Alas, poor Ohio .... EvC related news

DarkStar says:

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I guess those of you who champion the machinations of that anti-theist, anti-American organizaton known as the "ACLU", aka the "Atheists Communist Liberals Union, could always join them in filing suits against all three branches of our Federal Government for daring to mention "god" in their official sessions of their respective branches of our Federal Government.

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Where did my Uncle Sid get an Internet account?regards,
Esteban Hambre

DarkStar claims:

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I would readily admit that no less than two, if not all of the above definitions meet the qualifications necessary to determine that intelligent design is indeed a theory.

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More in terms of a conjecture, certainly, than as a testable framework for organizing observations. And scientific? Not even close.The foundation of scientific endeavor is methodological naturalism. This guiding principle states that science must propose verifiable, detectable mechanisms to explain natural phenomena. Anything not verifiable or detectable is considered irrelevant to science, since it can have no meaning in the context of empirical evidential inquiry.Empirical deals with what we can all observe or verify with our senses. Evidential refers to the methodology that relies on supporting evidence to confirm or refute scientific claims. And if the inquiry doesn't qualify on either of these counts, it's not scientific.regards,
Esteban Hambre

From the glossary of this site:

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Natural selection: Differential reproduction or survival of replicating organisms caused by agencies that are not directed by humans (See Artificial selection). Since such differential selective effects are widely prevalent, and often act on hereditary (genetic) variations, natural selection is a common major cause for a change in the gene frequencies of a population that leads to a new distinctive genetic constitution (evolution).

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Think of a tournament in which all contestants pair off and compete, then the winners of all those competitions pair off, and so on. The traditional arrow-shaped diagram used to keep track of tournament standings is a useful way to visualize the process. There's no reason that any one of the possible pathways through the diagram should be the a priori correct one, but one contestant will eventually emerge as the winner.Natural selection is just such a filter, except that the lines of the diagram also radiate from each nexus as the winners advance. In other words, the winners of each round reproduce more contestants, and the process becomes a cumulative one. The inherent variation in any population is therefore subjected to successive rounds of testing, and each winning variation both narrows down the field (by eliminating other variants) and tries to expand it to its advantage (by reproducing variations on its successful genetic formula).regards,
Esteban Hambre

DarkStar claims,

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I can look a a mussel that, though without sight, has the ability to exactly mimic shiners, which includes not only their size but also their color, in order to attract bass fish which it uses for propagation purposes. That is one hell of an intelligent design, at least it is so in my humble opinion.

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Natural selection has the amazing ability to make something look like it's been intelligently designed, when actually the cumulative pruning effect of countless rounds of elimination have produced a mussel that's well adapted in color and size to its environment. That's the way Nature sculpts its creations: one small modification at a time, without intent or foresight, producing impressive designs at the cost of an enormous amount of waste and death. Ask the millions of mussels that didn't make it whether the process is as ingenious as it seems.regards,
Esteban Hambre