Posted on 06/09/2003 6:07:51 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
In the years that BreakPoint has been on the radio, I've had some strong words about our nation's public television broadcasting system, PBS. Two years ago, for example, I criticized PBS's airing of a deeply flawed series on the theory of evolution. That series was inaccurate and one-sided, leaving out any mention of the scientific evidence that supported the theory of intelligent design.
But today I've got good news about PBS to report. And this is news where you can make a real difference.
Over the past few weeks, here and there around the country, some PBS stations have been broadcasting the one-hour science documentary "Unlocking the Mystery of Life." This program tells the story of the biological theory of intelligent design. Using interviews with scientists and philosophers, computer animation, and location footage -- from such sites as the Galapagos Islands -- "Unlocking the Mystery of Life" describes the emergence of an alternative theory to strictly naturalistic evolution.
Naturalistic evolution, you see, credits all the amazing diversity and complexity of life solely to mindless natural causes, and that's how PBS science programs usually explain biology. That's "usually" as in "the sun usually goes down at night." You'd search fruitlessly if you tried to find PBS presenting the scientific case for a different viewpoint than Darwinian. And so airing "Unlocking the Mystery" points to a significant breakthrough.
The documentary tells such a good scientific story that, earlier this year, PBS made the program available to all of its national affiliates. Local stations could download the program from a satellite link, and -- if they so decided -- put it into their schedules.
Stations in Oklahoma and Michigan have already done so, and in a couple of days, PBS affiliates in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Texas will broadcast the program as well. You can contact BreakPoint (1-877-3-CALLBP) for the days and times of these broadcasts.
Airing "Unlocking the Mystery" on taxpayer-supported public television is great news for intellectual freedom and openness in science. Most Americans learn about new developments in science from TV -- shows like the long-running PBS series NOVA. A well produced TV documentary can take complicated scientific theories and make them accessible and easy to understand -- even fun to watch. For young people, science that might be boring in the classroom becomes fascinating when presented imaginatively on television.
But TV can also exclude scientific ideas if they're deemed too controversial or likely to upset the scientific establishment. Challenges to Darwinian evolution have been seen just that way, religiously motivated and therefore suspect. But science suffers as a result, because there is plenty of evidence that does challenge Darwinism, and the public needs to hear both sides.
So here's what you can do. Call your local PBS station if it hasn't scheduled "Unlocking the Mystery," and encourage it to show the program. Send them an e-mail. If they've already shown it, let them know you appreciate their willingness to present alternatives to Darwinian evolution -- and that you'd like to see more of such programming in the future.
You are simply wrong. A victim of Darwinist propaganda – maybe? A victim of your own laziness and lack of understanding of ID – likely.
ID DOES NOT start with GOD – you are not even close. ID focuses on ONE ISSUE – things that simply seem as if they COULD NOT HAVE EVOLVED! As I saw it presented there are two major focuses within ID: evolution of DNA (not possible?) and evolution of complex systems.
Aric2000 - your characterization of ID is wrong – please stop repeating it. It is time for you to abandon your disproved position on ID and time for you to rethink.
God has nothing to do with ID (except implications)
You can pretend slogans make you look intelligent - but you would be wrong.
No, but the preponderance of evidence is on my side.
That judgment depends on the jury. Considering most of the people in the jury pool right now are agnostics and atheists, I think I'll be asking for a change of venue.
Human thought processes can be witnessed during CAT scans of a living brain.
How do you know that what you are witnessing is not the effect of the consciousness, but not the consciousness itself? You don't. You never will. I know that you really, really want your precious evolutionary doctrine to be true, but I'm sorry. It's not. It's a tough one to take, I imagine.
Google the 'mind-body problem'. Read up on this.
evolution <== (( mantras )) tautology - Reason -- KNOWLEDGE // philosphy -- tecchnology // science ==> Design !
OK. Answer the question Aric2000 - how did live originate. You answer will prove if that is a silly statement or not.
QUIZ: can science falsify the position: all life forms were created by natural selection?
If no, how can this position be any more valid than GODDIDIT
A while back someone posted a poll that showed 73% of Americans considered themselves to be regular church goers. If you're referring to college professors, then I agree.
The problem with the Christian community at large is that we're too busy bickering among ourselves to flex our political muscle.
Repeatability is the basis of the scientific method. Measurement error limits the ability for science to prove things. Science can never prove exactly at what temperature water will boil for one simple reason: Measurement error. You can't say EXACTLY at what temperature water will boil, and that limits you in proving. Like Aric2k said, you have to be exact in a scientific setting, so the word proof tends to be disdained.
God is the author of natural law. Therefore, saying that something has a "natural cause" and saying that "God caused it" are not contradictory.
Perhaps an example will make my position clearer. There is an ancient Jewish prayer (at least 2200 years old, perhaps older, and still in the prayer books of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews) which thanks God for making the sun rise every morning and set every evening, and states that each time God does this, He is renewing the miracle of creation. When science discovered that the apparent rising and setting of the sun are due to the rotation of the earth, Jews neither rejected that scientific discovery nor stopped saying this prayer.
As a believing Jew, I feel the same way about Darwin's discoveries. Darwin and his successors illustreated the "natural" means by which God accomplished His miracles, but this in no way shakes my faith that the creation of man was, indeed, a miracle of God.
OK - lots of fluff but I think I can pick out your answer.
ThinkPlease says science cannot prove at what temperture water will boil.
Is that your position?
...sounds silly, doesn't it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.