Tonight on PBS, the science program Nova takes on a subject that has been making headlines in Louisiana since the state Legislature passed the controversial Louisiana Science Education Act last year. The act opens the door for public school school boards and science teachers to supplement their curricula with additional material related to teaching alternatives and weaknesses to the theory of evolution. Proponents say the act encourages healthy scientific debate while detractors say the law is a backdoor way of bringing intelligent design and religion into the classroom.
Tonight’s Nova special explores the landmark 2004 federal court ruling on the issue of intelligent design. Kitzmiller v. Dover was the first direct challenge in U.S. federal court against a public school district that required the presentation of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution. The trial staged a debate between national experts on both sides of the issue and deeply divided the small town of Dover, Pa. In a ruling that has sparked considerable praise and criticism, Judge John E. Jones III — an appointee of President George W. Bush — concluded that intelligent design is a religious view and therefore could not be taught in the public schools.
Nova’s "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" airs tonight at 7 p.m. The show's Web site also includes several other features related to the program including a preview, exclusive interviews and background information on the Dover tiral.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN? written by IAN MACKENZIE , February 12, 2009 - 10:44 am
INTELLIGENT DESIGN: BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
This whole idea of intelligent design explaining what we can't yet explain is nothing new. In fact, it is the oldest technique that humanity has ever used for explaining the natural world. Supernatural explanations, using deities to explain what humanity could not understand, have been around for thousands of years and have been woefully unproductive in advancing civilization through understanding and knowledge about nature. Look at the results of thousands of years of intelligent design (a.k.a. religious) methodology to the results of the last few decades that scientific methodology (a.k.a. naturalism) has been explaining the world. Intelligent design has taken us from hunter-gatherers to horse-drawn carts over thousands of years. Science has taken us from horse-drawn carts to man on the moon and exploring the outer reaches of the universe in just a couple of centuries. What more really needs to be said? Intelligent design answers have shackled human intellect for thousands of years with dead-end explanations. Intelligent design explanations offer nothing; no way of predicting what the future may hold based on evidence, no ability to recognize patterns in nature that could be used for explanations or further investigation. Intelligent design is the knowledge killer not an answer. It is time that we crushed this horrible antiquated movement to keep human intellect in the dark ages of ignorance, fear and superstition. The credulity in vast numbers of our populace, in this anti-science movement is a real threat to the very foundation of our civilization. Remember: never underestimate the power of large numbers of ignorant people. Carl Sagan once mentioned that the greatest danger facing humanity is to have the technology of an advanced civilization being directed by the superstitions of an ancient philosophy. All it would take is a few very religiously motivated individuals in positions of absolute power to bring about a self-fulfilling prophecy of doomsday. The only way to prevent what has already happened several times in human history (e.g. ancient Greece, Mesopotamia etc.), the demise of intellectual advances in civilization by superstitiously ignorant masses, is to promote the vigorous and complete education in the natural sciences of all young people. Science is the most objective endeavor for knowledge and understanding of the natural world that humanity has ever developed. It is without question the most profound way to develop skills of critical thinking in each and every citizen, skills that are so important for being able to make informed decisions on policies that affect the direction our country and our lives take each and every day. Keep intelligent design where it belongs; in the history books of bad ideas based on ignorance, fear, superstition and credulity.
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There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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This whole idea of intelligent design explaining what we can't yet explain is nothing new. In fact, it is the oldest technique that humanity has ever used for explaining the natural world. Supernatural explanations, using deities to explain what humanity could not understand, have been around for thousands of years and have been woefully unproductive in advancing civilization through understanding and knowledge about nature. Look at the results of thousands of years of intelligent design (a.k.a. religious) methodology to the results of the last few decades that scientific methodology (a.k.a. naturalism) has been explaining the world. Intelligent design has taken us from hunter-gatherers to horse-drawn carts over thousands of years. Science has taken us from horse-drawn carts to man on the moon and exploring the outer reaches of the universe in just a couple of centuries. What more really needs to be said?
Intelligent design answers have shackled human intellect for thousands of years with dead-end explanations. Intelligent design explanations offer nothing; no way of predicting what the future may hold based on evidence, no ability to recognize patterns in nature that could be used for explanations or further investigation. Intelligent design is the knowledge killer not an answer. It is time that we crushed this horrible antiquated movement to keep human intellect in the dark ages of ignorance, fear and superstition. The credulity in vast numbers of our populace, in this anti-science movement is a real threat to the very foundation of our civilization. Remember: never underestimate the power of large numbers of ignorant people. Carl Sagan once mentioned that the greatest danger facing humanity is to have the technology of an advanced civilization being directed by the superstitions of an ancient philosophy. All it would take is a few very religiously motivated individuals in positions of absolute power to bring about a self-fulfilling prophecy of doomsday.
The only way to prevent what has already happened several times in human history (e.g. ancient Greece, Mesopotamia etc.), the demise of intellectual advances in civilization by superstitiously ignorant masses, is to promote the vigorous and complete education in the natural sciences of all young people. Science is the most objective endeavor for knowledge and understanding of the natural world that humanity has ever developed. It is without question the most profound way to develop skills of critical thinking in each and every citizen, skills that are so important for being able to make informed decisions on policies that affect the direction our country and our lives take each and every day.
Keep intelligent design where it belongs; in the history books of bad ideas based on ignorance, fear, superstition and credulity.