Science Here Come the ID Drones
posted by on August 23 at 11:57 AM
An alert reader pointed out this website for a documentary projected for release in February 2008. I can’t find a distributor listed anywhere on the site, so hopefully Expelled will be “released” in a closet in the Discovery Institute, but it’s got big guns behind it: cash from Canadian software developer and evangelical Christian Walt Ruloff and the star power of actor Ben Stein.
The Discovery Institute is officially not involved, but check out these simultaneous blog posts (more like press releases): one from Discovery Institute’s Discovery Blog, another on Discovery Institute’s ID: The Future blog, a third on Discovery Institute’s Evolution News & Views blog.
The “academic freedom” argument has been percolating in the ID universe for some time, and it’s a pathetic bait-and-switch. This approach frees IDers from having to support any of their contentions: they merely have to claim that they’re being persecuted for their research. The producers hope you’ll go, “Yay freedom!” And then rapidly thereafter, “down with Darwin!” But the truth is, ID doesn’t belong in a science department. It requires metaphysical assumptions that don’t make sense in a material inquiry. It doesn’t lead to new hypotheses; it can’t direct new research. It’s useless. And if a professor, tenured or otherwise, is sitting around being completely useless, I would certainly hope she would be asked to defend her work.
Also, check out PZ Myers's account of how he was duped into participating in this sham: http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,1559,Im-gonna-be-a-MOVIE-STAR,PZ-Myers-Pharyngula
Ben Stein's 15 minutes of fame are officially over. It was a great run: Ferris Bueller all the way through Win Ben Stein's money. Now that tired Nixon hack should sit the fuck down.
Darwin has a posse.
There is a place where professors can debate and teach metaphysical issues. It's called the philosophy department.
Academic freedom /= tolerance of stupidity.
The "teach the controversy" strategy is perhaps the prevailing PR method for damage control of our times, dating back to the tobacco industry's pioneering use of this strategy to claim that glory-seeking scientists were deliberately trying to shut out research that placed tobacco's role in causing cancer into question.
It's currently on display pretty prominently in the "global warming skeptic" community (i.e. the "oil industry shills community") as well. It makes sense: Who isn't in favor of "open, free" debate?
Ben Stein is a fucking asshole. Win Ben Stein's money was a lot of fun, but everything he's written in the last 10 or so years has been hackery dressed up as intellectualism.
Fuck that motherfucker.
Rather than passing through Levislade's Dawkins link, just go straight to P.Z.'s actual posting. Dawkins is, at best, peripheral, and he doesn't need the publicity that P.Z. Myers deserves.
The comment thread in P.Z. post is also wonderful.
Intellectual freedom in the anti-evolution crowd?
Yeah, right.
If you believe that horseload, you believe we're winning in Iraq.
@8 - sorry dude, wasn't trying to step on any Internet toes; just posting where I read it. I should think that using the name P.Z. Myers in a link to a post by P.Z. Myers about P.Z. Myers (which post prominently features a "reposted from" link at the top) would be publicity enough, regardless of where it's hosted, but I don't really blog, so I guess there are some subtleties/sensitivities I'm unaware of.
Make sure to set your Tivo's this fall to "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/
The two-hour special chronicles the legal battle of the Kitzmiller v. Dover School District -- which was seen as a new assault on Evolution.
It is co-produced by Paul Allen's Production company Vulcan Productions.
Vulcan Productions also co-produced the Evolution series with the WGBH NOVA Science Unit in 2001. An incredible series on Darwin's theory:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/
Also, ,If you didn't get a chance to see the Seattle Times profile on Allen - check it out here and see what else is coming out of his production company.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003811002_paulallen29.html?syndication=rss
Sigh. Why must it take so long for natural selection to weed out creationists?
Anyone who honestly doesn't believe in evolution should be prohibited from using any antibiotics beyond the first-generation ones. As (in their minds) pathogenic organisms cannot evolve, they cannot develop drug resistance. Therefore, penicillin works for everything. (And anyone who believes that an invisible Sky Fairy is "directing" the evolution of pathogens should simply be ejected from the human race.)
Enjoy that multiply-drug-resistant staph infection, ID'ers.
@14... they do believe pathogenic organisms can develop drug resistance.
@15 - and how do the evolution-averse explain that, exactly? Magic?
Geni--
Most of the academic ID proponents accept "microevolution"--they just refuse to believe it goes anywhere. Some draw the line at speciation; others get huffy at the merest "irreducibly complex system." (Bacterial flagella is a favorite.) Of course, they're drawing the line completely arbitrarily. They think they get to decide where evolution stops.
And, perhaps more importantly, these distinctions go straight over the heads of their science-illiterate audience. So your point still stands.
i didn't realize that Ben Stein was such a dumbass.
Oh well.. now Ferris Bueller is ruined for me.
re: P.Z. Meyers -- I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone slog here about the law suit currently against him.
He's being sued for writing an unfavorable book review:
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/009295.html
(Look out Paul Constant, you could be next!)
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I don't always agree with you, but I see that you are objective in your
postings. Despite the differences I still enjoy reading your posts and I
often learn even when our viewpoints are different. :-)
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