I am a computer geek and teach at a Community College near Dayton OH. It’s fun and keeps me off the streets at night, or I might have more time to post to various ID BLOGs and ListServers.

Ted

FYI: http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/.....41306.html

Ted

It’s all gone quiet.

Did the IDEA club forget to mention this little gem? How the Cornell President denounced intelligent design as a “religious belief masquerading as a secular idea.”

Ted

Thread killer! =0P

Happy Reading,
Ted

Hmmm, the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture seems to think it is a FACT! Just read this:

“Intelligent design does not so much challenge whether evolution occurred but how it occurred. In particular, it questions whether purposeless material processes–as opposed to intelligence–can create biological complexity and diversity.”

If they agree that evolution occurred, then they are saying that it is a fact.

What is a fact? A fact is something that occurred. Even in a court of law, the facts are presented and then the theory of how and why the facts occurred is presented and the jury makes a decision based of both.

In science, a fact, like a court of law, is an observable event. Gravity is a fact, just drop an apple and see. But to science gravity is also a theory, actually a set of theories. The why and how gravity occurs doesn’t change the fact that it occurs, but it does change our understand of how and why it occurrs.

Light is another theory. We understand only a small part of Light and that theory changes a lot. Is it a wave, is it a particle, how fast does it really go? These theories don’t undermine that Light is also a fact because light exists. I can see, so there must be light.

The Atom is another fact/theory thing. Atoms exist because we found a way to blow them up and use them to generate heat. But the theory on what they are and how they works changes a great deal. It doesn’t stop us from being able to blow them up, but it does enhance our understanding.

Evolution, defined as change over time, is a fact. There is way to much evidence to dispute the facts of evolution occurring. The theory explaining evolution is changing all the time as new knowledge is added to the mix. So when an ID proponent tells you evolution isn’t a fact, just point to one of the leading ID organizations, the Discovery Institute and say it is according to them!

I will have to add that if nothing else ID propoents are adaptable. As the law rules against them, they change their story:

Oh, I can’t teach Creationalism because it’s not science, OK, let’s call it Creational Scinece. Oh, I can’t teach that one because it’s religious? OK, let’s call it ID and turn it into sicnece. OH, I can’t mandate ID because it’s still to closely tied to religion, so let’s attack evolution instead. Oh my attacks on evolution are failing, let’s no long deny evolution, but argue the theory. Sure, just because we are losing adherents left and right because we keep changing our gameplan (Young Earth Creationalists seem to be disillusioned with ID because it denies God’s part in it).

Wow, I see another example of evolution, the ID’s arguments themselves.

Fact:

Knowledge or information based on real occurrences: an account based on fact; a blur of fact and fancy.

Something demonstrated to exist or known to have existed: Genetic engineering is now a fact. That Chaucer was a real person is an undisputed fact.
A real occurrence; an event: had to prove the facts of the case.
Something believed to be true or real: a document laced with mistaken facts.
A thing that has been done, especially a crime: an accessory before the fact.
Law. The aspect of a case at law comprising events determined by evidence: The jury made a finding of fact.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fact

The fact is there are a few ‘facts’…

Don’t be silly. If you went to the panel discussion, you sure didn’t listen carefully. Hunter did relay the definitions used by evolution supporters, and it is the one I repeated in comment 2.