Posted on 01/25/2006 9:27:55 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez
Prof. Johnson is considered to be the father of the Intelligent Design movement. What follows is known as The Wedge Strategy, authored by Johnson.
In the words of the recognized father of the ID movement...ID is religion.
From "PROGRESS IN THE ECONOMICS OF RELIGION," by Laurence R. Iannaccone, Department of Economics,Santa Clara University:
* Rates of church membership in America have risen steadily in the past two centuries -- from 17% of the population at the time of the Revolution, to 34% by the mid-1800’s, to more than 60% today (Finke and Stark 1992). These data come from a variety of reliable sources, including the U.S. government’s decennial Census of Religious Bodies conducted from 1850 through 1936.* More than 40% of Americans claim attend church in a typical week, and this figure has remained largely unchanged since the advent of Gallup Polls in the late-1930’s (Greeley 1989).
* Surveyed religious beliefs have proved nearly as stable as church attendance. The fraction of American’s professing atheism remains well below 10%, and the fraction claiming belief in the Bible, heaven, and hell remains high and nearly constant (Greeley 1989).
* Church contributions make up more than half of all charitable giving in the U.S. (approximately 60 billion dollars per year), and the majority of nonprofit institutions are or were religiously-based.
I have no idea where you get the idea that Churches have declined in wealth power and influence.
Church affiliation is virtually a prerequisite to public office; there are mega-churches in this country on a scale never before seen (for perspective, consider that the Houston Summit, formerly an NBA arena, was purchased by Mr. Osteen and converted into a Church); there are literally dozens of wholly owned and dedicated Christian outlets in every form of media, from television, to radio, to book publishing, to magazines, to music; and the Christian majority has the power to change what it perceives to be undesirable conduct by demand, protest and boycott on an unprecedented scale.
I don't suppose you have a lick of evidence to support your assertion.
With competent instruction, an accountant could be trained in six weeks.
You can hire a "six-week CPA" if you want to, but I'll stick to the well-schooled version, thank you very much (as will, I'm certain, any company that wants its books in line with SEC disclosure requirements, and wants to stay out of jail).
Who gets the money when training requirements are lengthened? Think about it.
Let me guess. Chronically underpaid teachers?
I dont think that we can ever really know, about the number of lurkers...what I do know tho, is that if my own personality is indicative of anything, very often people are reluctant to get into very heated conversations, which is what is very often seen on these Evo/Creo/ID threads...
I have often been tempted to say something on a thread, but have held my tongue, because, I am more often in a rather 'timid mouse' phase, and actually do fear getting flamed or called names or such...tho I have gotten into some rather heated disagreements with some people, and have found it unpleasant to be called names...(tho I often have to remind myself, that being called names by a poster, who I deem as being 'whacko', is of no consequence)...now I am not using 'whacko' as being an instance of name-calling...I am merely using that term to denote someone who posts things which make absolutely no sense, those who posts hit and run insults and then run away, or those who constantly lie about things and then deny it....to me, they are beyond reason, and beyond discussions...and hence, 'whacko'...
So I guess the number of lurkers to FR will never actually be known...but to my mind, better to err on the side of there actually being many lurkers, and its better to provide them a lot of actual facts, rather than a lot of twaddle...
Nonsense. Any idea which challenges evolution, statistical or not, is not evidence for ID - it's just another red herring to obscure the lack of thought within ID itself.
It doesn't have to be right to be science.
You don't have to be a lion when you've got a typewriter that can roar. -GP
Excellent...
And how does it not?
The Christian creationists on the Dover school board certainly weren't champions of absolute moral truth.
Sure are, I'd buy one. Shovels, hip waders and a nose clip are necessities for reading through the crap that the DI and the affirmitive action-for ID types spew out.
Come, astrology purports to predict more than one's mood. It claims a supernatural influence, or at least predictive power, over the course of future events. Nostradamus himself employed astrology for his predictions. (Of course, in today's litigious environment, horoscopes are usually more circumspect in making predictions than formerly, and have become little more than mood rings.)
Moreover, even if the stars and planets need only influence man's thoughts to produce astrological efficacy, there still must be some sort of anomalous physical interaction.
We can rule out gravity, as it doesn't distinguish its influence on us by our birth date, and its effect is too small even to measure over a human length scale.
That leaves light as the only conventional mechanism: perhaps the way the stars look influences our mood in complex ways, and perhaps those susceptibilities are exquisitely age-dependent. But I never have seen horoscopes that correct for latitude or eyesight, or tell you not to bother if it's cloudy.
You described the poke and hope method science has always been. Rightfully so, for there are future discoveries that will revise our understanding of the foundations of reality. This is always how it has been and will be this way until we know more than 1% of our reality. Knowledge is not worthy of worship because it is vastly incomplete and largely in err for that reason.
Science is entertaining and despite us, sometimes helpful.
You have made my point for me. We are forced to make so many assumptions, that to speak without disclaimers is foolish. The big problem with sciences credibility is people are tired of the "Expert studies tell us", or " a scientific study reveals", only to be totally discredited with the next study.
I find science entertaining, and in no way wish to do away with it. However, investing ones worldview in it is the retardation of the modern mind. Any rational mind can discern its flawed promises. Having a cell phone and a laptop does not inject a person into the class of our Founders. Their character is what made them great, based on sound Biblical principals like no other group of men in history.
When you realize the majority of expert scientists are clowns, you will have moved a long way toward growing as a person.
lol..SJ Gould and definately Lewontin would argue it is part of it; especially in the way they refute(d) Wilson-sociobiology doesn't fit with Marxism ya know.
Science as it is being presented today mimics it to some extent. The hierarchy is simular, it seems to fit in to the materialist paradigm, and it has been subject to dialectical changes through time.
And, after all, its main benefator is the ACLU these days ;)
GC, I actually just like to stir the pot from both sides because coming from a philosophical standpoint I dont think either side has a monopoloy on reality,so I watch both sides beat their drums and I chuckle. I guess I am still waiting on more proof from either side. For starters, a unified field theory would do the trick-probably.
I do think of physics as the ultimate science and the jury still seems to be out there on some ultimate questions. But it is still fascinating for this layman when one looks at the quantum consciousness questions, (and neurobiology) etc., some scientists are kicking around today.
As far as I can see, Gould didn't and Lewontin doesn't think so.
Nice call.
To extrapolate: the curricula some day, with the compromise hammered out with the ACLU will consist of 1/2 day evolution 1/2 day gay studies.
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