This is the first letter to the editor I’ve seen so far in support of Senator Wise’s possible intelligent design creationism bill.
IN REPLY: INTELLIGENT DESIGN
Give children facts
This is in response to letters regarding Sen. Steve Wise’s proposed bill to require teachers who teach evolution to also be open to discuss intelligent design. It is so easy to see intelligent design in the laws that govern these mysterious forces of our universe. The great scientists of the past built their studies on the fact that intelligent design was evident in their successfully tested experiments and not products left to chance.
Even the famous British atheist scientist, Richard Dawkins (as stated in the Expelled movie), believes in the possibility that there is an intelligent designer somewhere. Moreover, the teaching of Darwinian evolution in the classroom is the same as actually teaching the religion of atheism, which violates the First Amendment.
Finally, in the 1925 Scopes monkey trial, attorney Clarence Darrow, who represented the teacher, rightly stated that we should teach all ideas about origins and let the children decide for themselves.
DAVID RAMSEUR,
educator, Jacksonville
The fact the he says he’s an educator is kind of scary. And using Expelled as an information source is a clear sign that the writer doesn’t have a firm grounding in scientific reality.
And the title is “Give children facts.” Oh, the irony….
This isn’t the first time that Mr. Ramseur has indicated his lack of knowledge about science:
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/101002/opl_10655992.html
And here are two more examples:
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/080301/opl_6851610.html
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/121800/opl_4909488.html
Oddly enough, the *only* references to the “Jacksonville Creation Society” anywhere on the Web is in those two letters from Mr. Ramseur. Perhaps it’s a one-man society.
Drew Smith Says:
As is my Families Against Creationism and Cannibalism (FACC). Pronounced …
FACC=LOL! 🙂
As anyone who has actually watched Expelled could tell you, Dawkin’s response here was obviously edited. He was going into the same analogy as in his book in which he states that if alien life did somehow create life on Earth (which, while unlikely, is more likely than a theistic creator), then an alternate explanation would have to be found to explain from where that life came.
Through some not-so-clever editing that leaves it quite obvious that Dawkins was saying more (it cuts him off mid-sentence), Stein attempts to make a case that Dawkins is okay with Intelligent Design as long as the designer is not a god. The result is unconvincing to anyone with a brain, but perfect fodder for IDiots. “Well, I guess Stein showed him!”
Oh no, not someone else who missed the point COMPLETELY with respect to the argument about sentient input into the origin of the biosphere on Earth. Namely, that even if compelling evidence appeared tomorrow in one of the peer reviewed journals supporting the notion that another species from another world had kick-started life on THIS planet, that eventually, the buck would have to stop SOMEWHERE, and that we would be faced with making up our minds as to how the first life forms in the universe came into being. At some point, we would have to make up our minds whether or not well-defined natural processes involving testable chemical and physical processes were responsible, or whether the whole shooting match was nothing more than a cheap conjuring trick by an invisible magic man in the sky. Unfortunately, there seem to be a disturbingly large number of people who prefer mediaeval superstition and magic to 300 years of evidence-based science. For those who exhibit this bizarre preference, you obviously haven’t received the memo that SCIENCE WORKS. Your famine-free, disease-free lives surrounded by expensive electronic toys are simply one manifestation of that spectacular success, and it’s about time you showed some gratitude for this, instead of trying to subvert it and force an utterly worthless, mythology-based, magic-based world view into science classes where it doesn’t belong.