(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Creationist Michael Behe admits that "Intelligent Design" is science in exactly the same way that astrology is science.

Plaintiffs' attorney Eric Rothschild suggested that Behe's definition was so loose that astrology would come under this definition as well. He also pointed out that Behe's definition of theory was almost identical to the NAS's definition of a hypothesis. Behe agreed with both assertions.

The exchange prompted laughter from the court, which was packed with local members of the public and the school board.

Behe maintains that ID is science: "Under my definition, scientific theory is a proposed explanation which points to physical data and logical inferences. Duh, I eat poop."

"You've got to admire the guy. It's Daniel in the lion's den," says Robert Slade, a local retiree who has been attending the trial because he is interested in science. "But I can't believe he teaches a college biology class."

Comments

[ryusen.livejournal.com]

well, this was the guy that said ID is different from creationism, because there is evidence... wtf?

[anivair.livejournal.com]

I wonder what evidence he has. I have asked dozens of these ID "people" to show me a single shred of evidence and they have nothing at all. Not a single one.

[ryusen.livejournal.com]

well, this was the first ID guy that i've heard say ID has evidence...

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Behe argues from "irreducible complexity" - the idea that a complicated system could not have evolved if it requires many parts all working together.

This is not Behe's argument, originally. It's Darwin's. Darwin said that if you ever found an irreducibly complex system that could not have formed peacemeal, that would invalidate evolution. Behe simply claims to have found some (blood clotting, the flagellum, the eye, etc)

Of course, EVERY ONE of his "irreducibly complex" systems is *not* irreducibly comples, and demonstrably so both in the fossil record and in a laboratory. Behe didn't bother to investigate or support his conclusions - he just presumed them and published a book. There's a good reason "Darwin's Black Box" is shelved under New-Age Fiction, beside "Chariots Of The Gods", "Satan Is Alive And Well On Planet Earth", and "The Fifth Sacred Thing".

[torrain.livejournal.com]

By that definition of scientific theory... oh, god. My head hurts just thinking about it.

Not that I mind kicking around some of the ideas like phlogiston and ether, but that doesn't make them scientific theories.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Well, at least we can handle the headache... obviously there's an imbalance between the Blood and Phlegm humours, but that's why we have leeches.

-- Steve thinks that the scariest characters in The Madness of King George were the friggin' doctors.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I really need to see that movie.

(On an unrelated note, I am going to have Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" stuck in my head for hours now, since mention of the four humours *always* brings to mind the line "like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,/Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,/Pestilence-stricken multitudes!".)