Thanks for keeping the site warm for me 🙂
Gotta lot of threads to catch up on, by the looks of things.
Still a bit gobsmacked by the number of Christians on Uncommon Descent who seem to think that William Lane Craig’s apologia for the divine command to genocide has any merit, and it’s left me somewhat sick of heart, but reassuring that Timaeus, and some others also find it abhorrent.
The idea that any action is good if you think that God commanded it seems to me so self-evidently dangerous that I simply cannot imagine how anyone can entertain it for a moment. And that’s only one of the problems with it.
For those out of the loop, the hoohah started here:
Why I refuse to debate with William Lane Craig
I think Dawkins’ excuse rings hollow, myself, but his link to Craig’s essay on the genocide of the Canaanites made my blood run cold.
I thought we had moved beyond that when you claimed that Craig’s premise of god was faulty.
We moved into reality.
If you know retreat to unvalidated premises again, you are working in a virtual reality. It is a world that you have created.
I would really like to see “kairosfocus”‘s response to the idea that Craig’s premise of god is faulty.
Elizabeth,
Dear Liz,
This will probably be seen by few since it is buried so deep in this thread, but you’ve made a much better case than I for the insights of children. They have no philosophical or ideological precommitments, and in some ways are far more insightful than adults. I did not make up what I said, and my memory is not faulty.
I’m currently working on a new software program at work and will be posting an essay at UD concerning software design methodology and its relevance to ID in biology. You are welcome to reproduce the essay here.
I have little time for commenting at either site, but it should be interesting to compare the responses from design versus no-design proponents.
I’ve given you posting rights here (as I normally do – if anyone has been overlooked and would like to post, just let me know) so you’d be very welcome to cross-post it here, or post a snippet with a link. That goes for anyone who blogs elsewhere and would like comments from the denizens of TSZ btw 🙂
All power to the extended blogosphere 🙂
Elizabeth,
Dear Liz,
Does this mean I’m finally somebody? (This is an inside joke in our engineering department, taken from Steve Martin’s movie, The Jerk.) We compliment each other with insults (it’s mostly a guy thing).
After a particularly successful engineering test to which I contributed I asked our lead engineer, “Does this mean I’m finally somebody?” He replied, “Well, I wouldn’t go quite that far!”
Just dropping by to say hello here after waking up to find I have been banned over at UD – It seems that catching KariosFocus in a blatant lie, and then cracking a joke about libel lawsuits, was too much of a grievous sin – perhaps my mistake was to make it a joke – if I had just lied by actually threatening legal action where not was intended then maybe it would have been OK 😉
Liz, it was truly a pleasure, and I have learned a great deal from reading your posts over there. I’ll try and drop by here from time to time!
I have decided to look upon my banning at UD as a positive – there was something slightly addictive about engaging there, and it provided too convenient a source of distraction and prevarication. I’ve got work to do and a daughter to raise 🙂
DrBot,
I’m going to miss you on UD.
Seems like they’re in house-cleaning mode again after being beat up over the last few weeks!
Sorry to hear that.
I find myself visiting UD less often. It’s continual sneering about science has made visiting UD an unpleasant chore. While there are still a few posts that try to give reasoned arguments for ID, those are being drowned out by the anti-science rhetoric.
Oh, I’ll go that far, Gil 🙂
Looking forward to reading your piece.
I’ve learned a huge amount from you, DrBot, and I hope you will drop by here from time to time so I can learn some more!
Evolutionary algorithms (or what, from my PoV, I tend to think of as learning algorithms) are fascinating.
I think that any fair reading of UD will show that the vast majority of pro-ID posters there, and certainly the moderators and subject contributors, are not “anti-science” at all, nor “sneer” at science; rather, they have what is IMO a legitimate concern over the anti-religious, anti-theist, pro-materialist agenda that many of those currently in positions of power in the institutions of science blatantly demonstrate.
Yes, there is some sneering and an “anti” perspective, but not at science per se.
Thanks, and I appreciate the words of support that I saw you left at UD after the banning.
Virtually every post by News is of the type, “Look what dumb scientists came up with now.”
While I don’t see cold facts and logic, I do see a nice cozy little spot set aside for the divine foot.
You’d think they’d welcome the traffic rather than ban anything that moves. God only knows what UD looks like to a casual observer who isn’t already inured to the place. It resembles a kind of post-apocalyptic landscape, the remaining mutants scrabbling around in the ruins wondering what the hell went wrong.
Here’s the frontpage headline today (presumably Denyse O’Leary): “Dear Darwin lobby: The Dover trial is WHY people don’t believe you …”
This is UD. This is ID.