Centerfield

Poetic justice. I love it! But now wait for the ID forces to switch from attacking science departments to religious study departments!

Everything has its rightful place.

As a KSU alum, it's difficult to concede that KU's brilliant. But this is great stuff.

I'll say what I've said before, if we can get past the politics of "Intelligient design" (i.e. as the new proxy for creationism) it is a worthwhile topic in the "philosophy of science" realm. It has been written about by non-Christians. Ironic that an academic institution is willing to tackle it seemingly only as a political issue. I'm not sure it even fits in the Religious Science Department other than how the religious right has used it politically.

Heyyyyyyyy, folks, good evening and welcome to another edition of Brave? or Foolhardy?

Personally I'm glad the ID folks are bringing scrutiny to bear on themselves...and this goes to the question I keep asking about this issue, which is "are religious conservatives sure they want this fight?"

The amount of naivete and/or hubris that it takes to go into someone else's domain of expertise and challenge their teaching must be just enormous, especially when you haooen to sport you oiwn suppoosed domain of expertise that includes even more challengeable teachings. So if preachers don't want scientists showing up at church on sundays to point out whatever stuff in the bible MUST be way off, then they should counsel IDers to back off. Way off.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily make the little religious studies department at the state U smart to pick this fight, especially to choose such an inflammatory title. How long is it going to be before various interfaith organizations in Kansas decide they need more of a say on who gets to be tenured faculty at religious studies departments of the state U? How long before Rush Limbaugh unearths a loony thesis by some whacked out grad student.

Best of Luck Mr. Mirecki. Have fun answering your mail. I hope your budget has money to pay your secretary overtime. The forecast calls for a sh!+storm.

The "interfaith" orgs in Kansas couldn't care less about getting ID taught as science, Brian, and if they did they'd be on KU's side. It's the fundie sects that make the most noise, and they don't have the swing to annoy the State Board of Regents or the Chancellor much at all. And the alumni would revolt if KU tried to dumb out the curriculum by teaching ID as anything but religion (barring some startling evidence, of course).

I offer that link because it's illustrative of a "faith-based" group receiving federal funds that works very well indeed--and has been working for over a century, since long before they started getting federal funds.

Well Tully, I'm certain you know far more than I do about Kansas, so I'm pretty sure you're right, which makes me glad to be wrong.

I bet I'm right about that guy's mail though. And I still wouldn't be surprised to see someone use this as a vehicle to look at kooky graduate theses...

I bet I'm right about that guy's mail though. And I still wouldn't be surprised to see someone use this as a vehicle to look at kooky graduate theses...

Oh my YES, and me neither.

kooky graduate theses

In order to "clear" my name, even though I know you guys weren't referring to me, I have neither the inclination nor the sheer stupidity to touch ID with a ten-foot pole. (I'll be going to grad school soon: first in philo, then in neuroscience)

My main point was if the reincarnation of Sankara proposed some grand metaphysical synthesis of science and religion that had testable propositions, we shouldn't force it to declare itself as either religion or science, necessarily.

However, while referring to ID as mythology may have inflammatory benefits (with a convenient academic excuse for its use of the term), I think it is more accurate to classify ID as religiously-motivated crank science. And the benefit of doing this is, instead of merely quarantining ID to another ontological realm, one can kill it in the scientific sphere, and thereby banish it even from responsible metaphysical speculation.