Tuesday, April 19, 2005
The Alice in Wonderland World of Intelligent Design: Religion is Science, Science is Religion
Last Wednesday, Greg Lassey, an intelligent design proponent who is member of the Kansas Science Writing Committee reported to the board on the proposed changes the minority would like to see in the state's science curriculum. Lassey called the charge that intelligent design advocates are trying to put religion into the standards a straw man.
"This is completely untrue," said Lassey. "It totally ignores our concerted efforts to do just the opposite. Instead of seeking to import a religious problem into science, we seek to take a current one out."
You see, what the intelligent design backers call methodological naturalism -- the insistence by scientists that proof requires evidence -- is really a religion.
And yet, in the Alice in Wonderland, up is down world of intelligent design, who are the proposed witnesses for intelligent design who have been called to defend science against the religion of scientists? They are -- almost without exception -- creationists.
Red State Rabble and Josh Rosenau at Thoughts from Kansas have already documented the views and background of many of these "expert" witnesses, but a quick look at one we haven't yet looked at quickly makes clear what the real agenda is.
Angus Menuge, PhD, for example, is described as a Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University Wisconsin, and author of Agents Under Fire: Materialism and the Rationality of Science in the press release announcing the intelligent design witness list.
How does he describe himself? Well, there's this from his faculty web page, "My interests now are in promoting Christian teaching and scholarship."
interestingly, Menuge is listed in the faculty directory as being a member of the computer sciences department at Concordia. His faculty web page says he is chair of the Philosophy Department, although Concordia offers only a minor in Philosophy and is heavy with such courses as: PHIL 311, The Christian Mind; PHIL 325, Christian Apologetics; PHIL 334, Christ and Culture; PHIL 335, Readings in Bioethics; and REL 376, Christian Ethics. No graduate level courses are listed.
Concordia, by the way, is one of ten colleges or universities in the Concordia University System, which is owned and operated by The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod Concordia. It "provides a variety of educational opportunities for students who are preparing for vocations in the ministry of the church and for various professional and business careers in the community"
No matter what they say in public when you scratch an intelligent design "theorist" and you'll get a whiff of creationism. It's that Alice in Wonderland thing again, the defenders of traditional values and the Bible have a little problem with honesty -- they can't bring themselves to tell the truth. Now, RSR is a little rusty, which commandment is that again?
"This is completely untrue," said Lassey. "It totally ignores our concerted efforts to do just the opposite. Instead of seeking to import a religious problem into science, we seek to take a current one out."
You see, what the intelligent design backers call methodological naturalism -- the insistence by scientists that proof requires evidence -- is really a religion.
And yet, in the Alice in Wonderland, up is down world of intelligent design, who are the proposed witnesses for intelligent design who have been called to defend science against the religion of scientists? They are -- almost without exception -- creationists.
Red State Rabble and Josh Rosenau at Thoughts from Kansas have already documented the views and background of many of these "expert" witnesses, but a quick look at one we haven't yet looked at quickly makes clear what the real agenda is.
Angus Menuge, PhD, for example, is described as a Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University Wisconsin, and author of Agents Under Fire: Materialism and the Rationality of Science in the press release announcing the intelligent design witness list.
How does he describe himself? Well, there's this from his faculty web page, "My interests now are in promoting Christian teaching and scholarship."
interestingly, Menuge is listed in the faculty directory as being a member of the computer sciences department at Concordia. His faculty web page says he is chair of the Philosophy Department, although Concordia offers only a minor in Philosophy and is heavy with such courses as: PHIL 311, The Christian Mind; PHIL 325, Christian Apologetics; PHIL 334, Christ and Culture; PHIL 335, Readings in Bioethics; and REL 376, Christian Ethics. No graduate level courses are listed.
Concordia, by the way, is one of ten colleges or universities in the Concordia University System, which is owned and operated by The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod Concordia. It "provides a variety of educational opportunities for students who are preparing for vocations in the ministry of the church and for various professional and business careers in the community"
No matter what they say in public when you scratch an intelligent design "theorist" and you'll get a whiff of creationism. It's that Alice in Wonderland thing again, the defenders of traditional values and the Bible have a little problem with honesty -- they can't bring themselves to tell the truth. Now, RSR is a little rusty, which commandment is that again?
