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 I’m trying to do is deal with pseudoscience regardless of where it’s 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.”
""Species jump" = my term = changing in species from, say, an ape to a man."
A man IS an ape. *Ape* isn't a species.
He is a typical fascist evolutionist...he starts in with the personal insults because his arguments are so...well neanderthal.
Took a lot of posts before we got called fascists! Can "nazis" be far behind?
ps. you just blew any credibility you may have had.
I repeat, if all this posting isn't from the same guy, it might as well be.
Just four years before Plessy vs. Ferguson.
Oh well, that's settled, then.
And if you look at #425 you will see another typical posting - they must have a compendium of responses and retorts to those who don't buy the Darwin crap.
I've gotten this one several times:
"ps. you just blew any credibility you may have had"
What kind of scientist are you?! It was a work of pure genius! Or pure something anyway.
>Our Constitution is secular--it never mentions a god or Christian doctrines. It specifically mentions "no religious test." This is NOT anti-religious. Please consider...<<<
You wrote in post 405, "If you diligently study Constitutional history you will quickly conclude that the only reason Christ was not mentioned in the Constitution is because it would have been considered redundant". etc.
However you may choose to gloss it, the fact remains that there is not a single reference to any god or to Christianity in the Constitution. It is the Fundamental Law of the United States of America. It is a secular document. No this was not oversight--a Christian reference was debated in the Constitutional Convention of 1791 and rejected. It was debated again in the State legislatures--and rejected. The First Amendment was added to make it perfectly clear. There shall be no law respecting "an establishment of religion..."
The clear word is "religion", not about one church or doctrine over another.
There is not a single reference to 10 Commandments. No one seriously thinks our laws are based on them.
My reading of history is that none of the Founding Fathers ever intended for Christian evangelicals to hold sway over over the civil affairs of government. Indeed, in Colonial times, several colonies expressly forbade "clergy and pastors" from being elected to Town councils.
Christmas celebrations were prohibited by Puritans. The "Christmas tree" was introduced to the US by Karl Follen from pagan traditions in the 1860s. Follen was a Unitarian. It is a Winter Solstice celebration that pre-dates Christianity. And has been controversial amongst Christian sects for 2000 years.
That is why I call them fascists...collectivists of sorts. Angry, sullen, and all towing the same old line.
>>>Try googling cosmic microwave background for a demonstration that big bang is not taken on faith. CMB was a prediction of big bang theory.<<<
There are some documented inconsistencies in the predictions of CMB, in red shift, and even in visual observations.
We had a big discussion about 6 months ago about who was the real Patrick Henry. As near as we could tell we all were and there is no Patrick Henry. He's just a figment of the 6502's (that runs Darwin Central) sense of humor.
All us figments are joined at the central 6502. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
>>>Something curious going on here. Some creationists assert that big bang theory is a triumph of religious science, that proves that God exists. Other creationists deride it as unscientific. Both groups cannot be right. (in fact neither group is right)<<<
I am not a creationist; merely a skeptic of loud science.
At the B.S. level.
"ho-ho-ho"
I applaud the capitalistic efforts of these two KU professors. ID has given them a ready-made advertising gimmick. It must be hard to get students into some of these classes. Now they will come flocking. Time to ask for a raise.
Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. Similar political movements spread across Europe between World War One and World War Two and took several forms such as Nazism and Clerical fascism. Neofascism is generally used to describe post-WWII movements seen to have fascist attributes.The word "fascist" ( or "fascism") is sometimes used to denigrate persons, institutions or groups that would not describe themselves as fascist and that do not fall within the formal definition of the word. As a political epithet it has been applied to persons and groups on the extreme left, the extreme right and most points in between. ..
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