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 ...
Thanks for the link to your other post and for the information learned there.
“The bottom line, as mentioned in the referenced post, is that the people need to reconnect with the Founder’s division of federal and state powers, particularly where the wrongly ignored 10th A. power of the states to address religious issues is concerned, power now limited by the honest interpretation of the 14th Amendment. The people then need to get in the faces of renegade justices, the Oval Office and the Senate and do a major spring cleaning where government respect for our religious freedoms is concerned.”
Excellent suggestions.
Agree.
However, the issue about the expuslsion of any scientist and/or professor and/or public school science teacher who even slightly hints that either there are problems with evolution or tht Intelligent Design is a better explanation for the evidence discovered in whatever the field of science.... than random mutations x time x natural selection.....actually is about academic / scientific FREEDOM of inquiry.
IN essence the issue is about truth and the freedom to pursue truth as it is uncovered in the scientific realm.
Such freedom does not exist today in academia / scientific elitist circles.
The socalled scientists whose minds are closed to anything but evolution to explain where living things and the cells and molecules which make them up came from and how they developed......have become the inquisitors of today, the tyrants of the elite of today.
They are such and they know it and they understand that they must “keep the faith” in evolution going because the ultimate fear is that when and if any doubts - based on FACTS as these scientists/professors have wanted to pursue or just to DISCUSS - about the validity of Darwinism / evolution are ALLOWED to seep in...their power will finally collapse.
Thank you for your comments.
All of these ideas predate Darwin. It's no less ideological porpaganda than what's coming from the other side, and it's not "God's work".
First we have to get over the idea that tne New Deal "substantial effects" doctrine enables Congress to exercise authority over even the most mundane aspects of our lives as an exercise in "regulating commerce" that is superior to any individual rights of the people or power reserved to the States.
Not only are you arrogant for little reason, you are arrogant for no reason.
There is no mention, anywhere, of an “absence of counter-example” as a proof of hypothesis in any description of the scientific method, but, ironically, and very appropos - your assertion is that of the logical fallacy of an “argument from ignorance”.
“The argumentum ad ignorantiam [fallacy] is committed whenever it is argued that a proposition is true simply on the basis that it has not been proven false, or that it is false because it has not been proven true. “
YOU’VE made ME laugh, “snoogums”.
What’s your background, anyway? Elementary Ed?
“Complexity proves nothing. It’s a fact, not an argument.”
Complexity, no, but the presence of INFORMATION, yes.
Why is the keyboard on a notebook computer so small?
Was it, perhaps, the best design to accomodate all the requirements of the complete function of the machine?
Nope, keyboard’s too small, so notebook computers must have self assembled.
Note to self: Never attempt to engage an evo into a debate when they know doing so will expose their flawed theory . Best defense for an evo, avoidance obfuscation.
Define INFORMATION. Please not that I am assuming that INFORMATION is different than information seeing as how Truth and truth appear to refer to a multitude of different meanings.
I am talking about our immune system and why in our later years it attacks its own host body.
Or the use of a single pipe for both breathing and eating.
Neither of those ‘design decisions’ was done to save space.
It’s “TRVTH”.
And information means anything anyone wants it to mean.
Because it supports TRVTH as they know it.
It makes arguing with the believers of TRVTH fairly difficult, if not completely impossible.
Once you encounter someone who believes in TRVTH, it’s best to simply quit the discussion, because you’re not going to learn anything nor change that person’s mind. If you think your discussion might affect other readers, that could be valid, but you’ll never win an argument with someone who has TRVTH on their side.
Thanks for the explanation.
Not only are you arrogant for little reason, you are arrogant for no reason.Yawn... Now that you know what scientific method is, can you tell what makes a hypothesis special?There is no mention, anywhere, of an “absence of counter-example” as a proof of hypothesis in any description of the scientific method, but, ironically, and very appropos - your assertion is that of the logical fallacy of an “argument from ignorance”.
“The argumentum ad ignorantiam [fallacy] is committed whenever it is argued that a proposition is true simply on the basis that it has not been proven false, or that it is false because it has not been proven true. “
YOU’VE made ME laugh, “snoogums”.
What’s your background, anyway? Elementary Ed?
Glad you saw it. Yes it is excellent.
There was significant evidence presented to make the direct connection between Hitler’s view of a “super race” and Darwinian evolutionary theory as moved over into the realm of nations/races/mankind.
Unfortunately I cannot present those connections here but they exist.
What was most telling in the documentary was when Ben Stein is taken on a tour of one of HItler’s extermination buildings for the physically and mentally “unfit” human beings....those with mental or physical handicaps. It was indeed the most chilling part of the film.
The most chilling part was when the German woman giving the tour could not say that what Hitler did was evil.
Evolution is based on survival of the fittest.
Hitler bought into that view in terms of mankind....and carried it through to its logical conclusion ..... purging the human race of the weak, the sick, the different, and the subhuman Jews and others who only hold back human evolution.
But that is my summary - there is documented proof of this connection between the theory of evolution and how Hitler adopted it for his purposes.....
Does that make evolution inaccurate as the explanation for
The Origin of the Species”? No, of course not.
It just is a fact about evolution which many people do not know and, as evidenced by the young lady tour guide.....cannot make proper moral judgements about when they do know.
So are business, agriculture, and Nascar races. You say it like it's an accusation.
The point was that Hitler incorporated that part of the theory of evolution into his vision of a “super race” of men.
In doing so, he believed that ridding the human race of those who were not “fit” and who would “pollute” evolving mankind was to serve the very processes of “natural selection” and help move man toward the goal of the “super race”......
Of course that is an accusation....or do you not see the evil in applying the idea of “survival of the fittest” to a national / racial agenda acted upon by a “leader” / tyrant?
Just another example of how leftists blame everyone else for their own blathering idiocy.
I see the evil of twisting the thoughts of a madman into rationalizing an agenda of religious indoctrination.
You did not answer my question.
“I see the evil of twisting the thoughts of a madman into rationalizing an agenda of religious indoctrination. “
Have you seen the film?
There was no “twisting” of the thoughts of Hitler. The facts are difficult to refute.
“An agenda of religious indoctrination”.....
That is EXACTLY what has gone on for decades....the “religion” is the faith in evolution as fact....and see the film if you don’t believe what has gone on is ENFORCED indoctrination.
Investigate the facts. I did. I wanted to find out the truth. Don’t you?
Sorry, I don’t buy the tacit argument that we have to discredit and destroy the ToE by any means necessary in order to prevent another Hitler. You’re letting reason get jerked around by a bunch of emotional fearmongering.
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