The tie to employers is only one element and it was partially addressed by the ACA. There is no way in this world that healthcare should ever involve a for profit middleman like the insurance industry. No other first world country has chosen to emulate our system by inserting a bunch of “for profit”Ho’s between providers and patients.
Intelligent design is merely creationism dressed up in a cheap suit, pretending to be a viable alternative to the established science. Evidently, the goal here is to add validity to the Biblical creation story. For that story to be true, EVERYTHING we think we know about the life sciences, geology, and cosmology has to be wrong, while some Bronze Age goat herders who didn't know where the sun went at night got things just exactly right. Nothing in all of science has more supporting evidence than evolution, but millions cling to horrible myths dating from the infancy of human civilization. It does not fill me with hope for the long term survival of our species.
The only thing I find to be in any way surprising, is the way so many people bury their heads in the sands of ancient religious myth, while ignoring the science that has made the modern world possible.
Therefore birth defects and autoimmune diseases are 'intelligent design'. Mosquitoes and parasites are also intelligent design. Dare I say that Christians are mentally ill.
Unlike most Christians I have met, you know the Bible. Genesis does not call it an apple, but most "believers" would. The more I learned about the Bible, the weaker my faith became.
And we all know that no intelligent designer would run a sewer through a playground!
The people who advocate for this nonsense stuck their fingers in their ears and went la-la-la all through high school science classes. All because the great, inerrant King James Bible is loaded with the Bronze-Age version of science... So it must still be true. They want to teach kids to live in the dominionist echo chamber.
When I was a kid, the U.S. was ahead of all other nations in science and math by any way to measure it. Now we're behind many other nations by any way to measure it. We're not just falling behind, we're going backward. We're rich, but irretrievably ignorant.
We're the Beverly Hillbillies of the world.
Wealth, comfort, complacency, and sloth are part of it, and religion is a part of it.
Intelligent Design, huh? Is that why I have to wear glasses? And what's the deal with having my genitals hanging OUTSIDE my body? Seems a less-than-intelligent design.
What do proponents of ID have to say about the appendix, which serves no purpose whatsoever?
I don't even have an appendix anymore. I almost died when it "broke", does that mean I am more intelligent than most other people? Or that O'Thor loves me for ever?
I don't have an appendix anymore either. It "broke", but thanks to the folks at Brooke Amy Medical Center I am still here. But don't get me started in my double bypass surgery. So much for intelligent design.
Appendices break. That's necessary for having an expensive, inefficient Disease Care system that keeps lots of people employed, and most others having to work to have their employer pay for ther health insurance resulting in lower wages.
The genitals thing is highly adaptive. Sperm don't grow their best in heat (i.e. inside you're body where it's 37 C). So over time, given an early mammal population where some males had their testes close in and others a bit further away, the males whose testes didn't get as much body heat outproduced those whose testes were closer in and absorbed more body heat.
The single biggest argument against intelligent design is supported by every guy over the age of 50. What kind of idiot would design the prostate and urinary tract in such a way that as you get older, the prostate squeezes on the ureters that pass through it, making it difficult to impossible to pee for many men, requiring some treatment that makes it impossible to reproduce, and in many cases means people wake up five or six times a night and don’t get any sleep. The same intelligent designer did not build urinals every 100 feet of the reality that he created.
Well, not in the deserts, but in the rest of the world, there are plenty of plants "to water". Just need people to not get hysterical over seeing a penis. Very little more aggravating than finishing peeing and still feeling the urge.
And plenty of animals (both male and female) where feeling the need to pee every few hundred feet you walk would be adaptive, since it scent-marks territory. Not saying humans are either that territorial or have the nose to support that sort of behavior, but we also inherited a lot of traits from ancestors who had better noses and were more territorial.
Honestly, I have to wonder if there is a single Democratic State Senator who can stand up in their chamber and confront those who would have this bill become law.
To which a Republican State Senator need only reply: "Do you know who currently sits on the Supreme Court?"
Another problem: Kitzimiller's reasoning used the Endorsement and Lemon tests. The Lemon test is officially dead, this SCOTUS eliminated it. So all judicial ruling using it as their basis of reasoning can certainly be challenged.
A third problem: technically, Kitzmiller isn't a controlling legal precedent for ND. Jones' ruling only applies to the (Federal) Middle District of Pennsylvania. Now, at the time it was such a kick-butt ruling that the IDers decided not to try the same shenanigans in other federal districts because they figured the very first thing that would happen would be that the next federal district judge would immediately grab and look at Kitzmiller. But now with many more conservative judges on the bench, and with Lemon being dead, a judge in a different district might simply ignore it as irrelevant.
"I would ask my esteemed colleague if he thinks that the members of the Supreme Court have any respect for the discipline of science and understand the difference between its dependence on hard data and evidence, as opposed to Intelligent Design, which has NO evidentiary support and was so declared with the Kitzmiller versus Dover decision. If the Supreme Court wishes to vitiate that ruling, it would be a severe move backward for the educational system, not just of North Dakota, but of the United States as a whole.
"I therefore urge my esteemed colleague and his fellows to consider the potential consequences of the passage of this bill and act accordingly."
I looked on the web to see how you could attend a legislative session as a private citizen, but nothing showed up easily. You can watch the sessions live free online, but I guess one casualty of such ease of online access is state legislatures no longer feel the need to let Joe Public in the physical room with them.
Which means, no peanut gallery. Unless you count all caps commenting on a live stream which the legislators themselves will never look at.
I wish that one of those sane legislators would stand up and read the entirety of the decision from Kitzmiller v Dover in front of that bunch of loons, attendance required. That piece of writing is a thing of beauty. But, yeah, the idiots are too busy doing whatever it is they do to stop up their ears and play pretend--so, never gonna happen.
Those warehouses of evidence will go up in smoke or be fed into a rock crusher the moment that the christains are able to do so. They already spent 2000 years destroying every written document that demonstrated they were liars and they will do it again.
And that is a large source of comfort to me. At least it is until the christains have the nuclear stockpile retargeted to make those places ground zero when they get tired of waiting for their armageddon.
I hear it is much better at secretly collecting data on it's owners and passing that info onto Elon Musk without the informed consent or knowledge of the owners than most other trucks.
I'll be damned--the Dakotas are straining hard to look as stupid--and as anti-religious freedom--as those of us in the Deep South (LA and now GA). It's hard to fathom that we're actually crashing backward instead of moving forward. Damned Christian nationalists!
They have to tune out and suppress science, because it is too good at explaining why the biblical version of things is just too good at making them irrelevant. Since they believe they and only they should control the 'seven mountains' of society, here we are on the edge of the chasm of a theofascist dictatorship.
I blame the oil companies. They are the ones who promised the moon to the desperate and indoctrinated youth from the South. They imported the willful ignorance, and when the industry collapsed they just reinforced it.
Where was this farmer for the last 8 years? Did he NOT understand who Trump is and what a pathological liar he is? Did he truly believe that voting for a convicted felon was somehow a good idea?
If too many farmers lose their land in bankruptcy auctions, our farmland will be in the hands of corporate farms or developers. The ruling class, in other words. Rich People. They will have a stranglehold on agriculture. Guess what will happen to the price of food then?
Is there anything we can do to help stop that? I know, writing your Congress critters, but is there anything else? Are there any media outlets sympathetic to this that would be willing to do extensive coverage on the repercussions of the Billionaire Boys Club playing fast and loose with contracts the government made with America's farmers? (I see this at least partially as a breach-of-contract issue).
OT: I find I just can't today. I feel like I'm watching the demise of democracy in the US in real time, and much as I care about so many of the issues posted here, I'm just wrung dry. My YT feed is loaded with videos where people who claim to have voted for Trump are now complaining about the complete BS he's pulling, and I find I just can't really afford to care about their crocodile tears right now.
I know that feeling is the goal - the feeling of never being able to win, the feeling of hopelessness and despair, that's how these people operate. They just keep coming until the opposition gives up and lets them have their way no matter how bad the idea is. We've been fighting the battle over "Intelligent" Design for what, 70-80 years now? They might lose this time, but they'll be back, and they might find another group of people unwilling to fight over it.
So at this point, I'm kind of taking a day or two off. This is a no news day, a day where I'm just not going to deal with Trump and his Muskrat, and if more Republicans decide to cry over Trump policies, I won't be there to watch 'em. I hope the rest of you are doing well, of course, but I need a little time just now. Take care of yourselves, and don't let this get to you the way it's currently getting to me.
"Intelligent Design isn’t a 'viable scientific theory.' It’s not viable and it’s not scientific."
True.
"It’s merely a theory"
False.
It's a HYPOTHESIS.
“The theory of evolution explains how life on Earth has changed. In scientific terms, ‘theory’ does not mean ‘guess’ or ‘hunch’ as it does in everyday usage. Scientific theories are explanations of natural phenomena built up logically from testable observations and hypotheses. Biological evolution is the best scientific explanation we have for the enormous range of observations about the living world. ... The occurrence of evolution in this sense is a fact. Scientists no longer question whether descent with modification occurred because the evidence supporting the idea is so strong.”
A hypothesis merely needs to have some relationship to the phenomenon to be explained. For example, do heavier objects fall faster than light ones? Without actually trying the experiment, that seems plausible, right? So it's a hypothesis.
If the entire universe sprang into existence 5 minutes ago, each of us with all our memories of our lives to date already intact inside our brains, that would in fact explain everything we see around us, so it too is a hypothesis.
Same deal with creationism, except for the time frame. If accurate, it would explain everything that needs explaining. And it has the virtue of being unfalsifiable. If previously unsuspected creatures show up in the fossil record, "God did it because he felt like it" is in fact an explanation.
So yeah, creationism is a hypothesis. It doesn't happen to be anywhere near as good at predicting future findings, or explaining the various quirks of biology, as evolution, and it "multiplies entities beyond necessity" thus offending Occam's Razor, so that's why it's not accepted by rationalists. But it certainly qualifies as a failed hypothesis, not least because it was the ONLY hypothesis accepted by most of humanity for most of its existence.
Tax ALL churches!
Frank Zappa was not wrong when he said "Tax the churces".
We could afford nice things, like health care.
We can afford healthcare with what we're paying now. We just don't want to.
https://www.zentaur.org/memes/5NOODy7ClC002SxZDku92BTuF9vpbUh3T4ED_Dm9-js.webp
The tie to employers is only one element and it was partially addressed by the ACA. There is no way in this world that healthcare should ever involve a for profit middleman like the insurance industry. No other first world country has chosen to emulate our system by inserting a bunch of “for profit”Ho’s between providers and patients.
I’ve said before, if a bureaucrat is going to get between me and my healthcare, I’d rather that bureaucrat work for me rather the shareholders.
He also said "Let's do the funky Alfonzo".....he wasn't wrong there, either.
Frank Zappa is missed.
Intelligent design is merely creationism dressed up in a cheap suit, pretending to be a viable alternative to the established science. Evidently, the goal here is to add validity to the Biblical creation story. For that story to be true, EVERYTHING we think we know about the life sciences, geology, and cosmology has to be wrong, while some Bronze Age goat herders who didn't know where the sun went at night got things just exactly right. Nothing in all of science has more supporting evidence than evolution, but millions cling to horrible myths dating from the infancy of human civilization. It does not fill me with hope for the long term survival of our species.
And, as I'm sure oraxx knows well, this is nothing new--Michael Behe and before him beat this horse to death long ago.
The only thing I find to be in any way surprising, is the way so many people bury their heads in the sands of ancient religious myth, while ignoring the science that has made the modern world possible.
Like googling flat earth "information" from a cell phone?
Therefore birth defects and autoimmune diseases are 'intelligent design'. Mosquitoes and parasites are also intelligent design. Dare I say that Christians are mentally ill.
The theists love to push intelligent design, but fail to explain why the design is so poor.
The design is so poor because it got corrupted when Adam and Eve ate the Fruit! /s
Wait - you mean, there was random mutation followed by natural selection?
Unlike most Christians I have met, you know the Bible. Genesis does not call it an apple, but most "believers" would. The more I learned about the Bible, the weaker my faith became.
And we all know that no intelligent designer would run a sewer through a playground!
Not a Christian, but I actually read the damn Bible.
Was a christian, read the big book. Vomitted several time and became an atheist.
Or cross the air pipe with the food/drink pipe. How many people die each year due to that "design".
Here, I'll let Eve tell it in her own words:
https://youtu.be/imrFn6czYDk
The people who advocate for this nonsense stuck their fingers in their ears and went la-la-la all through high school science classes. All because the great, inerrant King James Bible is loaded with the Bronze-Age version of science... So it must still be true. They want to teach kids to live in the dominionist echo chamber.
👆👆👆🎯
Their god has all kinds of ways to kill them without being blamed.
Indeed.... please do dare.
When I was a kid, the U.S. was ahead of all other nations in science and math by any way to measure it. Now we're behind many other nations by any way to measure it. We're not just falling behind, we're going backward. We're rich, but irretrievably ignorant.
We're the Beverly Hillbillies of the world.
Wealth, comfort, complacency, and sloth are part of it, and religion is a part of it.
The Beverly Hillbillies were not lazy. They were always up to something.
Except, maybe, when Jed was whittling on the front stoop.
Religion is always about allegiance to, and superiority of one's own tribe. It excels at creating division, hatred, xenophobia and intolerance.
Sarcasm ahead: And that are its good qualities.
Surely this gives grounds for teaching The Force as science, too? Maybe some Harry Potter spells?
These aren't the pandas you're looking for... 😁
Alohomora would be considerably convenient when you leave your keys on the table and the petsitter locks the door into the garage.
'The Force' was essentially Taoism.
Intelligent Design, huh? Is that why I have to wear glasses? And what's the deal with having my genitals hanging OUTSIDE my body? Seems a less-than-intelligent design.
What do proponents of ID have to say about the appendix, which serves no purpose whatsoever?
It's to better milk you. Another question ?
I don't even have an appendix anymore. I almost died when it "broke", does that mean I am more intelligent than most other people? Or that O'Thor loves me for ever?
I don't have an appendix anymore either. It "broke", but thanks to the folks at Brooke Amy Medical Center I am still here. But don't get me started in my double bypass surgery. So much for intelligent design.
What about me and my shortcut ? I am perfectly happy not to have to fold myself to trim my non existent toenails 😁
Appendices break. That's necessary for having an expensive, inefficient Disease Care system that keeps lots of people employed, and most others having to work to have their employer pay for ther health insurance resulting in lower wages.
It's all God's plan.
The genitals thing is highly adaptive. Sperm don't grow their best in heat (i.e. inside you're body where it's 37 C). So over time, given an early mammal population where some males had their testes close in and others a bit further away, the males whose testes didn't get as much body heat outproduced those whose testes were closer in and absorbed more body heat.
That's the evolutionary explanation, but as a *design*, what was the reason that sperm was designed to require lower temperatures than ova?
Sperm tastes better at lower temperatur, so there's that. Right?
Then it should be refrigerated.
I have no idea. Not my cup of tea anyway.
TRASH...
https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/479181645_1871790676940619_6845464220963490617_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=V-H_pX9iOfoQ7kNvgEE4i-f&_nc_oc=AdjrrYUaSYks9T9octCrHioDKeEUZUwNZj3QtKsxGstxGiiCc2MC591FJONjic97ux0&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-2.xx&_nc_gid=AZeeuic3uYLJAYuJzVQahoh&oh=00_AYDe_tKgUlbiY64dQ3g6IxqqKxFvs9k3ftrRmdDmGDEFhQ&oe=67B4803D
Also, don't be a DEI* hire.
*Demented, embarrassing imbecile.
Stolen
The single biggest argument against intelligent design is supported by every guy over the age of 50. What kind of idiot would design the prostate and urinary tract in such a way that as you get older, the prostate squeezes on the ureters that pass through it, making it difficult to impossible to pee for many men, requiring some treatment that makes it impossible to reproduce, and in many cases means people wake up five or six times a night and don’t get any sleep. The same intelligent designer did not build urinals every 100 feet of the reality that he created.
Well, not in the deserts, but in the rest of the world, there are plenty of plants "to water". Just need people to not get hysterical over seeing a penis. Very little more aggravating than finishing peeing and still feeling the urge.
And plenty of animals (both male and female) where feeling the need to pee every few hundred feet you walk would be adaptive, since it scent-marks territory. Not saying humans are either that territorial or have the nose to support that sort of behavior, but we also inherited a lot of traits from ancestors who had better noses and were more territorial.
Cancer took bladder, ureters, prostate. Now I empty bags 2 or 3 times daily.
more like cat boxes, then
Honestly, I have to wonder if there is a single Democratic State Senator who can stand up in their chamber and confront those who would have this bill become law.
"𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛? 𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐾𝑖𝑡𝑧𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑢𝑠 𝐷𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝐽𝑢𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝐽𝑜ℎ𝑛 𝐸. 𝐽𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝐼𝐼𝐼? 𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑎𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑚, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑛𝑜 𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑠𝑜𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟?
"𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑊𝑂𝑅𝑆𝐸, 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑑𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠, 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑊𝐴𝑆𝑇𝐸 𝑇𝐻𝐸𝐼𝑅 𝑇𝐼𝑀𝐸 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑝𝑠𝑒𝑢𝑑𝑜-𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑜𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑒ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑡. 𝑂𝑢𝑟 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑠.
"𝐼𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑛, 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚 𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙, 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙."
Yeah, I know that most of 'em won't listen. Pardon the rant.
They would loose them at "know".
Sadly true. [sigh]
To which a Republican State Senator need only reply: "Do you know who currently sits on the Supreme Court?"
Another problem: Kitzimiller's reasoning used the Endorsement and Lemon tests. The Lemon test is officially dead, this SCOTUS eliminated it. So all judicial ruling using it as their basis of reasoning can certainly be challenged.
A third problem: technically, Kitzmiller isn't a controlling legal precedent for ND. Jones' ruling only applies to the (Federal) Middle District of Pennsylvania. Now, at the time it was such a kick-butt ruling that the IDers decided not to try the same shenanigans in other federal districts because they figured the very first thing that would happen would be that the next federal district judge would immediately grab and look at Kitzmiller. But now with many more conservative judges on the bench, and with Lemon being dead, a judge in a different district might simply ignore it as irrelevant.
"I would ask my esteemed colleague if he thinks that the members of the Supreme Court have any respect for the discipline of science and understand the difference between its dependence on hard data and evidence, as opposed to Intelligent Design, which has NO evidentiary support and was so declared with the Kitzmiller versus Dover decision. If the Supreme Court wishes to vitiate that ruling, it would be a severe move backward for the educational system, not just of North Dakota, but of the United States as a whole.
"I therefore urge my esteemed colleague and his fellows to consider the potential consequences of the passage of this bill and act accordingly."
"Oh yes, I do think Alito and Thomas have great respect for science, and I'm sure that they will be able to tell us if this counts as science or not."
Whereupon a voice from the gallery pipes up, "Sure they do ... IN A PIG'S EYE!!!"
I looked on the web to see how you could attend a legislative session as a private citizen, but nothing showed up easily. You can watch the sessions live free online, but I guess one casualty of such ease of online access is state legislatures no longer feel the need to let Joe Public in the physical room with them.
Which means, no peanut gallery. Unless you count all caps commenting on a live stream which the legislators themselves will never look at.
I wish that one of those sane legislators would stand up and read the entirety of the decision from Kitzmiller v Dover in front of that bunch of loons, attendance required. That piece of writing is a thing of beauty. But, yeah, the idiots are too busy doing whatever it is they do to stop up their ears and play pretend--so, never gonna happen.
Those warehouses of evidence will go up in smoke or be fed into a rock crusher the moment that the christains are able to do so. They already spent 2000 years destroying every written document that demonstrated they were liars and they will do it again.
In the US, maybe, but there are other warehouses and other countries where people take relics and samples like those far more seriously.
Thank the stars for that.
And that is a large source of comfort to me. At least it is until the christains have the nuclear stockpile retargeted to make those places ground zero when they get tired of waiting for their armageddon.
"...materials demonstrating intelligent design is a viable scientific theory..."
Family Guy is not a reliable source.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMJYw0sxZ0k
Or Futurama...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICv6GLwt1gM
Another great achievement of "intelligent" design: placing an erogenous zone inside the sewer main.
And then forbidding using it under pain of death.
The nerve.
Intelligent design is when someone comes up with a better made version of whatever. And no, cyberjunk trucks don’t count.
What the hell is a Cybertruck supposed to be a better version of. A Pinto?
I hear it is much better at secretly collecting data on it's owners and passing that info onto Elon Musk without the informed consent or knowledge of the owners than most other trucks.
A better stage coach? Go Kart? Yugo? I was going to toss in Edsel, but they were really nice rides.
Better version of the lada (Russian made car), supposedly a very ugly car that was designed to work in Siberia durning the winter.
Lol, my sister drove a Pinto before we know about their explosive capabilities. We were happy she never had to find out v the hard way.
I'll be damned--the Dakotas are straining hard to look as stupid--and as anti-religious freedom--as those of us in the Deep South (LA and now GA). It's hard to fathom that we're actually crashing backward instead of moving forward. Damned Christian nationalists!
They have to tune out and suppress science, because it is too good at explaining why the biblical version of things is just too good at making them irrelevant. Since they believe they and only they should control the 'seven mountains' of society, here we are on the edge of the chasm of a theofascist dictatorship.
I blame the oil companies. They are the ones who promised the moon to the desperate and indoctrinated youth from the South. They imported the willful ignorance, and when the industry collapsed they just reinforced it.
Fossils don't exist remember (fossil fuels).
Every Jesus luvin' MAGA patriot is filling up their car with Satan's black liquid.
North Dakota is full of oil. And Republicans. Oil and MAGA do mix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swxXOLzgkF8
FAFO. I have no sympathy left.
Where was this farmer for the last 8 years? Did he NOT understand who Trump is and what a pathological liar he is? Did he truly believe that voting for a convicted felon was somehow a good idea?
sadly he has been brain washed, hope a lot of them can come out of it
FAKE NEWS!
You want to slap these people upside the head. They're stuck with him now and they got the rest of us stuck with them.
Yes, and we will all pay the price at the supermarket. I'm planting a garden just to try to get by. I know it's going to get a lot worse.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff67b3b4fd60d6eb542f1a28ed0e0f6257319fe44c31c74160e048f8efb4d545.png
If too many farmers lose their land in bankruptcy auctions, our farmland will be in the hands of corporate farms or developers. The ruling class, in other words. Rich People. They will have a stranglehold on agriculture. Guess what will happen to the price of food then?
Is there anything we can do to help stop that? I know, writing your Congress critters, but is there anything else? Are there any media outlets sympathetic to this that would be willing to do extensive coverage on the repercussions of the Billionaire Boys Club playing fast and loose with contracts the government made with America's farmers? (I see this at least partially as a breach-of-contract issue).
P.S. I am planting a garden this spring, but that's not much more than spitting in the wind, and that will help only me.
gggggggggrrrrooooooooaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnn
"But why are the face-eating leopards eating 𝘮𝘺 face!?"
OT: I find I just can't today. I feel like I'm watching the demise of democracy in the US in real time, and much as I care about so many of the issues posted here, I'm just wrung dry. My YT feed is loaded with videos where people who claim to have voted for Trump are now complaining about the complete BS he's pulling, and I find I just can't really afford to care about their crocodile tears right now.
I know that feeling is the goal - the feeling of never being able to win, the feeling of hopelessness and despair, that's how these people operate. They just keep coming until the opposition gives up and lets them have their way no matter how bad the idea is. We've been fighting the battle over "Intelligent" Design for what, 70-80 years now? They might lose this time, but they'll be back, and they might find another group of people unwilling to fight over it.
So at this point, I'm kind of taking a day or two off. This is a no news day, a day where I'm just not going to deal with Trump and his Muskrat, and if more Republicans decide to cry over Trump policies, I won't be there to watch 'em. I hope the rest of you are doing well, of course, but I need a little time just now. Take care of yourselves, and don't let this get to you the way it's currently getting to me.
Take care! Peace and long life!!!
I just reply, "YOU voted for him. I did NOT."
"Intelligent Design isn’t a 'viable scientific theory.' It’s not viable and it’s not scientific."
True.
"It’s merely a theory"
False.
It's a HYPOTHESIS.
“The theory of evolution explains how life on Earth has changed. In scientific terms, ‘theory’ does not mean ‘guess’ or ‘hunch’ as it does in everyday usage. Scientific theories are explanations of natural phenomena built up logically from testable observations and hypotheses. Biological evolution is the best scientific explanation we have for the enormous range of observations about the living world. ... The occurrence of evolution in this sense is a fact. Scientists no longer question whether descent with modification occurred because the evidence supporting the idea is so strong.”
—National Academy of Sciences
Even a hypothesis needs SOME support, of which ID has NONE. I'd call it a poorly-conceived supposition, and I'm not sure even that is proper.
More like a hare-brained idea!
I'd call it a poorly-conceived superstition.
Well put! 👍
A hypothesis merely needs to have some relationship to the phenomenon to be explained. For example, do heavier objects fall faster than light ones? Without actually trying the experiment, that seems plausible, right? So it's a hypothesis.
If the entire universe sprang into existence 5 minutes ago, each of us with all our memories of our lives to date already intact inside our brains, that would in fact explain everything we see around us, so it too is a hypothesis.
Same deal with creationism, except for the time frame. If accurate, it would explain everything that needs explaining. And it has the virtue of being unfalsifiable. If previously unsuspected creatures show up in the fossil record, "God did it because he felt like it" is in fact an explanation.
So yeah, creationism is a hypothesis. It doesn't happen to be anywhere near as good at predicting future findings, or explaining the various quirks of biology, as evolution, and it "multiplies entities beyond necessity" thus offending Occam's Razor, so that's why it's not accepted by rationalists. But it certainly qualifies as a failed hypothesis, not least because it was the ONLY hypothesis accepted by most of humanity for most of its existence.
More of a concept than a hypothesis. :)
The planning of a concept.
An idea of a of a plan to dream up a concept.
But today a concept is as good as a repair.