Maybe that should read VOTERS SMITE CREATIONISM DISGUISED AS INTELLIGENT DESIGN.
The NYT reported yesterday that the eight members of the Dover, PA school board who were in favor of insisting that what they call Intelligent Design (Creationism) be taught in the public schools of the district as an alternative to evolution have been voted out of office in Tuesday's election by a public that was not amused at being made into fools.
The Rev. Pat Robertson has followed up by speaking out once again (the last time of note was when he called for someone to assassinate Pres. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela), this time advising the voters of Dover that God was unhappy with them and that they could expect to see his wrath manifested by some calamity in the not too distant future.
A young man who is near and dear to my heart, my middle son, Ted, 28, a math teacher and mechanical engineer, responded to my email advising of the above as follows:
"That makes it pretty clear that Intelligent Design is very much about God, as opposed to its supporters' claims that it isn't simply Creationism in disguise."
Since the school board's activity has resulted in a publicized lawsuit in which the school board takes the position that it is not promoting religion, Robertson's position seems to give the lie to that, as Ted so aptly points out in 25-words-or-less fashion. 26 actually, but who's counting.
Better than a chip off the old block, as I neither thought nor said that.
Well done, Ted.
Here's a followup at Online Journal.
Demonstrating that while species mutate, this article suggests that some people don't learn. A Kansas legislator who majored in biology and chemistry says that nevertheless at heart he cannot envision creatures crawling out the sea and evolving into humans. But he says, if you want proof that people change, check out football stadiums built twenty years ago where the seats are two small for today's asses as the fans have gotten lardier.
Perhaps he'd be more impressed with the ability of creatures to evolve when he gets his annual flu shot, since last year's vaccine no longer works, not because his body is no longer protected against last year's flu (it is) but because last year's flu has evolved at the genetic level into this year's which could kill him. This is why Pres. Bush on Nov. 2, 2005, approved a $7.5 spending appropriation to fight bird flu. All flu is bird flu as the virus has jumped species among humans, swine, and fowl. Now it appears in wild fowl, in their intestinal tracts. Wild fowl carry the virus all over the world as they migrate. If they land among domestic fowl on a farm or wind up in a zoo somewhere, the virus can find its way back into the human food chain and set off a pandemic. That's an epidemic that's gone worldwide.
The flu virus can kill you. The 1918 outbreak killed half a million people in the U.S. and 50-100 million worldwide. That's why it's worth the $7.1 billion to contain outbreaks and prevent them from happening here. China is quarantining 118 people and has slaughtered six million domestic fowl to contain another of their outbreaks. Many of the flu outbreaks originate in China because they have over a billion people and more billions of domestic chicken and ducks living cheek-by-fowl. The pigs get it and then the people who handle poultry and porkers. The virus is given too easy a jump between species. An infected person then hops a jet plain to visit relatives abroad and an outbreak occurs.