Posted on 04/18/2006 4:19:25 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
The tweedy academics of America have joined my battle to stop a creationist takeover of outer space
For me, the battle over teaching creationism in US schools has become achingly personal. Groups seeking to oust the theory of evolution from biology class - or at least hint to students that Darwin's ideas are suspect - are invoking my research to support their crusade. I work with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti), an effort to find sentient beings in space by using massively large antennas to troll for alien radio signals. Any technologically adroit society will be capable of broadcasting to listeners light years away. If there's cosmic company in our galaxy, a radio antenna might just be the way to find it.
[snip]
Few scientists give a thumbs up to creationism or its subtler variant, intelligent design (ID). The basis of ID is that nature is too intricate to have been built bottom-up by natural processes - as British creationists will hear from John Mackay, a former science teacher from Australia who starts a tour of the UK next week. The meandering course of Darwinian evolution couldn't produce a microbe's flagellum, a DNA molecule, or a human eye, say ID's adherents. They proclaim the complexity of these constructions as proof of deliberate blueprinting by a creator, presumably from outside the universe itself.
It's here that they get personal. They say: "If you Seti researchers receive a complex radio signal from space, you'll claim it as proof of intelligent, alien life. Thus your methodology is completely analogous to ours - complexity implying intelligence and deliberate design." And Seti, they pointedly add, enjoys widespread scientific acceptance.
[massive snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at education.guardian.co.uk ...
Years ago I read a short story about a guy who discovered that, the further you mail something, the faster it gets there. On a lark, he mails something to a made-up company on a world orbiting Sirius, and receives a catalog for their products the next day -- thus instituting mankind's first contact with an alien race.
Did he receive an interocitor?
The debate ended because of complete lack of evidence contradicting evolution, and continual influx of evidence supporting it; not because of their arrogance, much as science no longer debates whether or not the earth orbits the sun. Both theories stand on solid footing.
Like I said, one needs to become literate in a theory before becoming qualified to critique it; people that publicly object to scientific theories on grounds that are already well-covered and debunked are just making themselves look foolish.
"I rest my case."
I noticed you didn't respond to the rest of Quark2005's post. It very eloquently points out why science's refusal to accept ID based on established science principles is *not* arrogant. What is arrogant is the suggestion that an hypothesis like ID should be taken seriously despite the lack of research and publication every other scientific hypothesis is required to go through.
Quark2005 is quite correct about the acceptance of evolution and the SToE, there is no controversy about its existence. Any debate within the scientific community is not about the veracity of evolution as a process but about the part individual mechanisms play within that process.
"Ludicris" is one of those words that reveals more about you than you could ever know.
In which case we would probably get an offer we couldn't refuse.
I may have to have a go at writing my own version.
Working title: Pyramid Sellers from Mars!
Like, tonight youse gonna sleep in da constellation Pisces?
What, Glenmorangie 10-light-year-old single malt?
...Tentacles!....Mmmmmm! / HomerSimpson mode>
Contrary to popular belief, one's virility is NOT increased by eating....
OOOOOH!!!! TeNtacles.......
Nevermind
I have never had tentacles better prepared that in Japan. I don't know about the virility thing, but I smiled all night long.
Maybe [LOL] or maybe 'give us all your food and women!'
Mmmmm, sashimi!
Lips that touch tentacles will never touch mine.
You may want to reconsider that rule. Lots of sexy babes eat squid and octopus.
I'd rather not know.
Not a fan of sushi, huh?
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