Monday, August 08, 2005
Uncommon Dissent Conference No Match for Creationism Mega Conference
After the Creation Mega Conference drew about 2,000 participants recently, we've been waiting on pins and needles to see how the Uncommon Dissent Conference in Greenville, N.C. was going to do.
At the Mega Conference, intelligent design took something of a beating from the creationists there. In one presentation reported by Ronald Bailey on Reason Online, Georgia Purdom, identified as an assistant professor of biology at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Mount Vernon, Ohio, had this to say about the citified airs being put on by her intelligent design cousins:
So, we wondered, would the intelligent design "theorists" outmobilize their increasingly discontented country cousins in Greenville.
We were concerned because the Uncommon Dissent Conference seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet. As of Monday morning, no report has appeared on the Evolution News and Views blog, and unlike the Mega Conference, the event seemed to have drawn little MSM attention.
Then we saw this Associated Press report. Despite Discovery's intense promotion of the event, only 200 people bothered to attend. Even Discovery's newly hired Swift Boat Vets PR firm couldn't get this dog to hunt.
[BTW Jason Rosenhouse also had an excellent series of reports from the Mega Conference at Panda's Thumb]
At the Mega Conference, intelligent design took something of a beating from the creationists there. In one presentation reported by Ronald Bailey on Reason Online, Georgia Purdom, identified as an assistant professor of biology at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Mount Vernon, Ohio, had this to say about the citified airs being put on by her intelligent design cousins:
"I couldn't believe it [intelligent design] because it did not fit with the God I know; the God with whom I have a personal relationship," insisted Purdom. Intelligent designers share the same problem with evolutionists—both ignore Scripture.
So, we wondered, would the intelligent design "theorists" outmobilize their increasingly discontented country cousins in Greenville.
We were concerned because the Uncommon Dissent Conference seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet. As of Monday morning, no report has appeared on the Evolution News and Views blog, and unlike the Mega Conference, the event seemed to have drawn little MSM attention.
Then we saw this Associated Press report. Despite Discovery's intense promotion of the event, only 200 people bothered to attend. Even Discovery's newly hired Swift Boat Vets PR firm couldn't get this dog to hunt.
[BTW Jason Rosenhouse also had an excellent series of reports from the Mega Conference at Panda's Thumb]
