NPR Science Friday Sept. 8 2006

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Plus, biologist and writer E.O. Wilson joins us to talk about his new book, "The Creation." Wilson's appeal to preserving biodiversity is written in the form of letters to a Southern Baptist minister. We'll talk with the scholar about his reasons for writing the book. Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (3-4 Eastern).

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NPRWilson spoke for a joint unions of people(s) on both divides of creation and evolution. He doesnt think this is a good time in history to be arguing (for and against ID) for instance.Without a debate where would EVC be?Is there any way to generalize Percy’s investment?? Can an online community of discussion become more socially and less on-line than we have it???
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I say:but hearing how he answered and spoke on Ira’s question, “Will they(animals and plants) go first or will we (people) go first” Wilson(Eisner’s collegemate at Harvard)’s answer, that “they” (other living things than us) will, underscores my own feeling that it is really the biologists that need to adapt to conservation biology not creation scientists sensu stricto no matter the difference of opinion.He was very pessimistic thinking that best we can do is construct “corridors” to connect dying ecological communites. He does not try to “teach” (he only really “teaches” the binomial derivation) how to apply evolutionary theory for adaptive purposes of organisms themselves. He may think this is impossible or he may not know how. I do not know which it was.He desires humanity , “to come awake” now. We(in general) are already this much cognizant at EVC.--------------------------------------------------------------------
hear also=On Point
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Hello Brad:I agree that looking for common ground between both camps (creationists vs. everyone else) to work toward solutions to a biodiversity crisis is much more important than arguments about intelligent design. However, as a practical matter I doubt very much that the ID discussion is going away anytime soon; we will just have to figure out how to work around it.Percy and the other administrators seem tolerant of one side project (Team EvC). With that as a precedent, "Team EvC-Conservation" might be allowed to launch from this forum. Any thoughts on how to get started?

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Hmmm. Wilson says that people are going to outlive the plants and all other animals? I must be missing something. My bet for the last standing animal is on a nematode.Thanks for the heads-up on Wilson's book. I will make it my next read.

While compromise is a good idea in many cases, it is NOT a good idea with regard to this debate.Tell me, why should I try to reach a compromise with someone that believes the Earth is flat, or that the moon landing was faked, or that there are invisible pink elephants running around the streets, etc...?Compromise might be a good thing in certain situations, but this ain't one of those situations.

I am not suggesting a compromise with regard to the EvC debate (I assume that is what you mean).If there exists a biodiversity crisis then it seems that common ground should be found among everyone involved in order to work toward finding solutions.This does not mean conceding the EvC debate. EvC is a separate issue.

That's just it, Michael. There is no biodiversity crisis just as there is no round Earth crisis. What we have here are the words of a few individuals who know how to make flashy speeches and outright lie to the general public taking advantage of the average person's ignorance on subjects in science. They have convinced the ordinary person that, like politics, science should and is a democracy.The bad news is it's not a democracy no matter how much you try to find a common ground.

I beg to differ with this assertion. Please open a new thread on the issue and explain why you consider the biodiversity crisis to be a hoax or political game played for some undefined purpose.

What has E.O. Wilson said that was an outright lie?

I wasn't referring to any specific person. I have attended enough creationist lectures to see how misinformation can propagate into lies.But on second thought, my apology for making you raise your eyebrow. When you were referring to the "biodiversity crisis", I mistook it as referring to the so-called "theory in crisis" spout out by creationists from time to time to mislead the public into thinking the scientific community is on the verge of a civil war. Misunderstanding of the term on my part.Added by edit.But my point still remains that in some cases a compromise simply cannot be reached.Edited by gasby, : No reason given.

Really?! I'd love to debate this statement. I agree with Quetzal - you should open a new thread about this.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. For some reason, I took the "biodiversity crisis" to mean something else, as explained in my previous post. It struck me just now.

No problem, gasby. Thanks for the clarification.

Hi gasby, sorry I missed that correction...Do you believe that evo's and creo's can collaborate on issues such as the biodiversity crisis? Surely such an issue supersedes the evc debate?

I'm not sure that is possible. creos seem to believe that all life on earth was created for human beings to do with them whatever they see fit (It says something about that in the bible). More importantly though, they believe that this world is transitory and is in a state of inexorable slow decay, which means that they think the biodiversity crisis is just another face of the decay of the world brought upon us by sin and there is nothing we can do about it, short of becoming good 'christians' and buying us a ticket to the next world where things will (hopefully) be better. Edited by fallacycop, : typo

fallacycop wrote That's rather sad, I sincerely hope that not all creo's feel this way. Don't they want future generations to have a chance at the 'next world?'
Issues such as the biodiversity crisis are avoidable - albeit with substantial effort. I imagine that 'the maker' would be very impressed if creo's helped to tidy up after themselves before meeting him (/her/it/mother-father).

I'm not sure if this is what you were looking for, brad, but here's a go. other grid projectsthe two that would best fit are the malaria and the climate control.but if you're looking for a more physical, less abtract method than the grid, I'll have to get back to you on that.oh, link provided by jar

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All a man's knowledge comes from his experiences