[Michael_Michaelangelo]

Bonus link:

Gonzalez, Iowa State’s "Wizard of ID," on defensive

[Michael_Michaelangelo]

ID Ping

[Rebel_Ace]

"...The first example I thought of was the solar eclipse. The conditions you need to produce a solar eclipse also make Earth a habitable planet..."

BZZT! Wrong answer, but thanks for playing anyway.

To produce an eclipse of the sun on the planet you are observing it from only requires that it have a moon with an apparent diameter equal to or greater than the apparent diameter of the sun, from the point of observation.

For example, Pluto's moon Charon can produce solar eclipses, but I don't think anyone imagines Pluto to be "habitable" by any living things as we know them.

[Batrachian]

The problem with Intelligent Design is that it is intellectually dishonest. It is simply the repackaging of Genesis into pseudo-scientific terms. It's not a scientific theory at all. It's unfalsifiable.

Now, I'm not sure why any theory of creation or evolution should be taught to kids who can barely read or do math, but, if you want to teach the Bible, which I have no objection to, this is the wrong approach.

What's the right approach? I'm glad you asked. Overturn this "separation of church and state" idiocy, which isn't in the constitution and is the creation of anti-religious liberals, then just teach the Bible in those localities that want it. Simple.

[SuziQ]

Here's another one you might find interesting!

[BlazingArizona]

What is the most compelling example of design in the universe?

The first example I thought of was the solar eclipse. The conditions you need to produce a solar eclipse also make Earth a habitable planet.

This is the point where my BS meter pegged. The sizes of the lunar and solar disks as seen from Earth is pure cosmic happenstance. We are lucky that the similarity of those apparent sizes makes eclipses spectacular. This coincidence has no effect whatever on the development of life. If it did, then why don't we get serious environmental effects from annular eclipses?

[hosepipe]

Intelligent Design = Agnostic Creativism..

Evolution(survival of the fittest) = Atheist Dialectic Scientific Materialism

Creativism = a belief in the simple without being simplistic..

[zeeba neighba]

I would think the laws of mathematics and music, the golden mean, the Fibonacci series, the Divine Proportion or Golden Section, etc. and the sheer complexity of life itself argues for an intelligence at work.

[From many - one.]

check back to see what evolves

[King Prout]

a ping in passing

[Michael_Michaelangelo]

More about Guillermo Gonzalez, from the DI:

Guillermo Gonzalez is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Iowa State University. He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1993 from the University of Washington. He has done post-doctoral work at the University of Texas, Austin and at the University of Washington and has received fellowships, grants and awards from such institutions as NASA, the University of Washington, Sigma Xi (scientific research society) and the National Science Foundation.

Gonzalez has extensive experience in observing and analyzing data from ground-based observatories, including work at McDonald Observatory, Apache Point Observatory and Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory. He is a world class expert on the astrophysical requirements for habitability and on habitable zones and a co-founder of the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ) concept. Astronomers and astrobiologists around the world are pursuing research based on my work on extra solar planets host stars, the GHZ, and several discoveries pertaining to stellar abundances.

Gonzalez has also published over sixty articles in refereed astronomy and astrophysical journals including Astronomy and Astrophysics, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal and Solar Physics. His current research interests in astrobiology focus on the "Galactic Habitable Zone" which captured the October 2001 cover story of Scientific American, and the properties of the host stars of extra solar planets. He also is the co-author of the second edition of "Observational Astronomy" an advanced college astronomy textbook..

In 2004 he co-authored The Privileged Planet: How Our Place In The Cosmos Is Designed For Discovery with Jay W. Richards.

[AndrewC]

Bonus link:

Yeah it's those religious zealots that are trying to force their religious views on us who hold back science.

In fact, Gonzalez’s stand impelled Hector Avalos, an associate professor of religious studies at Iowa State and faculty adviser to the ISU Atheist and Agnostic Society, to spearhead an anti-ID petition at Iowa State. More than 120 faculty members have signed it.