Freethought & Rationalism Archive

RufusAtticus · 09-28-2002, 10:23 PM

Well, Fritz and his buddies started an organization on campus, The Christian Faculty Forum, which is more likley the Evangelical Creationist & IDist Fundie Faculty Forum. Fritz has also gotten called before the faculty senate for using class to proselyse students. (He used class time to invite students to his house so they could be witnessed to.) It sounds like one big, "you can be a scientist and still not belive in evolution" seminar. Why the heck do these educated men think that creationists and Christian are synomous?

I was talking to a girl (who happens to be from Cobb County) in another lab when I was circulating the petition. She had on of the Campus creationists for Biochem, and made the mistake of going to an afterhours meeting when amounted to just that.

I pulled this of the UGA website.

Quote:

FRES 1020: Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence? (08-300)

Instructor: Henry Schaefer, Chemistry
Time and Place: Thursday, 6th period (3:30-4:30), 509 Computational Chemistry Building

Toward the end of the 19th century, T.H. Huxley and Andrew Dickson White advanced the notion that science and Christianity were in a state of perpetual warfare. Recent advocates of this cause have included Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins. However, a number of distinguished scientists, including Charles Townes and Francis Collins, have taken the opposite view. Adding to the confusion is the fact that most of the pioneers of modern physical science were articulate Christians. The debate will be examined with some care. Required reading will be Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength.

Henry Schaefer is Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry. He teaches freshman chemistry at UGA and is the sixth most highly cited chemist in the world.

[ September 29, 2002: Message edited by: RufusAtticus ]

Buffman · 09-28-2002, 11:07 PM

Let me preface these brief remarks by noting that I think the scientific evidence that God created the universe 13-15 billion years ago is good.

That should have been his opening remark.

pseudobug · 09-29-2002, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Buffman:
 Let me preface these brief remarks by noting that I think the scientific evidence that God created the universe 13-15 billion years ago is good.

That should have been his opening remark.

My, my. I sure would like a gander at the evidence Schafer is using to base his belief that God farted the universe out of his ass 13 billion years ago.

I bet it is the King James Version of the Bible...

[ September 29, 2002: Message edited by: pseudobug ]

LaFlavor · 09-29-2002, 02:58 PM

this just goes to show the type of education offered by UGA. if they would stop spending valuable resources on their precious bovine research centers they might be able to hire better professors.

(ok, ok...i admit it, i go to georgia tech)

RufusAtticus · 09-29-2002, 04:46 PM

Yeh, so what if we have stupid Chemistry profs. We have the top Genetics program in the south and one of the top programs in the world. (We don't do human genetics because we don't have a med school.)

That is why this is so weird. UGA is one of the centers of Evolutionary Biology research, yet one nutty creationist gets all the press.

pz · 09-29-2002, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by RufusAtticus:
Yeh, so what if we have stupid Chemistry profs. We have the top Genetics program in the south and one of the top programs in the world. (We don't do human genetics because we don't have a med school.)

That is why this is so weird. UGA is one of the centers of Evolutionary Biology research, yet one nutty creationist gets all the press.

And if you want to study human genetics, one of the best places to go is the University of Utah -- smack in the middle of that flaky Mormon weirdness.

Gregg · 09-30-2002, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Clutch:
"I just can't bring myself to believe this."

I seem to recall Dawkins citing a distinguished physicist who refuted evolution just as elegantly, by pointing out that there was no evolutionary reason for polar bears to be white -- after all, nothing hunts them!

Geez. Didn't it ever occur to him that camoflauge might be an advantage to predators as well?

Gregg

RufusAtticus · 09-30-2002, 05:44 AM

Today's AJC has an opinion of a Baptist pastor:

Quote:

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the president of the
National Academy of Sciences levied a classic ad hominem attack
against the group, noting that many of the scientists "were not
biologists, whose expertise could include evolution." Perhaps that is
just the point.

Some of the strongest evidence rebutting the theory of evolution is
now coming from the biochemical field, where we find that the
molecular building blocks of life are infinitely more complicated
than we thought.

<a href="http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0902/30equal.html" target="_blank">http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0902/30equal.html</a>

AJC's Take:
<a href="http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0902/30evolution.html" target="_blank">http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0902/30evolution.html</a>

RufusAtticus · 09-30-2002, 06:37 AM

Here is the letter I just shot off to the AJC:

Quote:

Randy Singer�s opinion (�Academic freedom the winner in Cobb� 9/30) is a great example why any person who doesn't think evolution happened should learn biology from biologists and not the pulpit. Expertise in biology is critical to understanding the claims and predictions of the theory of evolution and the research that went into developing them.

A chemist doubting evolution holds as much weight as a biologist doubting quantum gravity. If these non-biologists have so much evidence that calls the current biological thinking into question, they should publish their results in peer-reviewed scientific journals just like they do for their regular research. These alternatives to evolution will always be pseudoscience as long as their proponents refuse do any actual scientific work with them. To honestly teach the controversy of evolution in science class is to teach that there is no controversy. Sure give biology classrooms academic freedom: the freedom to not have academics determined by politics or religion.

RufusAtticus · 09-30-2002, 06:49 AM

An Editorial from my own town paper:

<a href="http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/092602/tec_20020926030.shtml" target="_blank">Phenomena of evolution results in creation of a new species</a>

See what happens when an ecologist writes an editorial.

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09-28-2002, 11:07 PM	#12
Buffman Beloved Deceased Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: central Florida Posts: 3,546	Let me preface these brief remarks by noting that I think the scientific evidence that God created the universe 13-15 billion years ago is good. That should have been his opening remark.

09-29-2002, 02:58 PM	#14
LaFlavor Regular Member Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Atlanta, GA, USA Posts: 267	this just goes to show the type of education offered by UGA. if they would stop spending valuable resources on their precious bovine research centers they might be able to hire better professors. (ok, ok...i admit it, i go to georgia tech)

09-29-2002, 04:46 PM	#15
RufusAtticus Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: NCSU Posts: 5,853	Yeh, so what if we have stupid Chemistry profs. We have the top Genetics program in the south and one of the top programs in the world. (We don't do human genetics because we don't have a med school.) That is why this is so weird. UGA is one of the centers of Evolutionary Biology research, yet one nutty creationist gets all the press.

09-30-2002, 06:49 AM	#20
RufusAtticus Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: NCSU Posts: 5,853	An Editorial from my own town paper: <a href="http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/092602/tec_20020926030.shtml" target="_blank">Phenomena of evolution results in creation of a new species</a> See what happens when an ecologist writes an editorial.

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