Interesting People mailing list archives
ID and Op-ed: Ideologues at the lectern
From: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 11:59:36 -0500
-----Original Message----- From: docx () io com [mailto:docx () io com] Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 11:44 AM To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] ID and Op-ed: Ideologues at the lectern A reply for IP, if you wish. On Mon, January 23, 2006 4:20 pm, David Farber said:
-----Original Message----- From: James P. Hogan [mailto:james () jamesphogan com] Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 11:32 AM To: dave () farber net Subject: ID and Op-ed: Ideologues at the lectern
[much text deleted]
And if "science" resorts to the semantic evasion of eliminating such considerations by manipulating its definition, it might be excluding
itself
from what could be some of the most important questions confronting us.
I don't disagree that the questions are very important, but I would contend there is a time and a place for those questions. I don't go to church for discussions of the laws of motion, quantum mechanics or chaos theory. I don't go to science class for discussions of good vs evil, original sin or whether God (yours or mine) created the Heavens and the Earth in 6 days, then rested. That's what I'd go to a philosophy or theology course for. But, to address the issue directly (and not be accused of semantic evasion), in order to be considered properly by scientists for research, a hypothesis must make testable, repeatable predictions. As far as my research has discovered, Intelligent Design doesn't make any predictions, simply declarations. If it doesn't make testable predictions, it's nothing more than an idea (aka a hypothesis) and definitely doesn't elevate to the level of "theory", a term with a very rigorous definition in the scientific community.
From this standpoint, Intelligent Design and the Flying Spaghetti Monster
are on equal footing in the view of science and neither should be taught in a science course worthy of the name. -- Dylan Northrup - docx () io com - http://www.io.com/~docx/ "Harder to work, harder to strive, hard to be glad to be alive, but it's really worth it if you give it a try." -- Cowboy Mouth, 'Easy' ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- ID and Op-ed: Ideologues at the lectern David Farber (Jan 23)
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- ID and Op-ed: Ideologues at the lectern David Farber (Jan 23)