Zeno's Paradox
While critical thinking may not make up for a lack of knowledge, it is essential for gaining knowledge.
Monday, January 23, 2006:  
Influence, Science, Education:
Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: God, Science, Politics and Your School

I was able to catch the "God, Science, Politics and Your School" on tv last night. My impression overall was that it wasn't too bad, given that it took the totally inappropriate approached of "balanced viewpoints" reporting of factual information. In the "opposing viewpoints" part of the report, the intelligent design creationists presented their easily refuted lies, while the scientists gave very concise answers to difficult questions. I guess that is as good as it gets given the format.

There were great quotes from Ken Miller and Eugenie Scott (from NCSE). Michael Behe gave his tired, old bs about those "molecular machines" (the ones that have him so confused he's certain that no one understands them better, certainly none of the authors of the many peer-reviewed papers that have been published).

The coverage of the recent court decision in Dover was pretty good. I can't say the same for the Kansas science standards where Ellerbee said intelligent design creationism was winning, but wasn't clear how.

At the end, the report basically took for fact that intelligent design creationism is just a religious viewpoint (or at least assumed this), and then showed that there are many competing religious viewpoints.

I'm looking forward to seeing others' reactions to the show. I also hope that somewhere in Nick.com there will be further information about the show.

Update: If you have the right browser setup and a high-speed connection, the show is available online here (20 minutes streaming video).


    -  Ron  9:17 AM

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