Welcome to the Dark Ages. Next Stop: Burning at the Stake, You Dirty Heretic!

Originally posted on 04/12/06

Best prayer I've ever heard: "Lord, protect me from your followers"

"Because god said so" is not a scientific theory. A scientific theory must have some basis in, oh, I don't know, maybe SCIENCE! Calling it "Intelligent Design" doesn't make it anymore true than calling it "Creationism". A scientific theory relies on observable and testable facts, not just saying that something is true because it is. Just because sheep a herder manage to jot something down thousands of years ago in-between molesting the livestock does not make it a fact.

Despite that being the case, Cornell University has decided, in its finite, wisdom to offer a class on the "science" of Intelligent Design. This is several levels beyond stupid and the fact that this is being done by a prestigious university only serves to amplify they tragedy. Intelligent Design is part of a religious belief system and therefore should only be mentioned in a comparative religion class, philosophy or theology class, certainly not in a science class.

Science says: Here are the facts. What conclusions are supported by these facts? Religion says: Here is a conclusion. What facts can we find to support it? Science has no agenda save that of the acquisition of knowledge. The same can not be said for "Intelligent Design" This does a tremendous disservice to the students who are taught that religion and science are the same thing. Not only does it encourage faulty reasoning in this area but it also encourages faulty and biased reasoning in other areas. For instance if you accept that life exists because some invisible man in the sky said it should and the only source you can cite is an old book of exceedingly dubious origin, what's to stop one from excepting as fact things from other dubious sources. I fear the day I go to the doctor with a head cold and he tells me that I seem to have come down with a nasty case of demon possession and the only cure is a nice healthy burning at the stake.

I mean one can not even scientifically prove the existence of god much less his/her/it's influence. That's why the call it faith, boys and girls. Now I am all for everyone believing whatever they want to get them through the night but don't tell me just because you believe it that it is a scientifically provable fact. That is just stupid. For instance I believe that rabid wolverines love belly-rubs, however my numerous contusions and lacerations speak to the contrary. Just because I believe something does not make it a fact!

Now as much as I'd like to place this all at the feet of the loser we now have sitting in the Whitehouse, all this was well on its way before captain D.U.I. got into power. There were always religious nuts out there; he is just the most visible at the moment. There is a reason the rest of the world is kicking our asses as far as education goes.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite bits from "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" That I think is appropriate to the rant, and of course the webpage that got me all worked up:

Now it is such a bizarrely improbably coincidence that anything so mind bogglingly useful [the Babel fish] could have evolved by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.

The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

-- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book one of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series), p. 50

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49674

Bonus Quote:

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

-- Douglas Adams, from Last Chance to See

Bonus Bonus Quote:

"To illustrate the vain conceit that the universe must be somehow pre-ordained for us, because we are so well-suited to live in it, he [Adams] mimed a wonderfully funny imitation of a puddle of water, fitting itself snugly into a depression in the ground, the depression uncannily being exactly the same shape as the puddle."

-- Richard Dawkins, in "Lament for Douglas" (14 May 2001)

Rant Over.... for now