credit.

That you should sully FR with this kind of reasoning bodes ill for FR, and for all of us.

395 posted on 10/23/2005 8:26:35 PM PDT by Coyoteman (I love the sound of beta decay in the morning!)
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To: Coyoteman
And to refer to the theory of evolution as "pseudoDarwinism" establishes your starting point way out on the fringe.

I never said that... you had better look again...

396 posted on 10/23/2005 8:32:36 PM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: Sir Francis Dashwood
In #396 you wrote:

And to refer to the theory of evolution as "pseudoDarwinism" establishes your starting point way out on the fringe.

=====

I never said that... you had better look again...


The reason for this post is that in post #394 you replied to Mach9:


Am I missing something? When did Big Bang and pseudoDarwinism become "valid science"?

Since they are both immaculate conceptions of constipated university professors?


That is the reason in #395 I responded to both of you. I did my best identify which comment I was responding to.

397 posted on 10/23/2005 8:46:35 PM PDT by Coyoteman (I love the sound of beta decay in the morning!)
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To: Coyoteman

PseudoDarwinism means false Darwinism--not that Darwinism is false.


398 posted on 10/24/2005 5:38:56 AM PDT by Mach9 (.)
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To: fizziwig
In a broader sense, Intelligent Design is simply the science of design detection -- how to recognize patterns arranged by an intelligent cause for a purpose.

A poorly thought out definition. ID proponents claim to be utterly disinterested in the identity of the designer. Yet here a proposed definition is the detection of "patterns arranged by an intelligent cause for a purpose."

How can the "purpose" of an allegedly designed object be gleaned without an understanding of the intent, goals, methods, history, predilections, and hence identity of the designer?

Add this to ID's minor problems of "no definition of design" and "no repeatable methodology for detecting design" and you have a "hunch-accompanied-by-a-notion" -- not a scientific theory.

399 posted on 10/24/2005 7:24:52 AM PDT by atlaw
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To: atlaw

"How can the "purpose" of an allegedly designed object be gleaned without an understanding of the intent, goals, methods, history, predilections, and hence identity of the designer?"

Good point. We can look at "purpose" in different ways. If one believes that the record of evidence indicates Intelligent Design, then I don't think that it is too large a jump to speculate that the end result, another intelligent being (man)who also creates, thinks abstractly, has self awareness and free will, was his purpose. Why God created man is another purpose that I don't think can be gleaned from scientific evidence. He may have created man just for giggles, we need to look elsewhere for that answer.


400 posted on 10/24/2005 8:14:28 AM PDT by fizziwig
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