"It was all shaping up to be a serious heavyweight bout. And then Meyer and Sternberg simply KO'd the competition in the opening round. If I were being generous I might say that Prothero tripped over his own arrogance and impaled himself on his condescension, but let's be honest; he was completely knocked out by Sternberg. I think Sternberg earned a third degree tonight, one in evolutionary bulldozing..... To call the debate a massacre would be a discredit to Sitting Bull. The only thing I can say is that Shermer needs to add a point to his booklet on how to debate "creationists" — namely, leave Donald Prothero at home in his van by the river. "
Link to the full article. Is it any wonder, given the performance of these 2 clowns, that Richard Dawkins refuses to debate Meyer? If it is so "settled" then why the massacre? Anybody?
9 comments:
The "massacre" as self proclaimed by the Discovery Institute you mean? Actually, the real massacre is in the scientific literature, where papers supporting evolution are continuously published and cdesign proponentsists are left with trying to write op-eds, etc. Where's the evidence for ID? There isn't any. It's well decided, except for the well funded PR campaign that is out there deluding and misinforming the public that ID/creationism has a leg to stand on.
W'sup JD?
I just googled "Glorious Spanking". Imagine my suprise when I ended up here? Small world.
Later, feeno
Here's PZ saying Meyer and Sternberg had nothing relevant to offer either. Here's Prothero's own account, saying much the same thing. The difference is that I don't expect you to swallow accounts from the pro-evolution side without questioning them.
Do you have a report from anyone not biased toward intelligent design or Meyer himself (he co-founded the Discovery Institute which wrote your piece), saying that his side won?
The topic of the debate (which Meyer's side changed on the morning of the event) reminds me - how'd you go finding some actual odds on abiogenesis?
Smart LX (and maybe GCT?), besides Myers (who refuses to debate Day which renders him an intellectual wuss in my book) are there any independent accounts of the debate that you could provide a link to here on the various sites you peruse? I'd like to read it.
I very much doubt that we'll find an independent account that we would all be satisfied with, although you can see Prothero's account here.
This is beside the point though. Debate doesn't decide science, evidence does. Evolution has it, ID doesn't. End of story. If you really wish to contend that ID should have a say or is relevant, then you'll have to present evidence for it and not just false evidence against evolution.
That was exactly my point, JD. The only account I found besides the DI, Myers and Prothero was by an ID proponent, possibly a flat out creationist (winteryknight.wordpress.com). There are independent accounts, all right, but there are no impartial accounts. No winner was officially declared, either.
Oh, I wouldnt use the word impartial, we all carry at least some baggage. More like independent of the Discovery Institute or any of the participants. For example, I recall a few atheist blogs being up front and admitting that Christopher Hitchens got his head handed to him when he debated William Lane Craig at Biola University. Link
I remember that. It's a pity Hitchens seemed to think he was just there to make a speech.
Anyway, regarding independent accounts of the debate just gone, I found Myers and winteryknight and that was it.
I'll probably purchase the DVD when it's available. My church hosts meet-ups with atheists and agnostics. I'm sure there will be some very definate opinions as to who got the better of whom.
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