Creationist group tricks religious student group into hosting "Origin Summit" at university. [View all]

[DetlefK]

Excerpt from http://io9.com/creationists-stage-a-suprise-attack-on-science-at-michi-1651766419
"As part of a "back door" strategy to teach intelligent design on college campuses, an Oklahoma-based creationist group is sponsoring an Origin Summit at Michigan State University. Faculty and students are divided over how to respond, especially since the event will be attacking the work of an eminent MSU scientist.

News of the Origin Summit caught MSU's scientific community largely by surprise, reports Vivian Callier at InsideScience. The creationist organization, called Creation Summit, secured a room at the university's business school through a student religious group, but the student group did not learn about the details of the program—or the provocative titles of the lectures—until later."


The original article: http://news.sciencemag.org/education/2014/10/creationism-conference-large-u-s-research-university-stirs-unease
And their website: http://www.originsummit.com/

- "There is no doubt Hitler believed in evolution." Actually, unworthy-people-dilute-our-gene-pool was the only thing the public bothered to remember of Darwin's theory of evolution. It was THE big social topic back then. Of course Hitler heard about that.

- "The evidence for the Big Bang just isn't there." This guy can surely explain the distance-dependence of the stellar redshift and the overall smoothness of the Cosmic Microwave Background and its minute fluctuations and its origin.

- "Lenski has been trying for 15 years to prove evolution. So far, he has failed." Funny, just this week I read an article about parallel development of equal biological features in 2 different species of fish living in the same lake, over a span of just a few years.

- "DNA-mutations only cause destruction in genetic info." So, where do new flu-viruses come from every year?

- "Natural selection is not evolution." Finally they got something right. The first is just a component of the later.

- "The dueling simulations: Who wins? Evolution or creation?" Two tiny problems: 1. A simulation is only as good as the programmer. 2. A simulation can tell you what happens when your theory becomes real. It cannot tell you whether your theory is correct. You need experiments for that.

- Is that a joke about humans being descended from monkeys or are they really that stupid?

- They have challenged Dr. Robert Pennock, an outspoken opponent of Intelligent Design, to a debate, back in March. So far, he hasn't answered. Maybe he has a job with lots of responsibilities (like doctors tend to do) and his time is too precious to waste it on a pseudo-intellectual debate? Maybe he would have needed the option for a real talk, not a debate, to lay bare the mathematical/thermodynamic loopholes Intelligent Design conveniently ignores?