Re: OT: Intelligent Falling

Oh yes, I like it!

Annie
dead parrots anyone?

"Mary" <mrfeathers@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1135120135.478316.149950@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
| Since we're poking fun at ID, I'll post this -- it's evidently making
| the rounds on Usenet and anyone who's a fan of Monty Python and not a
| fan of ID should enjoy it.
|
| Customer: Hello. I wish to complain about this so-called 'scientific
| theory' what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very
| establishment.
|
| Salesman: Oh yes, 'Intelligent Design'. What, uh... what's wrong
| with it?
|
| Customer: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. Its vacuous,
| that's what's wrong with it!
|
| Salesman: No, no, uh... what we need now is to 'teach the
| controversy'...
|
| Customer: Look matey, I know an empty 'argument from incredulity'
| when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.
|
| Salesman: No, no, it's not empty: it's just being elaborated.
| Remarkable theory, 'Intelligent Design', innit, eh? I mean, just
| look at all these books and articles: millions and millions of
| words...!
|
| Customer: The verbiage don't enter into it, my lad. It's stone dead.
| It's a non-starter. Empirically untestable, it belongs in
| metaphysics. This 'theory' makes no predictions; has no contribution
| to make
| beyond extended polemics; and can't even be honest about who it
| thinks the 'Designer' was.
|
| Bereft of all logical and epistemological credibility, it has no
| scientific status! If certain right-wing and fundamentalist
| pressure-groups hadn't hit upon it as a way of opposing decades of
| uncomfortable scientific and social progress, it'd be pushing up
| daisies! It's off the table. It's kicked the waste-paper bucket.
| THIS IS A NON-THEORY!
|
| Salesman: Well, I'd better replace it then. [takes a quick peek
| around] Sorry, squire: looks like that's all we've got...
|
| Customer: I see, I see. I get the picture.
|
| Salesman: I've got a piece of coal that looks quite a bit like a
| human tibia, if you squint at it...
|
| Customer: Pray, is it part of a theory that unifies the
| paleontological and biological sciences and leads to a powerful
| understanding of observed homologies and the nested hierarchy of
| life?
|
| Salesman: Not really.
|
| Customer: WELL IT'S HARDLY A BLOODY REPLACEMENT FOR DARWINISM THEN,
| IS IT?
|


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