Philosophy
So a Christian group on campus sponsored a showing of Ben Stein's pro-Intelligent Design polemic "No Intelligence Allowed" and sent around an e-mail asking for faculty or student group presence at the film and for a round-table afterward. The claim, and let's take it at face value, was to have an open discussion about the status of intelligent design and evolution for the campus community.
It seems like there were three options:
(1) Ignore it for political reasons -- after Dover, the air has come out of the ID balloon and engaging it only helps reinflate them by giving the false image of there actually being a debate.
(2) Dismiss it for intellectual reasons -- there hasn't been a live debate around this since the end of the 19th century and engaging gives a false impression that the question remains open.
(3) Engage it for discourse reasons -- it is public discourse, the offer was made in good faith, and there needs to be a voice in the conversation familiar with the science and with questions of scientific methodology.
I ignored it (to be honest because I've got too much else to do and it's just hard to get worked up over it anymore), but should I have?
- The Simple Truth Thesis
Our friend Bob Talisse has a post up over at This Side of the Pond, Cambridge University Press' blog. He's got a new book out (nice job Bob, and Cambridge...very nice) called Democracy and Moral Conflict and the post sets a nice foundation for...
- Intelligent Design Is A Political Question, Not A Scientific One
This article is unbelievable. Christine Castillo Comer, the Texas Education Agency?s director of science, was forced out of her position for forwarding an e-mail to a list-serve for science educators announcing a local talk by Barbara Forrest. Let that...
- Imus And Freedom Of Speech
There's a new webforum that just started called the Citizens' Symposium. The idea is to take a topic and ask a couple of bloggers from different points of view to write a short essay and respond to the others, then throw it open to general discussion....
- Demarcation, Falsification, And Intelligent Design
Janet, over at Adventures in Ethics and Science, has a nice discussion going about intelligent design, the line between science and pseudoscience, and Karl Popper's criterion of falsificationism. According to Popper, a theory is scientific if and...
- Ricky Gervais, Jon Stewart And Panda Porn
When it comes to the debate between intelligent design creationism and evolution, the late Stephen J. Gould thought that instead of focusing on the marvels of biology, such as the eye, we should focus on the instances of poor biological architecture....
Philosophy
Intelligent Design Provocation: How To Respond?
So a Christian group on campus sponsored a showing of Ben Stein's pro-Intelligent Design polemic "No Intelligence Allowed" and sent around an e-mail asking for faculty or student group presence at the film and for a round-table afterward. The claim, and let's take it at face value, was to have an open discussion about the status of intelligent design and evolution for the campus community.
It seems like there were three options:
(1) Ignore it for political reasons -- after Dover, the air has come out of the ID balloon and engaging it only helps reinflate them by giving the false image of there actually being a debate.
(2) Dismiss it for intellectual reasons -- there hasn't been a live debate around this since the end of the 19th century and engaging gives a false impression that the question remains open.
(3) Engage it for discourse reasons -- it is public discourse, the offer was made in good faith, and there needs to be a voice in the conversation familiar with the science and with questions of scientific methodology.
I ignored it (to be honest because I've got too much else to do and it's just hard to get worked up over it anymore), but should I have?
- The Simple Truth Thesis
Our friend Bob Talisse has a post up over at This Side of the Pond, Cambridge University Press' blog. He's got a new book out (nice job Bob, and Cambridge...very nice) called Democracy and Moral Conflict and the post sets a nice foundation for...
- Intelligent Design Is A Political Question, Not A Scientific One
This article is unbelievable. Christine Castillo Comer, the Texas Education Agency?s director of science, was forced out of her position for forwarding an e-mail to a list-serve for science educators announcing a local talk by Barbara Forrest. Let that...
- Imus And Freedom Of Speech
There's a new webforum that just started called the Citizens' Symposium. The idea is to take a topic and ask a couple of bloggers from different points of view to write a short essay and respond to the others, then throw it open to general discussion....
- Demarcation, Falsification, And Intelligent Design
Janet, over at Adventures in Ethics and Science, has a nice discussion going about intelligent design, the line between science and pseudoscience, and Karl Popper's criterion of falsificationism. According to Popper, a theory is scientific if and...
- Ricky Gervais, Jon Stewart And Panda Porn
When it comes to the debate between intelligent design creationism and evolution, the late Stephen J. Gould thought that instead of focusing on the marvels of biology, such as the eye, we should focus on the instances of poor biological architecture....