Flock of Dodos | The American Book of the Dead

3 Responses

Steven Brent says:

June 12, 2011 at 12:17 pm

Can you list which of the Intelligent Design arguments you find to be worth teaching? I’m not trying to bait you, I’m genuinely curious because being familiar with both the ID position and with the scientific data supporting the theory of evolution by Natural Selection, I haven’t seen anything from ID that seems even remotely credible. One of the seductive things about ID is that they do put forth arguments which do indeed seem superficially compelling if one is not well-versed in the science, and the scientific community has done a largely slipshod job of communicating the facts as we currently know them. The best refutation of Intelligent Design is not to debate some manufactured controversy but to gain a real appreciation for Evolutionary science. If you’re looking to develop that, I strongly recommend Richard Dawkins’ ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. Peppered here and there with snark (he just can’t help it!) but primarily focused, in an affirmative way, on the evidence for Evolution, which is presented in a really thorough and accessible manner. I’ll even buy you a copy if you’re interested
Henry Baum says:

June 13, 2011 at 9:37 pm

Like I said, I don’t actually know all of the Intelligent Design arguments, but there has to be at least something that’s more persuasive than what was presented in this movie. I just don’t think having a day where you teach “This is what intelligent designers believe” is the same thing as teaching that evolution isn’t true. If anything it’s a good subject in order to prove that evolution makes sense. But you seem to be addressing me as if I don’t believe in evolution.
Steven Brent says:

June 14, 2011 at 2:46 pm

My point is only that the arguments of the Intelligent Design movement are persuasive only to the extent that one has an incomplete or incorrect understanding of Evolutionary science.