CENTRAL FLORIDA PASTAFARIANS!!! - Event at Sundome

[Alpaca]

Read about it here. Good place to come out in force. Supposedly being held by the Christian Scientists.

[anon1mat0]

Perhaps you should make a note in gatherings also. Pity it is on a business day or I would drive up.

[anthrobabe]

I could make it also if it was on a weekend- I'm only in central Ar- 'bout 12-13 hours- not bad for a weekend road trip

[angelsou]

I think I could make it over to Tampa for some proselytization. I vaguely remember Tampa having lots of beer, too, and I'm sure we could scrounge up the other necessities for communion =)

Anyone else interested? I'll dress up if you will!

[angelsou]

I've spoken with the husband, and we're definately leaning towards heading down for the event. Anyone else interested?

My mother is of the opinion that this will be a pro-evolution event, expected to show that intelligent design is *NOT* the way to address the issue. I'll call the school a little later today, but does anyone have the inside story?

I'll be quite a lot more civilized (and more appropriately dressed, I suppose) if they really are scientists who happen to be christians and not christians who are pretending to talk about science.

[angelsou]

The site has been updated with:

"Two imminent ***<angelsou inserts: I think they meant eminent =P>*** scientists, Dr. Michael Behe, biologist and author of Darwin's Black Box, and Dr. Jonathan Wells, biochemist and author of Icons of Evolution, will debate the relative scientific merit of of the intelligent design movement and Darwin's macro evolutionary theory. Sponsored by Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Inquiry, the presentation will give all school and college students with proper ID a copy of the new DVD, Unlocking the Mystery of Life. They will also be admitted free of charge; admission for others is $5.00. High school students and faculty, and college students and faculty, with proper ID, will be admitted at no charge; all others will be admitted for $5.00"


I did a little searching on the debaters:

Dr. Behe is an ID proponant - a biochemist making the claim that too many biological systems are 'irreducibly complex' and (we've all heard this part) that obviously argues in favor of an intelligent designer. There's an excellent review of his book up at http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/behe/review.html that sums it up pretty well - he rests solely on the claim that certain systems "could not have" evolved independantly. Folks with brains know that we routinely get ourselves in quite a lot of trouble when we assume that something "could not have" happened.

Dr. Wells is completely anti-evolution as well. ***<angelsou inserts: color me PISSED - they call this a debate!?!>*** He's so completely out there that talkorigins has a whole PAGE devoted to people refuting him. Check out http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/wells/ .


This got long. I'll post my rant in yet another reply.

[angelsou]

Ok, so, I haven't called the school, my anger is all based on the tiny bit of research I did in the above post. I did try to call Dr. Porter, but got an answering system.
EDIT: I'm glad I waited until I'd let it stew. I'm less vengeful now. I still think it sounds like it's a crock, especially considering they give you that great intelligent design video for attending. I'm going to look into the geology department there, see if any of them know what's up. You'd think SOME science department would have to be involved, not just Dr. Porter (resume) an assistant director of assessment.

I still think I want to go. Anyone else interested?

[angelsou]

Figured I should update with some information that I've found.

Apparently, due to the inability to find a scientist willing to put their research on hold to debate people who consider "could not possibly" to be a scientific conclusion, they've stopped calling it a debate and have moved towards "ID Conference."

The notice I posted has a few inaccuracies (besides the rather funny misspelling) - the conference is not being sponsored by the "Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Inquiry" but the "Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity" - a group of medical doctors who are skeptical of Darwinian macroevolution. Giving away that "Unlocking the Mysteries of Life" DVD seems to be pretty much all they do in this world, besides embarrassing themselves.

When they first notified the public of these events (there's another weekend planned in Tampa, in November) they released THIS, advertising that Dr. Donald Duh, of Whatever State University, would be among the debaters. Yeah, seriously.

Anyway, I'm still going with a friend. I'm trying to put together a handout (titled "In Case You Were Interested in the Truth" or something similar) that directs people towards the refutations above. Will I really be the only pastafarian there? I guess maybe I should get a life...