Posted on 11/28/2005 6:54:46 AM PST by Right Wing Professor
Intelligent design already the planned subject of a controversial Kansas University seminar this spring will make its way into a second KU classroom in the fall, this time labeled as a pseudoscience.
In addition to intelligent design, the class Archaeological Myths and Realities will cover such topics as UFOs, crop circles, extrasensory perception and the ancient pyramids.
John Hoopes, associate professor of anthropology, said the course focused on critical thinking and taught how to differentiate science and pseudoscience. Intelligent design belongs in the second category, he said, because it cannot be tested and proven false.
I think this is very important for students to be articulate about they need to be able to define and recognize pseudoscience, Hoopes said.
News of the new class provided fresh fuel to conservatives already angered that KU planned to offer a religious studies class this spring on intelligent design as mythology.
The two areas that KU is trying to box this issue into are completely inappropriate, said Brian Sandefur, a mechanical engineer in Lawrence who has been a vocal proponent of intelligent design.
Intelligent design is the idea that life is too complex to have evolved without a designer, presumably a god or other supernatural being. That concept is at the heart of Kansas new public school science standards greatly ridiculed by the mainstream science community but lauded by religious conservatives that critique the theory of evolution.
Hoopes said his class would be a version of another course, titled Fantastic Archaeology, which he helped develop as a graduate student at Harvard University.
The course will look at the myths people have created to explain mysterious occurrences, such as crop circles, which some speculate were caused by extraterrestrials.
The course will explore how myth can be created to negative effects, as in the case of the myth of the moundbuilders. In early American history, some people believed the earthen mounds found primarily in the area of the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys were the works of an ancient civilization destroyed by American Indians. The myth contributed to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which relocated American Indians east of the Mississippi to lands in the west, Hoopes said.
It was that popular explanation that then became a cause for genocide, Hoopes said.
That example shows the need to identify pseudoscience, he said.
What Im trying to do is deal with pseudoscience regardless of where its coming from, he said.
But Sandefur said intelligent design was rooted in chemistry and molecular biology, not religion, and it should be discussed in science courses.
The way KU is addressing it I think is completely inadequate, he said.
Hoopes said he hoped his class stirs controversy. He said students liked to discuss topics that are current and relevant to their lives.
Controversy makes people think, he said. The more controversy, the stronger the course is.
FR Consumer Info assistance. People who talk to evos need to know they might be taken advantage of.
None. Nor did I attempt to make one.
True to certain people, but to those who have faith in God, it is much more than wishful thinking. For me, it is based on many special experiences that I have seen and had in many ways. I can't expect anyone else to have the same kind or just to believe because I say I have had them. That in itself is wishful thinking. I can't PROVE it in any scientific way, but if my faith in God leads me to live a good life, trying to do things that are right (i.e. a Christ-centered life). To express belief in God and then go out and not try to live that way is to deny one's faith in God.
Faith is different things to different people. Faith in God is not for everyone. For me, it is the guide to how I treat people and how I live. I make plenty of mistakes, that's for sure and am not any better than anyone else (just ask my mom:).
That doesn't mean that I have to treat those who do not believe as I do as being below me in some fashion. There are honest, sincere people of all walks of life whom I respect. It's those who are not that I don't (but even then, I can't say that I'm better--I make more mistakes than almost anyone).
I respect your belief. I respect you.
Actually, there's a lot of work that's starting to indicate that the Mediterranean Sea used to be a large lake until the Atlantic Ocean broke through the Straits of Hercules (i.e., between Spain and Morocco). Evidence of human settlements miles off-shore and so far below the current level of the Mediterranean that they are not subject to oxidation has been found. This may well be the origin of the flood stories prevalent in so many religions.
I heard that there was some beer out there named after polygamy or something. I heard a bunch of teenage boys got booted out of one polygamous family because the old guys didn't want any competition.
A nice, hefty spritz of "Voice-B-Gon" might help with that - it's just the thing if you've got one too many people in your head:
:^)
A breath of fresh air. Thank you, sir.
Many scientists are Christian. Nobody has a problem with intimating that the order that science reveals has some divine origin. The problem comes when the proposition is put forward, without evidence, that said origin can be scientifically proven, and that it should be taught as science.
I saw some documentary on something like this once. It was absolutely fascinating. There were big floods in Idaho too. There have really been some big catastrophies in the past, that's for sure.
A breath of fresh air. Thank you, sir.
Thank you for your statment.
I was fortunate that at the private college I attended, that the science teachers didn't have a problem with neither science nor their belief in God.
Been there, done that, got the baptism.
But eventually I discovered that many things in life can give you many different types of feelings. That's all a conversion experience is, a feeling.
Christianity is a benign place for people to wrap their feelings and lives into. It has a good philosophy, and I recommend it for many. My children and grandchildren go to church regularly, and I do not bring up my ideas about faith to them.
But exploiting feelings via religion can be a dangerous thing. Remember the folks who thought there was a spaceship behind the Hale-Bopp comet and committed suicide? And Jim Jones, wow. And all those terrorists out there, all of them motivated by their feelings manipulated by skillful people. Many of those skillful manipulators certainly believed in their faith 100%. But since the first prerequisite of a faith is the ability to be dishonest with yourself about what is reality, and what is not, religion has the ability to attract some very dishonest people on occasion.
Religion is like fire. It can be a wonderful servant, or an evil master.
What do you mean "may be"? I just told you that I write all the evo posts, and some of the creationist ones.
Almost like an alert goes out.
Uncanny isn't it; it is almost as if one of the evos maintains a list of like minds, and pings them to threads that seem relevant. But for those of you who think that the moon-landings were faked what really happens is that I send 300 pings to my alternate posting IDs and let the fun begin. The pay for being a member of Darwin Central's black-ops division isn't brilliant, but the job satisfaction is second to none.
ping
Most early civilisations were based along the world's great rivers, or by the sea. We shouldn't be surprised that most such civilisations had folk-tales of terrible floods that killed nearly everyone. Just ask the citizens of New Orleans. Curiously (to those of a biblical literalist bent) dry-and-high ancient civilisations don't share those myths.
If you have any evidence that SB is a previously banned poster, show it. Otherwise, you are blowing smoke.
You never see creationists all swarming to these posts now do ya? Oh wait, they do too... Maybe we're ALL just one person! We must be a fast typer.
Brilliant!
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