Hiromi_X

"Teach the Controversy is the name of both a strategy and a campaign designed and led by the Discovery Institute[1][2] and other intelligent design (ID) advocates that seek to portray evolution as a "theory in crisis" with scientists criticizing evolution and that "fairness" and "equal time" requires educating students about the alleged scientific controversy."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teach_the_Controversy

This is what was taught in my high school biology class. Luckily, I read National Geographic so I learned the truth. Unfortunately, Texas isn't really on the "science" side of the argument.

Well, intelligent design was not taught as necessarily "correct" but the school district forced the teacher to admit that evolution was a "theory not a fact," still being debated, etc. and that other "plausible theories" such as ID exist. Also, our bio textbooks had a sticker on the cover certifying them as "theory not fact".

It was pretty evident that my bio teacher was not happy about the school board's heavy-handedness in a blatant attempt at socially conservative/religious brainwashing.

I went to McNeil H.S. in NW Austin. (This was a few years ago so it could be totally different now, AFAIK.)

The most ironic thing about the 'intelligent design' nonsense is that there's absolutely nothing intelligent about the idea.

Here's to old CD - one smart geezer.

Just please don't put one of those fish with feet on your car. This is all I ask. Thanks in advance.

It's no panacea, but it might provide temporary relief for the existential headache: several Richard Dawkins videos are available online, and can be located via Google Video.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=richard+dawkins

His video "The Root of all Evil" is a nice "cliffs notes" version of his recent book "The God Delusion."

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6169720917221820689&q=richard+dawkins

I especially enjoyed the interview footage with Ted Haggard (pre-outing, pre-humbling, pre-eight-day-"cure")

The badly-named "Root of all Evil" (Dawkins wasn't happy with that name, chosen by the BBC) is a terrific documentary. I wish I could get it on DVD here in the US.

BTW, are we having a party when you make it to the 25Peeps Hall of Fame?

It looks like you're holding up rather nicely against the competition.

I had no idea that was yesterday. I'm sorry I missed it, but thanks for letting me know.

"...and I am glad to celebrate the seeking of knowledge, the advancement of humanity, and ongoing liberation from superstitious ignorance."

Ahh, one must be careful about how grand one sits oneself intellectually in any place or time and just remember what you call fact today may be fiction tomorrow. There is no place for arrogance or hubris in the pursuit of knowledge. Truth is not the purview of natural philosophers but rather they deal in attempting to determine the accuracy of collected data. Interspecies Evolution is just an idea with a small amount of data to support it. It is not an observable phenomenon."