Re: In the News: 'Expelled' Exposes Plight of Darwin Doubters

Mujin wrote:

backspace <sawireless2000@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:edc32354-673c-4752-9a76-6c8a90a7bcb3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:


On Nov 30, 7:06 pm, John Harshman <jharshman.diespam...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

jspace...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

From the article:
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By Michelle Vu
Christian Post Reporter
Fri, Nov. 30 2007 08:40 AM ET

WASHINGTON - A provocative film to be released next year is
uncovering a conspiracy among educators to "expel" professors who
question Darwinism.

Highly acclaimed professors have lost their jobs, been denied
tenure, and rejected of subsequent teaching positions for raising
questions on Darwin's theory of evolution, said speakers at a
promotional event this week for the film "Expelled: No Intelligence
Allowed," featuring Ben Stein.

"Soon after I lost my job at George Mason [University] for
questioning Darwinism, I was working at Northern Virginia Community
College," said biology professor Caroline Crocker, who is featured
in "Expelled," on Tuesday

"I overheard the administrator (at NVCC) saying to my supervisor
that she should get rid of me," Crocker recalled at the event
hosted by the Family Research Council. "I made her life easy and
said I found another job."

But Crocker continued to face persecution in subsequent jobs with
bosses telling her they ran out of money after she worked a year,
even though they had an NIH (National Institute of Health) grant.

"I was offered three or four jobs after many applications. Every
one of them after being offered at the interview the job, within
two weeks I was phoned and told that there is no money for this
position," the biology professor recalled.
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Read it
athttp://www.christianpost.com/article/20071130/30277_'Expelled'_Exp
ose... orhttp://tinyurl.com/yph66u

Here is a perfect occasion to apply the flat earth test. Imagine
Crocker is a geography teacher who doubts that the earth is
spherical. How should her employers react?


What do you want her to believe that a
a) monkey turned into a human
b) ape turned into a human
c) chimpanzee turned into a human
d) common ancestor turned into a human


Certainly not. She's expected to understand, and to function
professionally in accordance with the paradigm currently accepted by
biologists and others working in fields related to biology (eg
paleontology, physical anthropology, medicine, etc.) - that paradigm
happens to be the modern synthesis of the theory of evolution, as modified
from Darwin's original ideas during the 1930s in light of new information
regarding the nature of genetic inheritance. All four of your options
given above are largely nonsensical in light of the paradigm which informs
nearly every corner of the field of biology.

A) is only true in the sense that, if we had the common ancestor that gave
rise to both modern monkeys and modern apes in front of us we would
probably tend to lump it in with the monkeys.

B) is only true in the sense that humans actually *are* apes, and so any
common ancestor to all known modern apes (chimpanzees, gorillas,
orangutans, humans) would be an ape. If you care to distinguish humans
from other apes, then yes - humans are a development of apes.

Is there a reason why you make different claims about cases a and b?
They look exactly the same to me. The only difference in explanation
should be the substitution of the two words "monkey" and "ape".

C) is only true in that the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees
could probably colloquially be referred to as another type of chimp,

This is actually unlikely and probably unknowable anyway. Though we are
sometimes referred to as "the third chimpanzee".

though
there would be significant structural differences between modern chimps and
that species. Remember: the common ancestor *must* have all the features
both humans and chimps have in common, but it need not be the same as
either of us in other ways.

Actually, not true. Some features could have arisen convergently.
Genetically speaking, some certainly did, and thus were not present in
the common ancestor.

[snip]

.

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