RE: paleonet ID and function discussion

["Dr. Lisa E. Park" <lepark@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Oh...Ok.  Thanks, Sal.  I haven't had a chance to read the Times article
yet.  There has been so MUCH in the newpapers regarding ID lately.  I think
that the Discovery Institute is turning on their PR machine and waging a war
in the media.  Case in point, I saw "The Tavis Smiley Show" last night on
PBS. Stephen Meyer from the Discovery Institute was on with no scientist to
counter him.  Crazy things were coming out of his mouth, and Tavis, not
being a scientist, had no critical questions for him.

First, he said that he was a scientist and the DI did "research" and then he
said that it was a theistic approach to understanding where we came from!
Sadly, that isn't the worse thing that he said.  He claimed that ID
supporters were "lynched" by the scientific community for their
"controversial" views.  Yes...he used the word "lynched."  Even more
troubling was that Tavis, an African-American, did not question the use of
that term. I was pretty appalled.

So, in addition to accusing those who study and teach evolution of the
Columbine shootings (Tom DeLay said that it was because we taught evolution
in the schools that the two boys shot 19 people in their high school), they
are now comparing us to the Ku Klux Klan!  How bizarre is that?

The show's website is: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/

Best,
Lisa

-----Original Message-----
From: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk [mailto:paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk]On
Behalf Of Sally Walker
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 11:34 AM
To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
Subject: Re: paleonet ID and function discussion


30 Aug 05 Hi Lisa and all, yes, there was a paper published in the
Journal of Molecular Biology which was reported in the series on
evolution and ID in the New York Times recently:  A Dr. Axe from a
"Biological Institute" wrote about Penicillinase, and that the
probability was "essentially zero" that that protein could have formed
via evolution--and it was published in the peer-reviewed journal
according to the NYXs.   I haven't checked the original article, but see
the New York Times, Aug. 22, 2005, front page: In Explaining Life's
Complexity, Darwinists and Doubters Clash, by Kenneth Chang.    --Sally
E. Walker

Dr. Lisa E. Park wrote:
> You might also want to check out Ken Miller's refutation of the
irreducible
> complexity.  He has eloquently picked apart the eye and mousetrap
arguments
> of Behe and others.  I think that the ID people just keep coming up with
> different 'arguments' as theirs keep getting refuted.  They are now big on
> the complexities of the cell.  I think that the obvious response to most
of
> their complexity arguments is that just because we do not understand
> something is not proof that it was divinely created.  There are a lot of
> areas in science that we do not completely understand.  However, once you
> begin using the "God of the Gaps" argument, you are really going down a
> rocky road, theologically speaking.
>
> By the way, I did a quick, back of the envelope, calculation and estimated
> that there are probably over 4 million peer-reviewed scientific papers
that
> have been published in biology and paleontology that support evolution.  I
> am not sure, but I don't think there has been any supporting ID, although
> someone told me the other day that one got published in a molecular
journal
> recently.  Does anyone know of that paper?
>
> Cheers,
> Lisa
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk [mailto:paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk]On
> Behalf Of Roy Plotnick
> Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 9:59 AM
> To: paleonet
> Subject: paleonet ID and function discussion
>
>
> First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has responded to my
> query.  I have learned a great deal from this active discussion.   We
> need to continue to emphasize, in every forum we have available, that ID
> is not science and is poor philosophy.
>
> Glenn Branch sent an interesting and apropos online article by Shanks
> and Joplin , http://www.etsu.edu/philos/faculty/niall/complexi.htm that
> is well worth looking at.
>
> - Roy
> --
> Roy E. Plotnick
> Professor
> Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
> University of Illinois at Chicago
> 845 W. Taylor St.
> Chicago, IL 60607
> plotnick@uic.edu
> office phone: 312-996-2111     fax: 312-413-2279
> lab phone: 312-355-1342
> web page: http://www.uic.edu/~plotnick/plotnick.htm
> "The scientific celebrities, forgetting their molluscs and glacial
periods,
> gossiped about art, while devoting themselves to oysters  and ices with
> characteristic energy.." -Little Women, Louisa  May Alcott
>
>
>