Cornell president condemns intelligent design

©2005 Syracuse.com ^ | 10/21/2005, 12:03 p.m. ET | By WILLIAM KATES

[Behind Liberal Lines]

ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell University Interim President Hunter Rawlings III on Friday condemned the teaching of intelligent design as science, calling it "a religious belief masquerading as a secular idea."

"Intelligent design is not valid science," Rawlings told nearly 700 trustees, faculty and other school officials attending Cornell's annual board meeting.

"It has no ability to develop new knowledge through hypothesis testing, modification of the original theory based on experimental results and renewed testing through more refined experiments that yield still more refinements and insights," Rawlings said.

Rawlings, Cornell's president from 1995 to 2003, is now serving as interim president in the wake of this summer's sudden departure of former Cornell president Jeffrey Lehman.

Intelligent design is a theory that says life is too complex to have developed through evolution, implying a higher power must have had a hand. It has been harshly criticized by The National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which have called it repackaged creationism and improper to include in scientific education.

There are brewing disputes involving evolution and intelligent design in at least 20 states and numerous school districts nationwide, including California, New Mexico, Kansas and Pennsylvania. President Bush elevated the controversy in August when he said that schools should teach intelligent design along with evolution.

Many Americans, including some supporters of evolution, believe intelligent design should be taught with evolution. Rawlings said a large minority of Americans — nearly 40 percent — want creationism taught in public schools instead of evolution.

For those reasons, Rawlings said he felt it "imperative" to use his state-of-the-university address — usually a recitation of the school's progress over the last year — to speak out against intelligent design, which he said has "put rational thought under attack."

[RadioAstronomer]

I hear ya. I think you are right on the money.

[hawkaw]

LOL

[mlc9852]

I have proof - look around you.

[mlc9852]

How are you ever gonna prove string theory?

[balrog666]

Why aren't Darwinists happier people? Probably because they see no value in human life since they consider it is no more than random DNA thrown together. How sad.

No, no, you misstate the obvious yet again. Feel free to try again when you graduate from the third grade.

[hawkaw]

Go read about it.

[mlc9852]

Well, you certainly took the fun out of it!

[dread78645]

That's assuming the 'designer' was God..

So you're a Raelian.
Cool.

(I've never met a Raelian before)

[mlc9852]

Please - practice your insults. They are just so juvenile. Maybe you should watch reruns of Rodney Dangerfield.

[RadioAstronomer]

Probably because they see no value in human life

I have a great value for human life!!

"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

[mlc9852]

I've missed you on these threads. Glad you're back.

[dmz]

proof of what? I'm not trying to be unpleasant, but evolution is out - no proof. God is in - the proof is, what, existence, nature? I really don't understand your reply.

[RadioAstronomer]

Thank you! I have been very busy as of late. Was up for a strait 26 hours last weekend trying to get stuff done.

[bobhoskins]

Why aren't Darwinists happier people? Probably because they see no value in human life since they consider it is no more than random DNA thrown together. How sad.

The sociological implications of a theory do not invalidate the theory itself.

Heck, I'm sad because gravity means I can't just fly around like Superman. Scientists don't factor my squashed dreams of being a superhero into the Theory Of Gravity, however.

(Stupid scientists.)

[NC28203]

>>>Always wondered how many drunk, drug-addled, depressed students commit suicide at the Falls each year?

Not as many as one might think given the ample opportunities the gorges provide.
From 1990 to 2000, nine students killed themselves at Cornell, representing 5.7 student deaths per 100,000 per year. With eleven suicides in the same number of years, a student death rate of 10.2, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) far surpassed Harvard University (7.4 deaths per 100,000 per year) and Duke University (6.1 suicides per 100,000 per year). MIT's suicide rate is also 53 percent greater than the national average among college students, which is 7 per 100,000 per year.

[Bigh4u2]

" So you're a Raelian.
Cool."

Nope.

Just putting forth a 'theory' that the current intelligent civilization may have not been the first.

Besides. Try as I may, I just can't seem to get my tinfoil hat to stay on straight!

[Dimensio]

He's using argument by "because I said so". He's made it clear in the past that he's not interested in rational discussion, but rather interested in assuming the truth his position, assuming the position of anyone who accepts evolution (note that he rather clearly implies that all who accept evolution are atheists, even though he knows that this is a lie), and ranting accordingly.

[fortunecookie]

Cornell University Interim President Hunter Rawlings III on Friday condemned the teaching of intelligent design as science, calling it "a religious belief masquerading as a secular idea."

I have a feeling that if 'religion' embraced evolution as the best explanation, as a science, Cornell Univ Interim President Rawlings would 'condemn the teaching of evolution as science, calling it "a religious belief masquerading as a secular idea."' It's religion they hate, along with rational thought, and they seem bent on redefining 'rational thought' to suit their needs, especially their need to attack religion.

[Ichneumon]

Nope. Just putting forth a 'theory' that the current intelligent civilization may have not been the first.

No, you're putting forth a hypothesis, not a theory. And that's the problem with "ID" -- it doesn't rise to the level of an actual scientific theory, and should not be (mis)represented (especially in schools) as if it did.

[Junior]

The CrevoSci Archive Just one of the many services of Darwin Central "The Conspiracy that Cares"

• PatrickHenry's famous List-O-Links

CrevoSci threads for the past week:

OpenTag Date link Title closeTag Notes
1. 2005-10-21 A test nobody wants to take
2. 2005-10-21 Cornell president condemns intelligent design
3. 2005-10-20 1st Euro Conf. on Intelligent Design Features Scientists From Biology, Paleontology & Astrophysics
4. 2005-10-20 A test nobody wants to take [more ross exam, Dover Evolution trial, 20 October]
5. 2005-10-20 Barf Alert: ACLU's 'intelligent design' in Dover case
6. 2005-10-20 Being Stalked by Intelligent Design
7. 2005-10-20 Darwin Takes the Fifth: What Really Happened at the Kansas Evolution Hearings
8. 2005-10-20 Geoscientists and educators take on antievolutionists (Say Evolutionists: 'Don't debate')
9. 2005-10-20 Intelligent design not science: experts [70,000 Aussie Scientists liken I.D. to 'spoon bending']
10. 2005-10-20 Kangaroo Court (Professor Michael Behe, appearing at the left's verision of the Scopes trial...)
11. 2005-10-20 The Republican War on Science
12. 2005-10-20 UCSD Study Shows 'Junk' DNA Has Evolutionary Importance (Evolutionists don't get it)
13. 2005-10-19 Anti-ID stance is good old intolerance again
14. 2005-10-19 Behe backs off 'mechanisms' [Cross exam in Dover Evolution trial, 19 October]
15. 2005-10-18 Alternative Theory to Evolution Sparks Debate
16. 2005-10-18 Evidence of Swimming Dinosaur Found
17. 2005-10-18 Harvard researcher ready to wash her hands of space aliens
18. 2005-10-18 Professor [Behe]: Design not creationism [Evolution trial, 18 October]
19. 2005-10-18 "Rape, Evolution, and ""Right to Life"""
20. 2005-10-18 Scientists Study Gorilla Who Uses Tools
21. 2005-10-17 Cyborg cells sense humidity
22. 2005-10-17 'Hobbit' tools found near remains
23. 2005-10-17 Ichthyosaur bones found off U.K. coast
24. 2005-10-17 Intelligent Design is not Science (Kenneth Miller Speaks at Lehigh)
25. 2005-10-17 Jurassic Bark: Tree Thought Extinct Returned to the World
26. 2005-10-17 New Planetoid Discovery Sets Off Feud
27. 2005-10-17 Prof Speaks at 'Intelligent Design' Trial
28. 2005-10-17 "Scientists Back Dover - [85 scientists request scientists, not Judges, to define ""science""]"
29. 2005-10-17 Spitzer's Stunning Portrait of Andromeda
30. 2005-10-17 Supernova Storm Wiped Out Mammoths?
31. 2005-10-17 Tracks of Swimming Dinosaur Found in Wyoming
32. 2005-10-17 University separates itself from professor in Dover intelligent design suit
33. 2005-10-16 An Open Letter Concerning Religion and Science
34. 2005-10-16 Bad Frog Beer to 'intelligent design'
35. 2005-10-16 Evolution debate unchanged over time
36. 2005-10-16 Grown Man in the Stellar Crib: Now What? (Discoveries require rewriting the Astronomy books)
37. 2005-10-16 Museums take up evolution challenge
38. 2005-10-16 "Museums take up evolution challenge (because ""biology classes have faltered"")"
39. 2005-10-16 Pa. professor [Behe] to testify in landmark case [Dover evolution trial, 16 Oct]
40. 2005-10-16 The Separation of the Church of Darwin and State
41. 2005-10-15 God and global warming
42. 2005-10-15 Tracing the whale’s trail [Evolution trial, daily thread for 15 Oct]

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CrevoSci Warrior Freepdays for the month of October:
 

2005-10-12 Alice au Wonderland 2003-10-09 antiRepublicrat 2004-10-10 Antonello 1998-10-18 AZLiberty 1999-10-14 blam 2000-10-19 cogitator 2001-10-21 Coyoteman 2004-10-26 curiosity 1998-10-29 Dataman 2000-10-29 dila813 2005-10-07 Dinobot 2004-10-13 DoctorRansom

2001-10-14 dread78645 2005-10-14 EasyBOven 1998-10-03 Elsie 1998-10-17 f.Christian 2002-10-08 FairOpinion 2001-10-26 Genesis defender 2000-10-09 Gil4 2000-10-08 guitarist 2005-10-01 holeinchilada 2004-10-10 joeclarke 1998-10-03 js1138 2001-10-24 k2blader

2001-10-22 kanawa 2000-10-08 LibWhacker 2002-10-25 m1-lightning 2001-10-10 Michael_Michaelangelo 2001-10-09 Mother Abigail 2004-10-25 MRMEAN 2004-10-03 Nicholas Conradin 1999-10-28 PatrickHenry 1998-10-01 Physicist 2003-10-19 Pipeline 1998-10-25 plain talk

1998-10-12 Restorer 2005-10-04 ret_medic 2001-10-23 RightWingNilla 2005-10-08 SmoothTalker 2004-10-09 snarks_when_bored 1998-10-04 Southack 2002-10-22 sumocide 2004-10-21 WildHorseCrash 2001-10-23 yankeedame 2002-10-20 Z in Oregon 1998-10-29 zebra 2

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In Memoriam
Fallen CrevoSci Warriors:

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ALS Area Freeper Aric2000 Askel5 bluepistolero churchillbuff ConservababeJen DittoJed2 dob Ed Current

f.Christian followerofchrist general_re goodseedhomeschool gopwinsin04 gore3000 Jedigirl JesseShurun Kevin Curry kharaku

Le-Roy Marathon medved metacognative Modernman NoKinToMonkeys Ogmios peg the prophet Phaedrus Phoroneus

pickemuphere ret_medic RickyJ SeaLion Selkie Shubi Tomax tpaine WaveThatFlag xm177e2

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Bring back Modernman and SeaLion!

Glossary of Terms

Crevo:  Creation vs. evolution
CrevoSci:  Creation vs. evolution/Science
Freepday:  The day a Freeper joined Free Republic

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