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Old March 18th, 2008, 03:35 PM
James Brody James Brody is offline
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Cool Dawkins: "Just say, 'No'"

I caught a reference this morning to a "Ben Stein" and "Expelled." Guess I don't get out much: the movie "Expelled" was scheduled to open in February but now is targeted for later April. Stein takes on the case for "intelligent design, overlaps it with free speech, and interviews faculty who claim interference, harassment, and even firings for challenging "conventional" neodarwinism.

So, what's new?

The NeoD's have taken on, and lost, to such as Lynn Margulis (who dusted off and justified an older theory, that cellular inclusions were once separate, living organisms) and evo-devo (the idea that evolution is a process of changing details in development rather than changing end products). The NeoD's have pretty much lost both arguments.

As for ID:

1) Evidence suggests that a "gene for" (aka "diffuse interactive emergent network of weak influences with a hub and zillions of nodes") religiosity exists as much as for skepticism. Given substantial genetic contributions to either extreme, and given the waning influence of imposed (shared) environments after you reach eight years old, there is not the influence of a snail fart of instruction to act other than as you are. (Thus, I spent my childhood and adolescence surrounded by religious ceremony in my public schooling. I was about 12 when it fell off and I simply told no one. My parents were democrats and I grew up in the socialist organization known as the US Army but I still distrust government and will take less of it at any opportunity. There was a 40 year old woman who owned a bicycle store at Camp Stewart. She made some remark about the military and I blurted, "Don't let the general hear that!" I got such a lecture...I still tingle where it woke me up!)

2) Religion has the benefits to be found in any herd, swarm, school, or flock. WD talked a lot about predators, he could also have mentioned differential access to mates, food, water, and help with rearing offspring. Relgions allow both for stability and exploration: regression-to-the-mean moves you toward the midline of characteristics, sexual selection pushes you a little past them, and loners both protect the mob from disasters and find new ways to extract a living from a local environment.

3) It's foolish to argue a gene out of its expression instead of understanding its benefits in both ancestral and in modern times. Contemporary universities are natural, frequent magnets for skeptics, leftists, and self-lovers.

4) Given that "gene for" religion will be expressed under a wide range of circumstances, suppression of the standard brew of faiths should produce a wide variety of alternatives: the Wicans do well, I hear, with feminists!

5) Apoptosis...aka, programmed cell death...appears when developing cells fail to make connections with their targets. There are many aspects of suicide that have to do more strongly with apoptosis than with NeoD inclusive fitness. (See Brody, 2008, Chapter 11: Suicide & Apoptosis...Mother said "No")

Bottom lines:

1) Many NeoD's don't want to learn any physics, they did better in English or biology class, worse in geometry, trig, or calculus...probably a genetic thing and an asset or a handicap depending on where you locate yourself. (Might also be a genomics thing: dad's contribution helps you navigate in space, find patterns, and dream big! And true regardless of the shape of your gonads!)

2) Narcissism is marked by territories, displays, and self-love (aka entitlement revealed in grooming or in citing your own work!). Narcissism is also marked by dying alone and absolute misery while it happens. (Want to depress a narcissist? Don't give them what they think they deserve!)

3) Knowing nothing of emergent networks will make you a poor planner but should not lead to your being shot or beheaded. While the believers of one religion will challenge those of another religion, they understand genes and burn, shoot, hang, eviscerate, or decapitate agnostics and atheists.

4) Skeptics about religions, now in Europe and later in American, will be killed by their tolerance for everything but religion. Islam is coming and the skeptics, ever composed of narcissists, will expect the religious to defend them...

End of rant.

JimB

Stein links (they're kinda boring!):
http://www.expelledthemovie.com/home.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGCxbhGaVfE (8 min trailer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWMGD...eature=related (O'Reilly interview)

References:
"*" clear, focused, doorway to a lot of other good stuff, and shouldn't cost you too much!

Brody J (April 2008) Rebellion: Physics to Personal Will. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.
Carroll S (2006) The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution. NY: Norton.
Gould S (2002) The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Belknap.
* Jacob F (1998) Of Flies, Mice, and Men. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
* Kirschner M & Gerhart J (1998) Perspective: Evolvability. Proceedings National Academy of Science. 95(15), 8420-8427.
Kirschner M & Gerhart J (2005) The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin's Dilemma. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
* Lewontin R (1998/2000) Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, Environment. Cambridge, MA, Harvard.
Margulis L & Sagan D (1997) Slanted Truths: Essays in Gaia, Symbiosis, and Evolution. NY: Springer-Verlag.
Raff, Rudolf (1996) The Shape of Life. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Last edited by James Brody; March 20th, 2008 at 12:21 PM..
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  #2  
Old March 30th, 2008, 11:03 AM
Fred H. Fred H. is offline
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Posts: 483
Default Re: Dawkins: "Just say, 'No'"

Hey JimB, for a chuckle check out this Dick Dawkins “Beware of the Believers” ditty from:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...62977734749452
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