Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
5 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,817 Year: 3,074/9,624 Month: 919/1,588 Week: 102/223 Day: 13/17 Hour: 1/1


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   UnPC guide to Evo and ID
dwise1
Member
Posts: 5930
Joined: 05-02-2006
Member Rating: 5.8


Message 16 of 44 (346709)
09-05-2006 3:07 PM


Ah, yes. Jonathan Wells. As I recall, he pursued his doctorate for the explicitly expressed purpose of fighting against evolution. I mean that he came right out and said as much.
And his "Icons" book displayed that he would take the approach of setting up strawmen just so he could put on a big show of knocking them down. Just like most of the creation science writers.
So, what strawmen does he set up in this book?
"Intelligent Design is based on scientific evidence, not religious belief"? [guffaw!]
Sorry, but that's of the same class as the "creation science" claim that it had nothing to do with the Bible. "Creation science" is the game of "Hide the Bible", whereas ID takes that one step further as the game of "Hide the Creationism".
About the only thing that ID does right is to distance itself from young-earth claims, which are the weakest and most blatantly false (and falsified) part of "creation science."
PS
A propos to ID, even though there's no mention of Wells having contributed, is Glenn Morton's reports on "The Nature of Nature Conference" in Waco, TX, in 2000. His listing of those articles and links thereto are at No webpage found at provided URL: http://home.entouch.net/dmd/dmd.htm#waco.
The one that really sticks in my mind as Dembski's "critique" of genetic algorithms in which he demonstrated that he doesn't understand what genetic algorithms are not how they work. And several members of the audience who should have been sympathetic to ID (one of them being a long-time YEC writer) informed him of that fact.
Edited by dwise1, : Added postscript in re Morton's reports.

Replies to this message:
 Message 18 by Hyroglyphx, posted 09-05-2006 4:07 PM dwise1 has not replied

dwise1
Member
Posts: 5930
Joined: 05-02-2006
Member Rating: 5.8


Message 17 of 44 (346723)
09-05-2006 3:57 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Hyroglyphx
09-05-2006 12:45 PM


"What many public schools teach about Darwinism is based on known falsehoods."
I'm sure that that part will be a rehash of his false "Icons" claims.
However, what many public schools teach about Darwinism is wrong. But for very different reasons than Wells undoubtedly gives -- in fact, I know that many anti-evolutionists bank of the misinformation that's taught.
What came out of the experience of biology textbook selection in late 80's California was that the textbooks were all written by professional textbook writers, not by scientists. Scientists were brought into the process to proof-read and make recommendations. They found that none of the textbooks were acceptable. All the books were filled with factual errors and misconceptions. One publisher made some of the recommended changes, but their book was still not acceptable. However, the State Board then went behind the scientists' backs and approved that unacceptable book anyway.
Another problem is that many, if not most, public school science teachers lack the scientific knowledge and training and so end up relying on the book and on their own misunderstanding of science. One famous local case was John Peloza, a PE teacher who became a biology teacher; I heard him speak and everything he said about science and biology sounded like it came straight from the ICR. In another case, our younger son's 8th-grade biology teacher was the home-ec teacher; the other students kept going to him with their questions and got better answers than from her.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Hyroglyphx, posted 09-05-2006 12:45 PM Hyroglyphx has not replied

Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024