The Minot meeting this evening was lots of fun; what made it especially entertaining was that it was attended by a few fervently deluded creationists who boldly asked questions at the end. I got a few variants of “you’re uncivil, so I think you’re wrong” (tough — peddle bullshit arguments, I’ll call you a bullshitter), the “you just have different presuppositions than I do” argument (which works wonderfully in arguments for the existence of Santa Claus), and the claim that “creationists and scientists look at the same facts and just interpret them differently” (not true, creationists selectively ignore most of the facts). I also got a few specific questions outside my field, like the one about the shrinking sun. Too bad I didn’t have my counter-creationism handbook with me, because this is a stunt they always pull: I talk about genetics and molecular biology, so they pepper me with misconceptions about physics and geology.

Anyway, I did show one amusing video at the end of my talk to illustrate creationist theology. Here it is:

Sometime, I have to get some sleep, though. And sometime, I have to drive all the way back to Morris. Oy, this has been a long week. What day is it?

Monday?

Oh, crap.

It was very simple: DIRP.

I knew ahead of time exactly what it was going to be: complexity, complexity, complexity, complexity, complexity, complexity, complexity, therefore, DESIGN. It doesn’t follow. The logic is nonexistent. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect a competent person with a Ph.D. in philosophy to recognize, but no, it’s the same ol’ thing, trotted out every time they get up to speak.

COMPLEXITY DOES NOT IMPLY DESIGN. You can build up an awesome mess of complexity by accident, so you need to demonstrate something other than complexity to demonstrate intent.

This is a lovely example of offended sensibilities that was sent to the University of Minnesota alumni association, as well as several other administration people and myself. I don’t think the author realizes it, but this is the kind of hate mail that makes me very happy.

Dear Alumni Association,

Due to the protest of the museum in August of 2009, I will no longer be contributing donations to the University. Actions have consequences — even free speech actions. I believe that tax payers of Minnesota have a interest in not having our professors at the public universities contributing publically to the coarsing of American discourse — and behaving silly (see the picture of the riding dinosaur)

I will also be telling my co-workers and friends to no longer contribute — especially those who went to Morris. I have attached a few links detailing the protest.

Thanks,
Bill Frische

This is PZ Meyers Blog
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/08/expelled_from_the_creation_mus.php

This is a more balanced report:
http://www.examiner.com/x-9090-NY-Atheism–Skepticism-Examiner~y2009m8d9-Atheists-expelled-from-Creation-Museum
(note that at the end of this piece it does say they were mocking the museum in the museum — which is why the museum says it asked one of them to leave, although I like the bucking bronco of the profession on the dinosaur, maybe that’s not really him, i don’t know for sure)

Here is the museums report:
http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/aroundtheworld/2009/08/11/can-university-of-minnesota-professors-research-be-trusted/

Of course actions have consequences, and I am very pleased to see that my actions have led to a tiny diminution of the possible monetary influence of prating creationist dunderheads on university policy. I also think that people who attended our university and graduated with such a poor grasp of grammar and spelling might not be the best representatives for our mission, anyway.

This is hardly a fair fight. Cristina has about ten times the brains of Kirk.

In further news, Ray Comfort has announced that his give-away of the edited Origin of Species has changed: he’s going to give away 100,000 books at 100 universities, Darwin’s text will be left intact (although his page counts don’t add up), and he’ll be revising his 50 page foreword to be more fair to atheists and evolution. I’m beginning to suspect he’s lying to us.

Just watch a little of this video of Pat Robertson and Ray Comfort — it’s stupid squared!

Comfort has the same old schtick he always uses: the first dog that evolved wouldn’t have a mate! Everything (except God) has to have a creator! Everyone sins, so you need to believe in a savior, Mohammed Jesus! If you choose to watch it, be sure to have a bucket handy.

Back in June, I reported on this new sleazy tactic by Ray Comfort: he produced an abridged edition of Darwin’s Origin of Species, and then had the gall to tag on a preface that he had written himself, full of the standard creationist misconceptions. Comfort is astoundingly ignorant of basic biology; the best analogy to what he’s doing here would be if I were to give a chimpanzee a few blank sheets of paper and a convenient pile of his own feces and ask him to write a theological exegesis of the book of Genesis.

Oh, wait. On second thought, the chimpanzee would probably do a smarter job of his task than Comfort did of his.

Anyway, Ray and his polyp, Kirk Cameron, have a grand plan. They are going to give away their mangled edition of the Origin on 50 college campuses on 19 November, with the intent of allowing students to see the ‘alternative’ view. As if no one has heard of creationism, or as if it was a valid alternative to science.

There is a strategy to address this obscenity. They’re giving the books away for free: just get one or a few. Take them away and put them on a bookshelf, or rip out the introduction and donate the rest of the book to charity (which is a little impractical, I fear: these books will be very cheaply bound, and will not survive the mutilation). But anyway, let the intelligent, rational community sop up these sad mutilations of a great book and tuck them away from the gullible.

Alternatively, send copies to your favorite opponent of creationism on your campus. I know I keep a bookshelf full of creationist literature, and a Cameron/Comfort-edited version of the Origin would be a hilarious joke to have on hand. I doubt that the University of Minnesota Morris will be ‘lucky’ enough to get a team of these evangelical idjits on campus, though…so maybe one of you readers can get a copy for me? Get two, I’ll sign one and send it back to you so that you have an extra special version. Be sure to tell the people handing it out that you want an extra copy for an evil atheist!

The director of the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History (the one hosting a Discovery Institute event) has posted an open letter about the program. I presume there will be more coming, because while it’s a beginning, I’m not too impressed yet.

Although the museum does not support unscientific views masquerading as science, such as those espoused by the Discovery Institute, the museum does respect the religious beliefs of all people. Moreover, the museum is obligated to rent its public space to any organization that is engaged in lawful activities, free speech and open discourse. The museum does not discriminate against recognized campus organizations based on their religious beliefs, political philosophy, scientific literacy, or any other factors.

It’s nice that they clearly dismiss the DI as unscientific, but they would have been better off leaving out the nonsense about respecting the religious beliefs of all people. They don’t have to come out and say they disrespect some religious beliefs, as I would, but they shouldn’t have pretended otherwise. No one should offer blanket respect to all religious foolishness — the kind offered by the DI, or any creationist group, is antithetical to the mission of a science museum. Do not offer them false comfort!

Their plan to address the bogosity that will be presented in their halls is currently a bit vague.

We invite everyone interested in an accurate description of how life developed over the last four billion years to visit our galleries. The well-organized and scientifically accurate exhibits illustrate – through real specimens and scientific methods – the fact of evolution by natural selection as first described by Charles Darwin and continually supported by all branches of science ever since that time. The museum also recommends that people interested in evolutionary science review the more than 1,000 publications by our curators and professional staff that are based in evolutionary biology.

The museum’s many galleries will be open for free before and after the showing of the Discovery Institute’s film “Darwin’s Dilemma” on Sept. 29 so the public can see that there is no scientific controversy in evolutionary science’s explanation of the development and history of Earth’s biodiversity.

“Read our publications” and “free admission before and after the presentation” will not do the job. I hope that more will be added later — but they really need to directly address the lies that the creationists will be peddling. With this minimal plan, I know exactly what will happen: most of the creationists will arrive just for the DI’s movie, and leave afterwards. They will tell their friends that they saw a movie about science in a science museum that proves that a god created all life on earth. Some might stay a little later and browse, but the DI will have their people there to provide a creationist spin to all the exhibits.

They need to address the dishonesty directly: stir up controversy of their own to get people to want to hear the rebuttals. Don’t claim to respect every religious belief out there; point out that this religious belief is incredibly bad science and rotten theology, and have people lined up to criticize it without the lame excuses. They don’t need to bring in a bunch of atheist hired guns to do that, either: they almost certainly have biologists on campus with religious views of all kinds who will happily agree that intelligent design creationism is garbage.

You don’t need to watch a spooky movie or visit a haunted house to see dead zombies walk: you’ve got an Intelligent Design creationism conference going on in Castle Rock! Watch them stagger about, drooling, looking for some brains, frustrated because there aren’t any on stage. They’ve got Michael Behe, Stephen Meyer, and David Berlinski (oooh, a zombie with an affected air of superciliousness! Creepy!), and they’re going to explain to you how Darwin drowned the world in a sea of meaninglessness. And you get to learn how to turn the tide! Right.

It’s a little bit revealing, too, that this is organized by the Shepherd Project, which provides “Christian speakers, conferences and resources to help Christians maximize their impact on the world for the sake of God’s Kingdom”. I thought ID was a secular hypothesis? Was I wrong?

The Discovery Institute is up to their usual shenanigans — they’re pushing another propaganda movie (say, whatever happened to their research program?), Darwin’s Dilemma. It’s complete nonsense.

This documentary will examine what many consider to be the most powerful refutation of Darwinian evolution–the Cambrian fossil record. Charles Darwin realized that the fossil evidence did not support his theory of gradual, step-by-step evolutionary development. He hoped that future generations of scientists would make the discoveries necessary to validate his ideas. Today, after more than 150 years of exploration fossil evidence of slow, incremental biological change has yet to be excavated. Instead, we find a picture of the rapid appearance of fully developed, complex organisms during the outset of the Cambrian geological era. Organisms that embody almost all of the major animal body plans that exist today. This remarkable explosion of life is best explained by the existence of a transcendent intelligence.

Wait, what? They’re planning to overstate the rapidity of the Cambrian, ignore the vast amounts of morphological change that has occurred in the half a billion years since, and do the usual stunt of waving away scientific explanations so they can claim creationism wins by default. An utterly worthless bit of hokum.

The real shame, though, is that they’ve landed a respectable venue for the premiere: The Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Oklahoma. Well, it was respectable. This will put a little spot of schmutz on their glossy reputation, I fear. And they’re planning to turn it into a real kookfest, with both Jonathan Wells (whose book, Icons of Evolution, revealed that he was an ignorant maroon on the subject of the Cambrian) and Stephen Meyer, the philosopher-creationist with his own book on molecular biology (hah!) to peddle, there to lecture at the opening. I guess any clown can rent the integrity of the U of Oklahoma for a day.

So, where are the University of Oklahoma biology professors? Where is the staff of the museum? Where are the rational people of the state of Oklahoma? They should all be rising up in disgust to mock this ridiculous affair. At least they’ve got ERV to stick up for them.

I wonder if the Oklahoma legislature will try to censure the university for allowing religion on campus, as they did against Richard Dawkins?

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In the department of NO-FRICKIN’-BIG-SURPRISE, the movie has two big name scientists in it, Simon Conway Morris and James Valentine…and their interviews were obtained under false pretenses. Of course. I wonder if there isn’t some universal law behind this, that every creationist movie is obligated to lie to some scientist somewhere to get their words on tape?

Don’t you just love a challenge? I’m always looking for some splendid argument from a creationist that would make me think, but they always give me such silliness, instead. And then, I saw this: a mainstream newspaper (well, the Telegraph…but at least it’s not the Daily Mail) offers us an article with a tantalizing promise: they’re going to give us the the five very best arguments to support creationism. Whoa. Cool. I’m sure they also put their very best science reporter on the job to get some real stumpers for scientists.

Here goes. Brace yourselves. Prepare to be provoked and excited!

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