Roy Spencer is a principal research scientist for University of Alabama in Huntsville. In the past, he was served as Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where here he directed research into the development and application of satellite passive microwave remote sensing techniques for measuring global temperature, water vapor, and precipitation. He currently is the U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on NASA's Aqua satellite. Dr. Spencer is the recipient of NASA's Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and the American Meteorological Society's Special Award for his satellite-based temperature monitoring work. He is the author of numerous scientific articles that have appeared in Science, Nature, Journal of Climate, Monthly Weather Review, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology, Remote Sensing Reviews, Advances in Space Research, and Climatic Change. Dr. Spencer received his Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin in 1981
This adds little, I think, to the discussion of ID and/versus evolution, but he is a scientist
Intelligent design can be studied and taught without resorting to human creation traditions and beliefs...
What's there to teach?
Since the fossil record shows a steady and continuous progression from simpler to more complex life over billions of years, the so-called Intelligent Designer must be very actively creating new species after new species over this time.
According to this "theory", every time a new species is created, the Intelligent Designer has done it.
And this is supposed to be more beleivable, or comparably believable, to evolution by natural selection? Not in my brain.
great column
I don't know how anyone can be honest and sweep this under the rug as if it doesn't matter. If we can find fossil evidence from millions of years ago, and of supposedly divergent lines, why do we not have anything to link these divergent lines? It seems improbable that this evidence would be the only stuff that left no sign of itself over the eons. When I bring up the lack of fossil evidence to the pure evolutionists, they go on about retro-virus this and DNA that, but fail to come up with a good explanaition of why there are gaps that would infer that there was no real evolving, but a sudden leap of a mutation from one species to the next. It seems that they take the lack of necessity of this linking evidence with the same faith that I attribute to God. Then, they tend to sneer and look down their noses at me as some kind of bumpkin (much as Dims do to anyone who disagrees with them) while they rant about how I don't understand science. I guess I could use the same argument about them not understanding God, but He prefers I not curl my lip when I try to persuade folks of His existence.
Many years ago I was a practicing scientist and reached the same conclusion -- there HAD to be an architect, designer and project manager behind the origins and processes of life.
I could NOT support, in fact, the 100% naturalist/scientific point of view.
Indeed it IS a matter of substantial faith, not substantial evidence, to believe in the theory of evolution. I don't mind that people do believe in evolution as the '100% of life' but it saddens me to see "scientists" who won't recognize how little real evidence, befitting the scientific method, supports the theory.
Perhaps we should start calling it the hypothesis of evolution ;-)
If there is a God, and I believe there is ... (my faith) then He has the power to speak life into existence, design a dynamic intelligent system or just let it 'evolve'. I susbscribe to the theory of intelligent design and the Book of Genesis as a correct and accurate representation of how God wanted to reveal it to us -- the project kick off meeting if you will. Genesis says exactly what God wants it to say, and we have to respond in faith and obedience.
I welcome your comments.
;-)
Exactly.
I am a scientist as well and I happen to agree with him. Adds little? Sniff, if you must.
Reading his pedigree, I predict that all the FR evo-high priests and particularly the evo-space cadets and evo-Trekkies will be writhing in pain on this thread before too much longer.
With all due respect he's a meteorologist. I'm not aware of how much impact evolution has on the weather. But I'll agree that it adds little to the overall discussion.
Great article...thanks for posting it.
A meteorologist commenting on evolution is sort of like a gardener explaining to a chef how to make a soufflé. I can tell you alot about meteorologists just by looking at how often they manage to actually predict the weather, the one thing they are supposed to be able to do. I believe their track record is less than 50%.
When the guy starts out with a flat out incorrect statement like that, it's hard to take the rest of the article seriously.
The book titled 'Chariots of the Gods' suggests a third theory which I call the 'intervention' theory. It postulates that at some point in the evolution process earth was visited by alien beings who caused a quantum leap from primitive man to modern man. It relates details of the theory to the old testament. It's an interesting read even though, like all theories explaining the mystery of the existence of life and the universe, nobody will ever know for certain.
".......but he is a scientist........"
As a Biochemist and Molecular Biologist I'd like to now expound on my theories of Climatological change and Global Warming..............
Wonder how he feels about global warming? :-)
Bump
Over the past century and a half pure science has sold its birthright for a philosophy known as evolutionism. Today it would apparently extend its line of credit toward the additional purchase of creationism. Frankly, I am beginning to wonder if pure science is capable of keeping its house clean.
As for evolutionism, one does not cast forth reasonable conjecture upon a mountain of circumstantial evidence and call it "science." One does not create a multiplicity of historic concatenations based upon a static record as if it had the same level of certitude as the Law of Gravity. Call it a philosophy, a history, or modern storytelling, but do not call it science in the strict sense.
As for creationism, one does not insert God into science any more than one inserts the director of a play into the play just to make a point that the play has a director. God does not need the help of science. The reverse is true, simply because science could not take place in the first place without an intelligently designed Being placing intelligent creatures in the midst of an intelligently designed creation. It is a comfortable given, not an end for science to pursue.
On the one hand, the philosophy of evolutionism dresses in scientific garb and introduces itself by stealth, not willing to recognize, let alone acknowledge that it begins with a fundamental set of givens that will never fail in finding a piece of circumstantial evidence to fit it. On the other hand, the theology of creationism dresses in a populist hankering for God to be given equal time at the microphone, failing to realize that pure science carries on well without the additional noise.
If the house of science is going to be kept clean, at least one of three things ought to happen. 1.) the adherents of the philosophy of evolution begin to extricate their dubious ramblings from under the label of science while the proponents of creationism take note and refrain from inserting them, 2.) the plenary body of public school customers receives what their tax dollars are paying for: Consideration for all reasonable points of view, or 3.) we honestly acknowledge the presence and implications of commingled thought. The debate has its place in schoolrooms, to be sure, but neither philosophy nor theology constitute pure science.
Based on the past century and a half, it would be no surprise if pure science decides to take on various philosophies inimical to its own good, while parading itself about as a caricature of what it is supposed to be, namely, the engagement of hypotheses that are testable within the realms current history and direct observation.
This is just pure nonsense. If you wanted to design a perfect missing link between reptiles and birds, Archaeopteryx would be it. It has feathers and wings like a bird, combined with a reptilian tail and teeth. The skeleton is intermediate. We have also a number of other transitional forms that are either more reptilian or more avian than Archie.
If the author is going to step outside his field so far, he should know enough to learn something about the area about which he's propounding.
Gobal warming just got a lot more probable for me.
This would be a little tough since intelligent design didn't appear until the '90's.
At least he doesn't believe in global warming.
Not sure it's worth it, but Ping.
See here.