VOLuntarilyConservative

ID is faith and objectively unverifiable. Evolution either can or cannot be supported by facts. I don't want schools teaching faith.
 

Anonymous -

As a former student of evolutionary biology, I don't see how evolution can be descibed as anything but based in faith. The difference in ID and evolutionary biology is that you are either putting your faith in God or putting your faith in chance/evolution/natural selection. Either way, schools must teach one form of faith or the other.

Cheers,

Rob
 

"I don't see how evolution can be descibed as anything but based in faith"

Or, you know, fossil records.
 

Anonymous -

I have viewed the fossil records. I have read all of the prevailing texts. I have debated the subject both with creationists and with evolutionists.

If you don't see the faith that is at the center of a belief in evolution, then you are delusional.

Cheers,

Rob
 

BS. You have not "reviewed the fossil records," and you have not reviewed all of the prevailing texts. And I hate to break it to you, but your debates with creationists and evolutionists are entirely irrelevant to if/how life on this planet evolved. ID is based on lazy, sloppy and dishonest arguments. Saying that evolutionary biology is based in faith is so mind-boggling that one does not know where to begin refuting you. I'll just start out by saying it's not based in faith, it's based on evidence - hard, provable, undisputed evidence. The theory of evolution is an explanation for the evidence. It is, and always has been, a theory in flux. And no, it does not provide us with an answer to the big question of "why?" Nor does it attempt to. You can watch a strain of bacteria mutate and evolve into a new species, and you can ascribe the evolution to God's will, but you can't refute that the bacteria has mutated. Where exactly does ID come in to help? What does ID contribute to our understanding of "why?" Nothing. It adds nothing, and it is not intended to add anything. ID is a ploy by people like yourselves to just get us all to stop looking at the bacteria behind the curtain, for fear that someday, someone will find something that makes you look even sillier waving that bible around in the air.
 

Anonymous -

First, I have degrees in biology and chemistry. I have taken many courses on evolutionary biology, biodiversity, and genetics (as you have not provided any evidence to the contrary, I assume that I have more familiarity with this subject than yourself). I am also a former believer of evolutionary biology.

Second, if you cannot see the holes and (pardon the pun) myriad of missing links in evolutionary theory... Well, I hope that you are the opposing counsel in my next case...

Third, I haven't found waving The Bible (sic) in the air to be terribly productive. I prefer to keep mine on my desk, preferrably open.

Cheers,

Rob
 

I'd say that it's a given that you assume that you have more familiarity with the subject than I. Let's just, for the sake of this argument, not assume that. First of all, evolution is a theory based largely on evidence that is old - we're talking millions of years. So yeah, there are "holes." Those holes, however, are the result of the fact that most living things decay beyond identification after, say, a few hundred thousand years or so - not because the theory of evolution is unsupportable. 150 years ago, the prevailing theory of the origins of life and man was contained in Genesis. In terms of a theoretical scientific explanations, you literally had one giant, empty "hole." What frightens people such as yourself is the fact that in the last 150 or so years, evolution has filled in so much of the hole that you no longer have the one giant theoretical hole, but rather many sections of a puzzle that have begun to come together to form a picture. This threatens you and your Biblical beliefs that are based purely on faith, and so you try to undermine evolution by attacking the fact that it is incomplete. That sums up ID - "well, you've not figured it out 100%, so why don't we all just give up, stop looking and go home -- quickly, before we find anything else." Since, as you say, you have degrees in biology and chemistry, and have taken courses on evolution, what you have done is literally to replace a theory based on fact and reasoned deduction with a theory based entirely on faith. I have no problem whatsoever with your decision to do so. What I have a problem with is you trying to make children who are of no relation to you do the same. So yeah, teach kids about evolution, which includes what we know and what we don't know (because one thing that the "prevailing texts" are not shy in admitting is that we still don't a whole bunch - and I'm sure you'll agree since you've read them).
 

And Rob, trust me, you don't wish I'm opposing counsel in your next case, as I'm able to look at different parts of an incomplete story and accept that they are connected in a logical manner rather than insist that they mean nothing "because my Bible tells me so."