Hendrik Herzberg smacks down ID

[wtmusic]

"How did we—not just Americans but human beings in general—come to be? Opinions differ, but for most of recorded history the consensus view was that people were made out of mud...The mud theory is still dominant in the United States, in the form of the Book of Genesis, whose version of the origin of our species, according to a recent Gallup poll, is deemed true by forty-five per cent of the American public."

<>

"But I.D.—whose central (and easily refuted) talking point is that certain structures of living things are too intricate to have evolved without the intervention of an “intelligent designer” (and You know who You are)—enjoys virtually no scientific support. It is not even a theory, in the scientific sense, because it is untestable and unsupportable by empirical evidence. It is a last-ditch skirmish in a misguided war against reason that cannot be won and, for religion's sake as well as science's, should not be fought.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/050822ta_talk_hertzberg

[CantGetFooledAgain]

1. I love Hendrik's pieces (nt)

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. he was recently on book tv

a very fascinating speaker

[CantGetFooledAgain]

3. I'm sorry I missed that...

...will have to watch for a replay.

BTW, JitterbugPerfume is probably my favorite TR book (or maybe Half Asleep...")

[Dudley_DUright]

4. Chris Mooney the author of "The Republican War on Science"

mentioned in the article has a good blog that I highly recommend.

http://www.chriscmooney.com/blog.asp

I am also looking forward to reading the book. You can read an excerpt here:

http://www.waronscience.com/excerpt.php