NOVA’s most recent program is about the Intelligent Design debate over the last few years. They’ve put together an excellent companion website, and as of November 16th, you can watch the entire program online - I highly recommend it. NOVA always does a fantastic job on their programs and this is no exception.
My one criticism is that they neglected to mention the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s role in the Intelligent Design vs Science debate.
@ Pacific Pam - So far, from what I have read, and from the questions and replies that have been exchanged, I think you are, for the most part, very likeable people.
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Since Orthodoxy stresses that the finite cannot, and does not, affect the Infinite, there is a great deal more opportunity to recognize that both satire and parody are a very refreshing way in which to keep HUMAN egos from over-inflation, as well as being, very possibly, an example of the fact that God’s own sense of humor is much greater than organized religions and their leaders are willing - much less able - to admit.
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Perhaps the idea of a humorless God is at the root of that kind of response which would condemn others. There is something rather ridiculous in the approach, every time a funnymentalcase announces his, or her, interpretation of “obedience to the law/book in literal form”. The inflation of the “Pastoral” position/ego to a status of divine afflatus that confounds the messenger with the message seems to be almost universal in Western Christianity. And this more or less boils down to a kind of, “To insult/disagree with ME is to insult/disagree with God” - vide, an “Infallible Pope”, for instance, and a whole (un)-Holy Office of the Inquisition.
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Carried over into Protestantism, I believe it was Milton who wrote: “New Presbyter is but old Priest, writ large.” (Sorry. I do get long-winded, and carried away at times.) Anyway, I do like you.
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@Peter Popoff - My own background includes a Jesuit education, with double majors - philosophy being the subject area in which I wrote my Baccalaurate Thesis. On the way through, I encountered St. Photios of Constantinople, when doing a paper on the Schism of the early 800s, over the insertion of the Filioque clause into the Symbolion. I always get a little kick out of telling my good Roman friends that it was the Jesuits who made an Orthodox Christian out of me - unintentionally of course.
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If you will forgive a quotation: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Altogether too often, Western versions of Christianity seem to teach that EVERYTHING has been, already, not only “seen” but completely explained, verified, proved, and cast in concrete: Just read the Book - or “follow the leader”, who knows it all already. Orthodoxy still stresses the word, “Mysterion” (Mystery) throughout. Which serves to remind us of the difference between finite/created and Infinite/Creator. And, although he was not himself Orthodox, Alexander Pope said it rather well: “Presume not God to scan./ The proper study of mankind is man.”
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Just a personal note, here. Maybe, rather than asking, “Why does God let . . . ?”, we should ask, “What can we do to change, or eliminate, that which we now see as troubling, and has us baffled?” I like to think God gave his human creation a brain, and sentience, in order for humanity to USE THEM, rather than merely to regard them as some kind of “decorative” appendages.
Yay…I just read the first line…It was enough and satisfying…=)
@Captain Capelli d’angelo - I used to post on our local Rocky Munchkin News “Reader Response to Letters to the Editor” pages - before they went over to requiring a password, which they assign, after one “subscribes” to their new website - and I am not without a fairly wide streak of crankiness that comes out at times; especially in response to today’s “conservative” political issues. I began by using my own name - and I’ll spare you the results of that, except to say, that personal harassment got way out of hand.
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When I went back, my friend suggested that, given my age, and my not always sweet, gentle, and mellow disposition, I might well use a “pen name” more descriptive of how I am seen to be. So, I do; and I’ve stuck to it, out of force of habit, I guess, even when matters are religious in content. (Helps me to remember that I had better not begin to confuse myself as “messenger” with what I hope is a good message, too.)
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Anyone who wants to read some of the less pleasant of my productions is welcome to go to “http://www.reflectionsinajaundicedeye.info”; and correspondence with “dickenslaw@myway.com” will get reply - though not always promptly, since I am not on the computer regularly. (I’m not all that much “sweetness and light” when it comes to some areas of religion, either. But . . . ! I also don’t claim “perfection”.)
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If you go to the website, please drop a note on the Guest Book. It’s too expensive for me to offer a blog as such; but your comments will be appreciated, though not open to additional postings in reply.
Passing note: This machine of mine does not produce hyperlinks; and the last time I put up information about the website and email, it had to be broken into separate words to get through. I’ve used quotes here, since I don’t know what the website provider might do with the material otherwise.
O.K….O.K… Great new religion! How do I become a minister?
How much? Are there matchbook applications available? How soon
can I make the big bucks converting, getting followers? Are multiple
wives allowed? O.K. O.K. how about dewy-eyed followers? Not too old;
not too smart. Has anyone claimed the Hamptons? How do I get in touch with Paris, Brit, and Lindsey?
Pass the pasta…I’m on board! Just need the book
and the the emblem for the car.
From the Panda’s Thumb
“sex, lies and a math mistake”
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“First, the sex. I’ll admit right up front that this post has nothing to do with sex, except for the general nature of what the ID movement is trying to do to public science education in this country.
Before moving on to lies, let’s take care of the math mistake first.
Last week, in response to the splendid PBS/NOVA production on the Dover trial (Judgment Day: ID on Trial”), the Discovery Institute hacked out a booklet for teachers, called “The Theory of Intelligent Design: A briefing packet for educators, to help teachers understand the debate between Darwinian evolution and intelligent design…..”.”
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pandasthumb.org/archives/2007/11/sex-lies-and-a.html
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(add http://)
*Passes some pasta and a tankard of rum to Fun Doh Mentalist*
RAmen
I live in Nashville and I remember a few years back, the owners of a local coffeehouse cooked a bun and its topography bore an uncanny resemblance to either Mother Teresa or the Blessed Mother and Child (I forget which). They put it on exhibit in their pastry case and did land office business.
Anyway one night the owner’s dog broke into the case and scarfed thre thing down. Naturally, they induced vomiting in the mutt, but somehow their sacred pastry was never the same.
I won’t be surprised if someday soon ID scientists find a big shark and cut it open, and there inside is a whole person. Then they cut the person open, and in him is a little baby shark. And in the baby shark there isn’t a person, because it would be too small.
But there’s a little doll or something,
like a Johnny Combat little toy guy… something like that, soon.
I’m a fan of this program. NOVA seriously rocks.
@Peter Popoff
Is it just me or have you been a bit fond of Jack Handey Quotes recently?
Discovery Institute Motto: Lying and stealing is alright if it’s done in the promotion of creationism.
Following on from the editing abuse of Attenborough’s programs in the Netherlands, now the DI steals and edits an animation from Harvard.
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DI Fellows– EXPELLED for plagiarism
“Maybe they think it is ‘okay’ to use it anyway, because they stripped off Harvard/XVIVOs copyright and credits.
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Maybe they think it is ‘okay’ because they gave the animation a new title (’Inner life of a cell’ became ‘The cell as an automated city’) and an extraordinarily unprofessional new narration (alternate alternate title– ‘ Big Gay Al takes a tour of a cell!’). Harvard/XVIVOs narration, all of the science, is whisked away and replaced with a ’surrealistic lilliputian realm’– ‘robots’, ‘manufacturing’, ‘circuitry’, ‘nano moters’, ‘UPS labels’. Maybe they think it is ‘okay’ because they turned all of Harvards science into ‘MAGIC!’
..”
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http://endogenousretrovirus.blogspot.com/2007/11/di-fellows-expelled-for-plagiarism.html
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An elaborate spoof on Intelligent Design, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is neither too elaborate nor too spoofy to succeed in nailing the fallacies of ID. It's even wackier than Jonathan Swift's suggestion that the Irish eat their children as a way to keep them from being a burden, and it may offend just as many people, but Henderson, described elsewhere as a 25-year-old "out-of-work physics major," puts satire to the same serious use that Swift did. Oh, yes, it is very funny. -- Scientific American
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