Intelligent Design Crazies Missed Their Chance
When the Coronavirus came along everyone asked, "Where did it come from?" President Trump said it was invented by the Chinese and they sent it here. If you are trying to debunk Darwin, that is the right answer. The wrong answer, if you are trying to debunk Darwin, is that it evolved in animals and was transferred to humans. The anti Darwinists, already a little dim in the brain, did not see the opportunity.
When President Trump and others latched onto the odd theory the Chinese had invented the virus intelligent design people should have jumped on that. They should have been delighted to learn the virus was not a mutation or evolution-based virus. It had, they could have said, no history just as all the rest of the universe until God created it. Of course, to make this work intelligent design people would have had to block all research into the origin of the virus.
The only intelligent design comment I saw was the virus proves that evolution only destroys and never creates. Thus, while the evidence shows the virus evolved from some other source this does not mean any living things evolved from previous living things. Maybe that could be called "negative reverse engineering."
The terrain for intelligent design has been uphill since the Dover, PA schools decision a decade of so ago. Religious creationists thought they could introduce creationism using a different name, intelligent design. That way religious indoctrination could take place and no one would recognize it. In an almost hilarious finding, opponents of religion in education found emails in which proponents cheered the opportunity to teach creationism and call it something else, intelligent design.
If we were to give examples of the opposite of "the best and the brightest" it would be advocates of intelligent design. They have lost their argument and now stumble around missing opportunities staring them in the face.
dumb. dumb and dumber. first off, a universally renowned biotechnologist, Giuseppe Tritto by name, claims that Covid was, in fact, a manufactured virus, using a virus found in horseshoe bats.
ReplyDeleteto continue. it seems that our military was involved in the project, as was a researcher named Ralph Baric who was funded in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease but was kicked out of No. Carolina because his tampering with viruses was considered dangerous. predictably, his research was shifted to China. moreover the involvement of our military gave rise to the Chinese claim that covid, in fact, came from the US. hmmm? nothing that I have read, however, gives a clear explanation as to what the virus researchers hoped to gain from their meddling. apparently, tho' it was not something related to biological warfare. that said, are you wondering, like I am, as to why this was not covered (so far as I know) by the US press?
ReplyDeletefinally a quick response to your claim that the intelligent design folks are a bunch of crazies. that, of course, is your response to any view that you do not agree with. and, as usual, it is an over the top, unfair characterization. one of the leading ID folks, Steven Barr, is an accomplished scientist, no intellectual slouch by any measure. besides the ID people have raised questions that , in the classical Darwinist context, are very difficult to explain. my old friend Feser, tho' says that ID is simply playing the old "God of the gaps" game. and will be red faced when the evolutionary biologists get around to answering their challenges. now an aside: you apparently have no explanation for the cause of the universe. or for the rise of living things. you think that something comes from nothing or, as my eight year old grand daughter might say, just 'cuz. that's your view: so have the intellectual guts to live up to it. after all, ideas have consequences. and this set of ideas has a whole pastel of consequences.
ReplyDeleteUnknown "you apparently have no explanation for the cause of the universe...as my eight year old granddaughter might say, 'just cus.'"
DeleteIt's far most honest to admit one does not know than to claim falsely one does. Intelligent design has no explanation for creation of the universe but claims falsely it does. As to "gaps" in evolution, intelligent design says this make a case against evolution. Now we're learning there may be no important gaps--that major changes sometimes occur quite quickly. Sorry, I'll stick with my view intelligent design proponents are in the group rightly called crazies.
Unknown, “virus” “cause of the universe”
DeleteJust a couple of points: a) Trump has excoriated Obama for his handling of the Ebola outbreak and ignored a thoroughly planned response to such outbreaks developed by the Obama administration — USA COVID-19 deaths 188,000 and counting; USA Ebola deaths 2. b) We tend to associate the supernatural, the “beyond” nature, with the existence of a divine actor, some god. To me that is a hasty generalization. Science does not exclude the supernatural e.g. the singularity at the core of a black hole. That is what nourishes it. The scientific method by design seeks to naturalize the “beyond“ nature. That is its purpose. Many assume a “first cause” that is not an essential part of the universe, nor is it physical, yet it is a person, therefore the first cause is a non-essentially-physical person. Let’s throw in omniscience for good measure. I guess that would be a soul spirit or a spirit soul, a god at any rate, a theological singularity. I’ll stick to the mysteries that are the food of science and wish everyone well.
Jon, “Task force report shows dire warnings to Iowa, the state with the highest case rate this week”
ReplyDeleteStay safe friend.
Ardy B "dire warnings"
ReplyDeleteThanks Ardy. Crazy that its so bad here. Our daughter who lives in a burb texted her grief about a friend who died. Lady's severely handicapped daughter is in the non profit dance program daughter started and everyone knows the family. The Governor has had some questionable decisions, no mask requirements, schools must meet half time in person, etc but no one is sure those are the reasons its going up so fast. We're just hoping it stays out of our building of 50 condos.