I find PZ Myers ongoing soap opera with the comically less-than-honest producers of the movie Expelled to be a really entertaining little frontage road along this highway of world-wide weirdness.
Anyway, if you've not been following along, you really should. It's fascinating the limits to which those behind this propaganda flick will go in order to make their duplicitous nonsense fit into a reality which continually shows, time and time again, how hopelessly wrong the whole notion of creationism as a science truly is.
Personally, I think if the notion of intelligent design belongs anywhere in a public institute of education, it should be in the dank, shady corner of a philosophy classroom where people can sufficiently ponder the existential ramifications of a creator. To cram it into science and treat it as though it resembles anything even close to the scientific method is laughable, and for that, creationists deserve to be mocked, ridiculed and laughed at until they weep and step into the real world.
After all, if someone is treating an episode of The Flintstones as though it were a legitimate documentary based upon truth, if it didn't have religious dogma attached to it, you'd laugh your asses off at these insane people. However, because the religious underpinnings are there, people are allowed to demand respect as they spew this ignorance and stupidity upon the masses.
Now, it may be all fine and dandy to pretend that the only reason why the T-Rex had menacing fangs is to simply open coconuts for mankind, but in the real world, when the real people live and embrace their reality, this stultifying belief can cripple a population.
Creationism is a destructive thing, and there is no place in science for something with such an easy answer as the "Magic Man Did It." After all, what's the point of research or learning if you simply twist the information, while overlooking that which contradicts the notion of a creator? How is it anyone could ever learn anything?
And, sadly, this is what Ben Stein and the hacks behind Expelled are attempting to shovel upon us.
Strangely enough, this movie should be taken seriously, and insofar as it is easy to mock, the message behind this film encourages traits in our nation's educators and students alike that will set American academia back to the Dark Ages when we should all be seeking the Enlightenment.
Other than that, well... I just wanted an excuse to post this picture. It's funny, and strangely fitting when I see what it is that PZ's been having to deal with since these morons started making this dishonest little flick. I'd feel sorry for the poor professor, but he's got reality on his side, and that's a foe which the creationists can never beat. At least it's funny watching them try.
-DP
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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 4/04/2008 10:57:00 AM
... all of this was interesting ... my computer is shite, so I will have to go to the library to make sense of the links prolly next week, when I can leave lil' Mook alone ...
ReplyDelete... creationism ISN'T science and it makes itself look bad when its followers insist on treating it as such ... BUT my issue with science, is that it doesn't acknowlede how something 'else' is present ... saying we just had to develop legs to walk 'because', is a little hollow to me ...
... the problem isn't intractable, but everyone on each side is not willing to acknowledge each other ...