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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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Rawlings said he felt it "imperative" to use his state-of-the-university address to speak out against intelligent design, which he said has "put rational thought under attack."

Cornell, and the rest of the Ivy League, has been attacking rational thought decades.

Ithaca is the City of Evil.


1 posted on 10/21/2005 10:26:38 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
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To: PatrickHenry


2 posted on 10/21/2005 10:27:55 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative (France is an example of retrograde chordate evolution.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest; bentfeather; gaspar; NativeNewYorker; drjimmy; Atticus; John Valentine; ...
City of Evil bump:


3 posted on 10/21/2005 10:27:55 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

I have to agree with him and I hope more - both on the right and the left - speak out.


4 posted on 10/21/2005 10:28:26 AM PDT by hawkaw
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Why are these guys meddling in religious matters?


5 posted on 10/21/2005 10:28:52 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Hahaha! And I condemn the Cornell president. So there!


6 posted on 10/21/2005 10:28:56 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

>>>"a religious belief masquerading as a secular idea."


Sounds like a dictionary definition of modern environmentalism.


7 posted on 10/21/2005 10:29:16 AM PDT by .cnI redruM (Because change is not something you talk into existence.)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

I completely agree with Rawlings on this.


8 posted on 10/21/2005 10:29:50 AM PDT by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

He is an idiot!


9 posted on 10/21/2005 10:30:50 AM PDT by newsgatherer
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

"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,"

Game over kids. Science can't be based on mystical metaphysics.


10 posted on 10/21/2005 10:31:01 AM PDT by Jason Kauppinen
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

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


11 posted on 10/21/2005 10:31:17 AM PDT by Mach9 (.)
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To: Brilliant
Why are these guys meddling in religious matters?

Guess you didn't get the memo :
"Intelligent design has nothing to do with religion."

12 posted on 10/21/2005 10:35:31 AM PDT by dread78645 (Sorry Mr. Franklin, We couldn't keep it.)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Theory of Evolution is pockmarked with holes and unscientific yet it's being taught.


13 posted on 10/21/2005 10:35:50 AM PDT by lilylangtree
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Hunter Rawlings III? My word, what a pish-toshy name.

When do you reckon Hunter last went to a church service?


14 posted on 10/21/2005 10:38:15 AM PDT by RexBeach ("The rest of the world is three drinks behind." -Humphrey Bogart)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
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."

ID is an effort to say that "if we don't understand it, then God did it". But if God did it, then why would science study an issue further. ID is a fire extinquisher on science.

People used to think that lightning was the direct hand of God. It's good that Franklin didn't leave it at that.

Humans have studied the natural world for 200 years now, and have not found scientific evidence of God yet. There's no reason to think that the current edges of our scientific understanding define where the natural world ends and God begins.

15 posted on 10/21/2005 10:38:59 AM PDT by narby (Hillary! The Wicked Witch of the Left)
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To: dread78645

So why are they talking about it?


16 posted on 10/21/2005 10:40:02 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Jason Kauppinen

"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,"

And how does Darwinism fit into this? There are no experiments to conduct, there is no renewed testing...there is no test of Darwinism. There is a collection of historical evidence in the fossil record, and there is evidence in biology etc. Intelligent Design looks at the same record of evidence and comes to a different conclusion than Darwinism. There is just as much science in developing the theory of Intelligent Design as there is for Darwinism. Darwinists believe the weight of the evidence points to chance and natural selection, ID folks think otherwise.

Rawlings is an idiot...but what do you expect from Ithaca?


17 posted on 10/21/2005 10:41:07 AM PDT by fizziwig
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To: Behind Liberal Lines; PatrickHenry; <1/1,000,000th%; balrog666; BMCDA; Condorman; Dimensio; ...
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

That's got to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Stop and think about it? How dumb do those ID fruitcakes think we are? I'll bet you that if you look a little deeper into their operation (follow the money), you'll find radical jihadists and Moonies and the like behind their agenda to dumb down science in our schools. I'll bet you!

18 posted on 10/21/2005 10:43:22 AM PDT by shuckmaster (Bring back SeaLion and ModernMan!)
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To: lilylangtree
Theory of Evolution is pockmarked with holes

So is our understanding of how gravity works, yet there's no doubt that gravity happens, and no doubt in science that evolution happens.

and unscientific

No, it is not.

yet it's being taught.

Good.

19 posted on 10/21/2005 10:43:31 AM PDT by narby (Hillary! The Wicked Witch of the Left)
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To: lilylangtree
Theory of Evolution is pockmarked with holes

The problem is that it is not being taught as theory but as a natural law. Unlike the founding fathers of this country, these Ivy league relativists have no room for a supreme being in their lives.

20 posted on 10/21/2005 10:46:08 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine's brother ( We need a few more Marines like Lt. Gen. James Mattis)
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