"intelligent design" talk

[jinian]

[only slightly edited from mail, for I am lazy]

I was one of about 170 people crammed into one of our smaller campus auditorium facilities tonight to listen to a philosophy prof take apart Michael Behe's arguments in his infamous February NYT letter.

It was not so scientifically rigorous, but the talk showed a great understanding of what's science and what isn't, and what belongs in which classroom. The professor, phil department chair Kenneth Clatterbaugh, wasn't prepared for the inevitable Haeckel's-embryos question (though he fielded it fairly well with a comparison to neutrino discovery), but it was a fine thing to see. Next time they'll know to allow more time and space. :)

And! I found out that the next Tri-Beta event is going to watch the salmon run on the 15th! I am so there.

Comments

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

a) Tri Beta?
b) Salmon Run?

[hattifattener]

Didn't know about the Haeckels embryo thing.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Tri-Beta is the bio honors society, basically (http://students.washington.edu/tribeta/whatistribeta.html). They have cool events sometimes and free tutoring a lot.

Salmon run (http://www.salmonsociety.com/Salmon/Return%20to%20the%20Adams.htm)! You have lived here how long without knowing about the salmon runs? :)

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Haeckel screwed up pretty good (http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/wells/iconob.html#haeckel-embryo), but the "DARWINISTS (and the guy at the reading did say "Darwinists") still put those drawings into CURRENT SCIENCE TEXTS even though they're CRAP" argument seems to come up an awful lot. I have never seen a current text with those drawings taken straight, and neither of my bio texts has a thing about Haeckel in it. The neutrino analogy was good, because it demonstrated how the weight of existing proof wasn't invalidated by a seeming counterexample, and how science eventually triumphed!

what about pastafarism?

[(Anonymous)]

Strange you don't mention The church of the flying spaghetti monster.
http://www.venganza.org/

Pedro

Re: what about pastafarism?

[jinian.livejournal.com]

It was referred to obliquely during the talk I wrote about, but no more. I'm afraid I don't consider myself obliged to recap my previous posts on a topic (and trust me, I was touched by the Noodly Appendage before they called it that) every time I mention something related.