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Michael considered fate at 18:32   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

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Comment posted by  Anonymous @ 4/09/2006 3:27 PM:

Hi Mike,
while waiting for the next episode of 24 to torrent down onto my slow lappy I came across a couple of interesting things, and looking for people to share them with I immediately thought of you. Yes, you may get that warm, fuzzy feeling now. Luckily, and probably not coincidentally, you'd already touched some of the issues, so I wouldn't be straying from the topic too much.

I mean, we all read slashdot, right?
I found an interesting site which disproves, mathematically, the concept of intelligent design as presented by its proponents:

The Problem with Irreducible Complexity
The Vacuousness of Specified Complexity

In general, the site http://goodmath.blogspot.com has some interesting things to show, amongst others a nice description of computer circuits implemented with a cellular automaton. Check it out & hope to hear from you soon. 

Following up on a previous note about the Dover, PA modern-day antithesis to the Scopes Monkey trial (the area school board wanted to teach creationism) is a bit in the Montreal Gazette today strongly rooting McGill University in the evolutionist camp. Prof denied grant over evolution:

A clash between McGill University and the key federal agency that funds social science research in the country is sparking a scholarly debate in Canada about the theory of evolution.

McGill University says the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council made a "factual error" when it denied Professor Brian Alters a $40,000 grant on the grounds that he'd failed to provide the panel with ample evidence that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is correct..

.. The planned project, submitted last year to the council, is titled Detrimental effects of popularizing anti-evolution's intelligent design theory on Canadian students, teachers, parents, administrators and policymakers.

Alters, director of McGill's Evolution Education Research Centre, told CanWest News Service yesterday he was shocked at SSHRC's response and that it offers "ironic" proof that his premise about intelligent design gaining a foothold in Canada is correct.

Of key note is McGill's rather clear statement about it's stance on evolution:

In its decision to deny the grant, the SSHRC panel said Alters had not supplied "adequate justification for the assumption in the proposal that the theory of evolution, and not intelligent design theory, was correct."

"McGill considers this a factual error," [Jennifer Robinson, McGill's associate vice-principal for communications] said.

To tie in the connection to the Dover, PA case:

Last fall, [Alters] was a key witness when creationists squared off with proponents of evolution in a Pennsylvania courthouse..

.. Judge John Jones ruled the Dover Area School Board had broken a constitutional ban on the teaching of religion in public schools when it inserted wording in its science curriculum that life on Earth might have been designed by an unidentified intelligent being.