Posted on 04/17/2008 4:07:06 PM PDT by Aristotelian
I confess that when the producers of Ben Stein’s new documentary “Expelled” called, offering me a private screening, I was less than excited.
It is a reality of PC liberalism: There is only one credible side to an issue, and any dissent is not only rejected, it is scorned. Global warming. Gay “rights.” Abortion “rights.” On these and so many other issues there is enlightenment, and then there is the Idiotic Other Side. PC liberalism’s power centers are the news media, the entertainment industry and academia and all are in the clutches of an unmistakable hypocrisy: Theirs is an ideology that preaches the freedom of thought and expression at every opportunity, yet practices absolute intolerance toward dissension.
Evolution is another one of those one-sided debates. We know the concept of Intelligent Design is stifled in academic circles. An entire documentary to state the obvious? You can see my reluctance to view it.
I went into the screening bored. I came out of it stunned.
Ben Stein’s extraordinary presentation documents how the worlds of science and academia not only crush debate on the origins of life, but also crush the careers of professors who dare to question the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution and natural selection.
Stein asks a simple question: What if the universe began with an intelligent designer, a designer named God? He assembles a stable of academics – experts all -- who dared to question Darwinist assumptions and found themselves “expelled” from intellectual discourse as a result. They include evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg (sandbagged at the Smithsonian), biology professor Caroline Crocker (drummed out of George Mason University), and astrophysicist Guillermo Gonzalez (blackballed at Iowa State University).
That’s disturbing enough, but what Stein does next is truly shocking. He allows the principal advocates of Darwinism to speak their minds.
(Excerpt) Read more at mrc.org ...
Then why do all General Biology textbooks I've seen (and I've seen a lot) cover it under the topic of "Evolution"?
Could it be that the editors of all those General Biology textbooks are ignorant? Or what?
From another forum.
http://www.youtube.com/v/EYTTkenu60Y
“I’ve always questioned Darwinism because Darwinism leads to social Darwinism, the belief that some races are superior to other races.” (3:53)
“There would have been no Holocaust without Darwinism.” (4:18)
“Darwinism explains so little. It doesn’t explain how life began.” (4:27)
“It doesn’t explain how gravity works.” (4:30)
“It doesn’t explain how thermodynamics works.” (4:33)
“It doesn’t explain how physics, the laws of nature, work.” (4:37)
“No one has ever observed the evolution of a single mammalian species.” (4:43)
“A new species. No one has ever been able to observe that.” (4:53)
Then why do all General Biology textbooks I've seen (and I've seen a lot) cover it under the topic of "Evolution"?Once you read the rest of the thread you'll understand what he's talking about.Could it be that the editors of all those General Biology textbooks are ignorant? Or what?
Agreed and agreed - go see the movie. I am. I never “go to the movies”. But I will not miss this one - and am taking 7 others with me.
Find some teens/college kids - take them too.
Just thinking...
Following your logic to its conclusion ... if God created life, then who created God? What's your answer to that? If any?
Just thinking...
“I’ve always questioned Darwinism because Darwinism leads to social Darwinism, the belief that some races are superior to other races.”Most conservatives are social darwinists. That's why the hatred of "conservatives"(note the quotes) towards real darwinism is so amusing.
I accept. Thank you.
Beagles, dachshunds and wolfhounds are the direct obvious result of selective breeding by Intelligent Designers, a.k.a. "Dog Breeders."
You are arguing that these Intelligently Designed breeds demonstrate lack of intelligent design. That's an "F" in logic class.
I see. I didn’t make the connection that the argument was over the type of organic matter.
I’ll retreat from your subthread now.
I see. I didn’t make the connection that the argument was over the type of organic matter.NP :) Always nice to see someone actively trying to understand rather than spewing their biases everywhere.I’ll retreat from your subthread now.
Beagles, dachshunds and wolfhounds are the direct obvious result of selective breeding by Intelligent Designers, a.k.a. "Dog Breeders."You're getting in some awfully deep water there. Are you willing to argue that it's possible for selection pressure to change the genotype of a species enough that the species becomes reproductively isolated?You are arguing that these Intelligently Designed breeds demonstrate lack of intelligent design. That's an "F" in logic class.
Thanks, I admit I jumped ahead.
Thanks, I admit I jumped ahead.np :)
Amen, TA. I'm not a biologist, neither am I an atheist. I'm a person who's read some of the exciting discoveries and theories in human paleontology. Fascinating wonderful stuff, to me always highlighting the huge great ironic wisdom of God -- and there's only one.
The Judeo-Christian ethic is the salvation of man. Over the past 2,000 years and more, Western civiliation and its foundation of the Judeo Christian ethic, has built the most powerful legacy of human prosperity and freedom in history.
Over the past 2000 years and well beyond, brutal, barbarous civilizations have endorsed human sacrifice, treated females as sub-human, gleefully indulged envy, lust, and cruelty, and practiced slavery, either directly or through communism. NOT A ONE OF THEM has embraced the Judeo Christian ethic, and they've all failed miserably in the interest of human dignity and love.
I'll be a warrior for Christianity any day of the week. It helps that my full faith is in God and Jesus, but even if it wasn't, here's the thing -- you don't even have to believe. We are mostly the products of 40, 50 generations of Judeo-Christian adherence. In modern America and Europe, many excellent men and women live good Christian lives for the most part and don't even call themselves Christian, but they live the Christian ethic never making the connection. Way, way too many take it for granted, but in a way, that's part of the brilliance: you don't have to believe to make it work. It works and everybody benefits and eventually figures out that yes, Virginia, there is a God, as there truly is. The beauty of Judeo-Christianity is that you don't have to believe for it to work.
Then you have the flip side of the miserable societies in history that have either never known or overthrown the Judeo Christian rules. They fail every time, guaranteed, and cause much human suffering. If that doesn't make you believe in cause of Judeo-Christianity, I'd just say, give it time.
How we got here is beside the point. Honestly, to me, evolution is intelligent design! Good grief. If fossils of homanids showing a progressive change of form exist on this earth for us to find and draw conclusions by honest God-fearing members of the Judeo-Christian ethic, what is there to fear? Evolution doesn't challenge God, it challenges man!
I wonder how much of the Evolution debate is based on human pride.
I am confused about how this might happen. As I have read these lightning 'sparks', by that, I guess they mean lightning, created a sort of peptide or small amide or amino acid or small protein. As anyone knows who has taken a college level Organic Chemistry course, that heat (lightning is about 50,000,000 degrees-that is five times hotter than the suns surface) denatures protein. Anyone who has boiled an egg sees the egg white turn to a rubbery consistency after being subjected to water at 212 degrees for a short period of time. The physical conformation of a protein molecule changes as a result of bonds breaking and reforming under the influence of heat. When you put a hamburger patty on the stovetop skillet and put it on low or midrange, the blood and serum appear on the surface of the meat and as you watch it, it will 'gel' much like the egg white. That is the protein content of the blood and serum undergoing denaturation due to heat. I fail to see how a protein, even a small molecular weight protein like egg white albumen, would manifest under such heat conditions.
Yep. Very disappointing.
I like Ben Stein and he’s usually right. Not this time, obviously.
We’re planning on seeing it tomorrow afternoon. Matinee price of course.
Great - me and my group will attend at matinee price also.
Then will go to dinner and discuss! Looking forward to it!
You are correct in asserting that Miller /Urey experiment has long ago been relegated to the asheap of scientic antiquity. But even if it worked, it would have only proven that Intelligent Design was at work....Miller and Urey.
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