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Haha, sweet. For those who don't get the reference, go to http://www.venganza.org/

With me, there are not such problems, Midget.



I Just Want To You With My Noodly Appendage

I Touched The Whole Crew With My Noodly Appendage

I Touch You With My Noodly Appendage, My Friend, For Warm Memories Of The One True Original Portable Computer Artifact.

Don't worry for them, Midget.



I Will Touch Them With My Noodly Appendage

Here are some responses from the Kansas School Board, and according to the New Scientist: THE board for Beebe School District in Arkansas voted on 12 July to remove from textbooks stickers promoting an "intelligent designer" over evolution.

Fear no confusion, Midget.



I Touch You With My Noodly Appendage.

Disagreed. IMNSHO, a "valid theory" requires falsifiablity. ID is at best a hypothesis with a modest amount of evidence against it, such as inefficiencies in metabolic biochemistry, the existance of a blind spot in the human eye (which is not the case in some marine species), not to mention the classic joke that God is a Civil Engineer.

Furthermore, successful prediction of expermental results is what allows a Hypothesis to advance to being considered a Theory. I have never heard anyone trying to use the concept of ID to make testable experimental predictions. This means that the Flying Spaghetti Monster Hypothesis is markedly superior to the Intelligent Design Hypothesis, as the FSMH allows the prediction that the number of pirates on the high seas will continue to fall as Global warming continues to rise — a testable proposition which might allow the FSM to be considered a theory in the next few decades. Really.

Evolution, on the other hand, has among other things been used to successfully predict that intermediate forms (such as archaeopteryx) would be discovered in gaps in the fossil record.

I repeat: ID is not science. I will elaborate: ID should not be taught in science classes. (It might be suitable for mention in modern American government high school classes in Junior or Senior year, as this is usually about as early as you can get students to intelligently reflect on the WHY and HOW of their education, and on whether this is how they SHOULD be educated.) I will also add: if intelligent design is in fact true, the Watchmaker is not only Blind, but a drunken Idiot with a perverse sense of humor to boot.

Yes, I am saying it may be Proven, but is still Invalid. It's not science. Science can be wrong — the Thompson "Plum Pudding" model of the atom springs to mind. Science, however, after tripping over an inconvenient counterexample, tends to dust itself off, examine the stumbling block, pick it up and add it to the collection, and continue on an adjusted course. Religion merely pretends that there's no problem there, even after tripping over the stumbling block, until someone picks the stumbling block up and tries to use it the beat religion's head in — at which point Religion says it's being "persecuted".

Flying Spaghetti Monsterism

Don't forget the Flying Spaghetti Monster theory.

May you be forever touched by His Noodly Appendage.

My favorite current theory is the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Please note how it also explains global warming with the decline of the world's pirate population.

Finally! A theory that explains both the origins of mankind AND global warming. This can obviously mean only one thing: it's TWICE as good as the so-called "theory" of evolution.

I, for one, suggest we begin reprinting the textbooks immediately.

-Grym

All I can say is that I'm disgusted with the way the catholic right and the liberal left have muscled out The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. We have drafted an open letter adressing our concerns to the "Kansas School Board"

http://www.venganza.org/

A) If you give creationism equal time with evolution, you're going to have to either add a whole lot of unnecessary adjectives to the description of creationism or find a way to fit evolution into the same time it takes to say, "Or God did it."

B) If you're giving them equal time based on the fact that neither can be proven or disproven, then I'm going to have to insist it be 33/33/33 with The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

(Let me get this part out of the way: I am a Christian, I believe in the glory of God, and I accept the role of God as Creator and Maintainer of the Universe; but just because I believe that doesn't mean I have to buy in to some 5,000 year old Hebraic myth of Creation, which was probably borrowed from their Babylonian contemporaries anyway. Genesis is a MYTH, an attempt to understand our role in Creation and why there is a disconnect between God and humanity. It's not meant to be understood literally; if you take it literally, you miss out on its deeper meaning.)

The most obvious problem with ID -- and I'm sure that this has been pointed out before -- is that there is no one single version of ID out there, just as there is more than one Creation Myth out there. If Kansas and other bastions of ignorance in our nation want to give "equal time" to alternatives, they really ought to be teaching not just Biblical mythology but also the idea that Atlas has the Earth on his shoulders, that we live on a disc help up by four elephants on the back of a giant turtle, and so on. And, of course, Pastafarianism.

I understand why some Christians believe that the theory of evolution might be a threat to their worldview; but, really, it doesn't. God wants us to give up our sins, not our brains.

If Intelligent Design is to be given equal time in biology classes (even though it does not even qualify as a scientific theory), then I demand that the Flying Spaghetti Monster get equal time as well...

But seriously folks, evolution is an observable fact. Darwinian Evolution is on of several theories regarding the mechanisms by which evolution works. As for the "it is only a theory" arguement, remember that gravity is only a theory as well.

It is amazing how non-scientists completely misunderstand the meaning of the word theory. A theory is a model for explaining phenomena. A theory is supported by physical evidence and observation. A theory can be used to make predictions about the phenomena in question. A theory is falsifiable (meaning that, if wrong, it can be disproven by experiment or observation). Various theories of evolution meet these criteria. Intelligent Design does not.

Take a gander at TalkOrigins.

http://www.venganza.org/

Most of the people I know that are whole heartedly against evolution, haven't got the faintest idea how it works. They were never exposed to it and won't take the time to read anything about it. However, when I was in grade school, my science teacher would occasionally interject that intelligent design is a possibility that can't really be ruled out. Then he'd go right back into evolutionary theory. I believe he was doing it to keep certain people off his back. But, it didn't turn me into a right wing ultra conservative bible banger. It just taught me to keep an open mind. I still believe what I believe, but I do admit that I might be wrong.

Of course, the real problem they are going to run into is which intelligent design concepts they are going to teach. Even sticking within the Judeo-Christian dogma, there's quite a few different viewpoint on the subject. These are teachers after all, not theologians. But, that topic will only cause heated arguments amonst all the right wingers... which is always fun to watch.

In Kansas, we intelligently design all the time.

My favorite current theory is the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Please note how it also explains global warming with the decline of the world's pirate population.

From the founder's open letter to the Kansas Board of Education, which is considering re-writing the state's science standards to have none: "I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence."

You know - that silly process whereby you make a falsifiable claim, run an experiment, report your results, and encourage others to add to the store of scientific knowledge by attempting to falsify your original hypothesis?

Since no decent human being can live with the trace amounts of uncertainty and skepticism required by such arrangements, it is clear that we as a society cannot rely on logical conjecture based on observable evidence. We need absolute, unquestionable, unchanging Truth. And that can only come from His Noodly Appendage.

It's not just the Christians. Those who believe in the FSM want their theories put into classrooms too.

Bah Jedi. I'm eagerly awaiting the first Flying Spaghetti Monsterist congressman.

No, it is clearly the work of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.