Freethought & Rationalism Archive

RufusAtticus · 09-20-2002, 12:54 AM

Check out this editorial cartoon.

Go here to vote on the cartoon. Scroll to 9/20/02 if you have too.

<a href="http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/luckovich/" target="_blank">Luckovich</a>

southernhybrid · 09-20-2002, 03:51 AM

Damn, Rufus. How early did you get your paper and have you been voting all morning for Lukovich?

RufusAtticus · 09-20-2002, 10:38 AM

<a href="http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0902/20evolution.html" target="_blank">AJC's take on the vokels in Cobb County</a>

Quote:

According to the school board, this is not an effort to circumvent the constitutional prohibition on introducing religious instruction in public schools. It merely wants to expose students "to a variety of testable theories and scenarios regarding the origin of the species in compliance with the Constitution of the United States and the state of Georgia."

Why? Because the board "believes that the discussion of disputed views of academic subjects is a necessary element of providing a balanced education, including the study of the origin of the species."

We'll accept that. Right after we're done defending the flat-Earth theory and the faked moon landing.

~~RvFvS~~

RufusAtticus · 09-20-2002, 10:46 AM

<a href="http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0902/20equal.html" target="_blank">Evolutionists have no legs to stand on </a>

Given the following:

Quote:

Adam G. Mersereau is an attorney living in Tucker.

Is it any suprise that he doesn't know what he is talking about?

Quote:

Two books published in recent years expose in compelling fashion the dirty little secret held by the scientific community for more than 100 years: There is no demonstrable evidence that the theory of evolution explains anything but minor adaptations within species.

Too bad in the last 150 years, over 10,000 scientific papers and studies have shown that evolution does indeed explain the diverity of life on this planet.

Quote:

But if evolution is such dubious science, why is it so widely accepted? Proponents understand that any evidence of design in nature implies the presence of a designer who may very well be God.

Because it relies on the unproven assertion that God was absent during creation, Behe and Johnson agree that evolution is less of a science than a philosophy. This helps in our understanding of evolution's staying power. Philosophies that free man to install himself as the final moral authority have seduced him, you might say, since the Garden of Eden.

Talk about projection! Creationism relies on the unproven assertion that not only was God present at the creation, but that it occured just as someone interpretes from scripture, and that any evidence against that interpretation is false.

<img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

Clutch · 09-20-2002, 10:56 AM

RA,

Quote:

Is it any suprise that he doesn't know what he is talking about?

Yeah, but I still like the guy who describes himself as an insurance salesman and minister.

tgamble · 09-20-2002, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by RufusAtticus:
[QB]
Given the following:

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adam G. Mersereau is an attorney living in Tucker.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it any suprise that he doesn't know what he is talking about?

He's a creationist. That's all you need to know to realize he's clueless. I wonder if he's even read Behe?

A biochemist who's only argument is on the complexity of the cell and who has no problem with common descent, plus a lawyer who's an idiot. These are the two authors he think refute 200 years of science.
<img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> <img src="graemlins/boohoo.gif" border="0" alt="[Boo Hoo]" />

It could be worse. He could be living in Canada.

RufusAtticus · 09-20-2002, 05:46 PM

Well Here is my reply to the AJC. Responces limited to arround 150 words.

Quote:

I would like to thank AJC for taking a stand for quality biology education in the state of Georgia. This is a political debate over whether science classrooms should actually teach science. Recent actions of the Cobb County School Board indicate that it is not in favor of teaching science in science classrooms. Instead they would rather teach pseudoscience and political controversies. They choose to determine what is scientific by popular opinion polls than by the consensus of the scientific community. Their repeated disregard of scientific organizations only demonstrates that they have no interest in teaching science in science class rooms.

Mr. Mersereau in his recent opinion demonstrates the problems of listening to public opinion over scientific consensus. He prefers to get his information from two popular books, written with little regard for scientific accuracy, over the tens of thousands of biological papers and studies published in scientific journals in the last 150 years. Thus it is no surprise that this lawyer makes fundamental errors about scientific knowledge.

Reed A. Cartwright
Graduate Student in Evolutionary Genetics
Athens

[ September 20, 2002: Message edited by: RufusAtticus ]</p>

RBH · 09-20-2002, 06:51 PM

RufusAtticus wrote

Quote:

Go here to vote on the cartoon. Scroll to 9/20/02 if you have too.

Unfortunately, it looks like one can't vote after the date a cartoon appeared. Did you happen to see the vote on the Cobb County cartoon?

RBH

RufusAtticus · 09-20-2002, 07:50 PM

Something like 85% liked it. 15% didn't.

Kevin Dorner · 09-21-2002, 02:12 PM

Not good.

<a href="http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/cobb/0902/21evolution.html" target="_blank">Group of Georgia science profs urges Cobb to allow other origin of life views</a>

Quote:

The scientists include Henry Schaefer, a distinguished professor of chemistry at the University of Georgia who has been nominated several times for a Nobel Prize. James Tumlin, an associate professor of medicine at Emory School of Medicine, said students should know that scientists have doubts about evolution. The group of scientists includes chemists, engineers, entomologists and biochemists.

I don't see any evolutionary biologists or geneticists campaigning to have alchemy or phlogiston put back into chemistry, demanding textbook labels that demonstrate that all arrows depicting current flow in electrical engineering should be reversed as they are wrong since Franklin's incorrect guess, suggesting that spontaneous generation of larval stage insects in decaying organic matter should be considered in the entomology classroom as a valid alternative, or for that matter seeking to restore vitalism to biochemistry, which would render the entire field an impossibility were it true.

Each of these groups would recognize as patently ridiculous the attempt to debase the confidence and depth of knowledge and understanding that these sciences have by attempting to introduce outmoded, disproven and unscientific ideas on an equal level.

So, why can't they put themselves in the place of the evolutionary biologists and geneticists and see that they are doing exactly the same thing?

Sigh...

[ September 21, 2002: Message edited by: Kevin Dorner ]</p>

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

09-20-2002, 12:54 AM	#61
RufusAtticus Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: NCSU Posts: 5,853	Check out this editorial cartoon. Go here to vote on the cartoon. Scroll to 9/20/02 if you have too. <a href="http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/luckovich/" target="_blank">Luckovich</a>

09-20-2002, 03:51 AM	#62
southernhybrid Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: heavenly Georgia Posts: 3,862	Damn, Rufus. How early did you get your paper and have you been voting all morning for Lukovich?

09-20-2002, 07:50 PM	#69
RufusAtticus Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: NCSU Posts: 5,853	Something like 85% liked it. 15% didn't.

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.