| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Jason Spaceman" |
| Date: |
17 Dec 2005 02:07:28 AM |
| Object: |
Commentary: 'Intelligent Design' Deja Vu |
From the article:
-------------------------------------------------------------
By Douglas Baynton
Saturday, December 17, 2005; Page A23
School boards across the country are facing pressure to teach
"intelligent design" in science classes, but what would such courses
look like? Thankfully, we need not tax our imaginations. All we have
to do is look inside some 19th-century textbooks.
The one science course routinely taught in elementary schools back
then was geography. Textbooks such as James Monteith's "Physical and
Intermediate Geography" (1866), Arnold Guyot's "Physical Geography"
(1873) and John Brocklesby's "Elements of Physical Geography" (1868)
were compendiums of knowledge intended to teach children a little of
everything about Earth and its inhabitants.
These textbooks seem also to have been intended to provide solace for
the existentially anxious. All of them offered in one form or another
the reassurance that "Geography teaches us about the earth which was
made to be our home." Earth by itself "could not be the abode of man,"
advised one. "Therefore, two indispensable agents are provided -- the
sun and atmosphere." The entire vast history of the planet was summed
up as the "gradual formation by which it was made ready for the
reception of mankind." The lay of the land had been thoughtfully
arranged for our benefit: "As the torrid regions of the earth require
the greatest amount of rain, there are the loftiest mountains, which
act as huge condensers of the clouds." Because the breezes that blew
down mountainsides cooled the inhabitants below, the highest were
located in the hottest parts of the world "for the same reason that
you put a piece of ice into a pitcher of water in summer, rather than
in winter."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read it at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121601559.html
(get a login & password at
http://www.bugmenot.com/view.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com)
J. Spaceman
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Commentary: 'Intelligent Design' Deja Vu |
17 Dec 2005 10:00:29 AM |
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I suppose that scribble must have seemed like a good idea at the
time, but of course Prof. Baynton is not coming to grips with
NEO-creationism at all. The current crop of 'em don't claim that
everything was intelligently designed FOR Wonderful Us any more than
they admit expressly that it was all designed BY You-Know-Who. Maybe
they secretly believe somethin' like that in their covens and
conventicles, but it is necessary to confront what they actually say
out loud in public also, and that is simply not it.
Doctor Behemoth's trendy scientizin' crew profess to detect the
presence of "intelligent design" in this or that chapter of the Book of
Nature without any particular theory of whose intelligence the alleged
data reflects or what the detected design is ultimately in aid of.
_Solā intelligentiā_, as it were
.. Recycling Pangloss on the subject of how the nose was obviously
meant to prop up one's spectacles is still great fun, but perfectly
irrelevant to the present-day controversy nevertheless.
Happy days.
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| User: "Beagle" |
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| Title: Re: Commentary: 'Intelligent Design' Deja Vu |
17 Dec 2005 11:48:58 AM |
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wrote:
I suppose that scribble must have seemed like a good idea at the
time, but of course Prof. Baynton is not coming to grips with
NEO-creationism at all. The current crop of 'em don't claim that
everything was intelligently designed FOR Wonderful Us any more than
they admit expressly that it was all designed BY You-Know-Who. Maybe
they secretly believe somethin' like that in their covens and
conventicles, but it is necessary to confront what they actually say
out loud in public also, and that is simply not it.
Doctor Behemoth's trendy scientizin' crew profess to detect the
presence of "intelligent design" in this or that chapter of the Book of
Nature without any particular theory of whose intelligence the alleged
data reflects or what the detected design is ultimately in aid of.
_Solā intelligentiā_, as it were
. Recycling Pangloss on the subject of how the nose was obviously
meant to prop up one's spectacles is still great fun, but perfectly
irrelevant to the present-day controversy nevertheless.
Happy days.
So the old-style 'intelligent design' argument was the best anyone
could come up with at the time? Hence the motives of Huygens (maybe)
with regard to Jovian hemp supplies were pure, in that he was applying
reason to the facts as he knew 'em.
So why do today's Evolution Deniers devote so much time and effort to
promoting ideas that are so obviously wrong? Ooh, let's have a wild
guess...
'We'll put down Universities,
Where learning is profest,
Because they practise and maintain
The language of the Beast;
We'll drive the doctors out of doors,
And all that learned be;
We'll cry all arts and learning down,
And hey, then, up go we.'
Samuel Butler (1612-80)
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| User: "Steamboat" |
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| Title: Re: Re: Commentary: 'Intelligent Design' Deja Vu |
17 Dec 2005 10:49:23 AM |
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On 17 Dec 2005 08:00:29 -0800,
jhmccloskey@post.harvard.edu wrote:
I suppose that scribble must have seemed like a
good idea at the
time, but of course Prof. Baynton is not coming to
grips with
NEO-creationism at all. The current crop of 'em
don't claim that
everything was intelligently designed FOR
Wonderful Us any more than
they admit expressly that it was all designed BY
You-Know-Who. Maybe
they secretly believe somethin' like that in their
covens and
conventicles, but it is necessary to confront what
they actually say
out loud in public also, and that is simply not
it.
Doctor Behemoth's trendy scientizin' crew
profess to detect the
presence of "intelligent design" in this or that
chapter of the Book of
Nature without any particular theory of whose
intelligence the alleged
data reflects or what the detected design is
ultimately in aid of.
_Solā intelligentiā_, as it were
.. Recycling Pangloss on the subject of how the
nose was obviously
meant to prop up one's spectacles is still great
fun, but perfectly
irrelevant to the present-day controversy
nevertheless.
Happy days.
I guess if one can make money leading people who
want to be lead, then more power to them all.
#
Anatole France: "The average man, who does
not know what to do with his life, wants
another one which will last forever."
#
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| User: "Beagle" |
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| Title: Re: Commentary: 'Intelligent Design' Deja Vu |
17 Dec 2005 06:01:22 AM |
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I recall one brilliant example of this sort of thinking - can't
remember the source.
The planet Jupiter has abundant supplies of hemp.
Why? Well, Jupiter has four large moons, while earth only has one. The
only obvious purpose of the moon is for navigation (we're in the 18th
century, I think). Therefore a planet with four moons must have a lot
of navigators. Hence a lot of ships. Hence a lot of sails. Hence a lot
of ropes...
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| User: "Therion Ware" |
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| Title: Re: Commentary: 'Intelligent Design' Deja Vu |
17 Dec 2005 06:21:53 AM |
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On 17 Dec 2005 04:01:22 -0800 in alt.atheism, Beagle ("Beagle"
<davidlonghorn@hotmail.com>) said, directing the reply to alt.atheism
I recall one brilliant example of this sort of thinking - can't
remember the source.
The planet Jupiter has abundant supplies of hemp.
Why? Well, Jupiter has four large moons, while earth only has one. The
only obvious purpose of the moon is for navigation (we're in the 18th
century, I think). Therefore a planet with four moons must have a lot
of navigators. Hence a lot of ships. Hence a lot of sails. Hence a lot
of ropes...
Christian Huygens, I think.
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| User: "Deadrat" |
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| Title: Re: Commentary: 'Intelligent Design' Deja Vu |
17 Dec 2005 03:46:33 PM |
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"Beagle" <davidlonghorn@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1134818697.244355.218600@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
I recall one brilliant example of this sort of thinking - can't
remember the source.
The planet Jupiter has abundant supplies of hemp.
Why? Well, Jupiter has four large moons, while earth only has one. The
only obvious purpose of the moon is for navigation (we're in the 18th
century, I think). Therefore a planet with four moons must have a lot
of navigators. Hence a lot of ships. Hence a lot of sails. Hence a lot
of ropes...
Probably nothin' but seeds 'n stems. *Sigh*
Deadrat
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Commentary: 'Intelligent Design' Deja Vu |
17 Dec 2005 07:55:12 AM |
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Beagle wrote:
I recall one brilliant example of this sort of thinking - can't
remember the source.
The planet Jupiter has abundant supplies of hemp.
Why? Well, Jupiter has four large moons, while earth only has one. The
only obvious purpose of the moon is for navigation (we're in the 18th
century, I think). Therefore a planet with four moons must have a lot
of navigators. Hence a lot of ships. Hence a lot of sails. Hence a lot
of ropes...
No, no, no, it was the Roman _god_ Jupiter who had the abundant supply
of hemp.
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| User: "Peter Besenbruch" |
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| Title: Re: Commentary: 'Intelligent Design' Deja Vu |
17 Dec 2005 07:32:14 PM |
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Beagle wrote:
The planet Jupiter has abundant supplies of hemp.
Why? Well, Jupiter has four large moons, while earth only has one. The
only obvious purpose of the moon is for navigation (we're in the 18th
century, I think). Therefore a planet with four moons must have a lot of
navigators. Hence a lot of ships. Hence a lot of sails. Hence a lot of
ropes...
On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 05:55:12 -0800, eroot wrote:
No, no, no, it was the Roman _god_ Jupiter who had the abundant supply
of hemp.
Now, THAT I'd believe.
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| User: "Ye Old One" |
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| Title: Re: Re: Commentary: 'Intelligent Design' Deja Vu |
17 Dec 2005 06:11:05 AM |
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On 17 Dec 2005 04:01:22 -0800, "Beagle" <davidlonghorn@hotmail.com>
enriched this group when s/he wrote:
I recall one brilliant example of this sort of thinking - can't
remember the source.
The planet Jupiter has abundant supplies of hemp.
Why? Well, Jupiter has four large moons, while earth only has one. The
only obvious purpose of the moon is for navigation (we're in the 18th
century, I think). Therefore a planet with four moons must have a lot
of navigators. Hence a lot of ships. Hence a lot of sails. Hence a lot
of ropes...
Must have been an old source to just credit Jupiter with 4 moons.
--
Bob.
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| User: "nmp" |
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| Title: Re: Commentary: 'Intelligent Design' Deja Vu |
17 Dec 2005 06:45:17 AM |
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Op Sat, 17 Dec 2005 04:01:22 -0800, schreef Beagle:
The planet Jupiter has abundant supplies of hemp.
Could be intersting, a planet full of hemp! :)
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