The BBC sinks its teeth in

I just saw the Horizon program on Intelligent Design and the Dover School Board.

It was probably a good "general TV population" program -I felt a little dissapointed at the lack of details - and it made no bones about coming down on the side of science.

For example, the program makers were a bit unsubtle on their opinion of Monkeyboy Bush with a quick banjo riff in the background after his speech :-) but hey.

I wanted to know more about the mathematitian's "proof" of AD, but there was a strong enough hint by Kenneth Miller at the end with the analogy of dealing a set of cards. Evolution doesn't state that the universe would end up this particular way any more than shuffling a deck of cards guarantees you a particular hand. Evolution just states that a genetic line will change over time, by dominance of offspring, in a way that is random but also always edging towards a better fit in its niche of the local environment.


But the key point was actually made by an AD proponent.

"The Darwinists claim we must keep god and any form of supernatural creation out of science and nature has to capable of doing all of its own creating" - Phillip Johnson

Not just "Darwinists" but all scientists! Science is a mechanism for explaning nature that uses only objects that are in nature itself (even if we're not bright enough to have spotted them yet). To invent an intelligent designer is to use, by definition, a supernatural mechanism.

Evolution: Science - to be taught in a science class
Intelligent Design: Faith - to be taught in a religous ed. class

QED

The words "hoist" and "petard" spring to mind.

Johnson also showed himself to be more than a little paranoid with his insistance that the scientific community somehow wanted, and had managed to gain, "power" and "monopoly"...

But best, if most trenchant, quote: "fight a rear-guard action against yapping terriers of ignorance" - Richard Dawkins

Musing 2

Never go out with someone who has an affair with you in order to go out with you.

It's only a matter of time before they do it again.

Musing

A gossip is someone who will say nice things to your face and tell the truth behind your back.

A friend is someone who will tell the truth to your face and say nice things about you behind your back...