How is Intelligent Design not religious?

Apparently the faculty at Kansas University have had enough of their primary-school brethern making a mockery of the state. Next semester, KU will offer the class "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism, and other Religious Mythologies." This is exactly where it belongs, as intelligent design has no science at all behind it. Intelligent design proponents will scream and yell that it is not a religious theory at all. They steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the identity of the designer in their "official" documents that they feed to the press.

Apparently, someone didn't get that memo. State Senator Kay O'Connor said, "I think in the very least it's a slap in the face to every Judeo-Christian religion that's out there."

The Discovery Institute has received over four million dollars in the past five years: you would think that they would have published a meaningful paper or two, or done some research, or something. But no: there has not been a single, useful paper published by anyone associated with the Discovery Institute. In fact, most of those in the DI with a PhD. all have the same arc: they all stopped doing, writing about, and publishing meaningful research about the same time they became part of the intelligent design cheerleading squad. The popular books they have, trying to convince the lay people that there is a "controversy," have all been published by IV Press and Regnery Press, two evangelical outfits that otherwise publish books found only in Christian bookstores.

Someone at Kansas University decided to "teach the controversy," which is the line the DI people use when trying to convince high schools what they should teach in biology classrooms. The controversy is not between evolutionary theory and intelligent design: the controversy is between those who believe the sacred should remain sacred and those who want to impose a religious, teleological point of view on everything we do damn the consequences.

Senator O'Connor has made her point very clear: the teaching of intelligent design is a religious agenda, and we anger her Christian brethren at our risk.

The downward spiral of American intelligence continues

After reading about Kansas's continuing to make a mockery of science, I came across an article today in which I learned that not one corporate sponsor stepped forward to support the American Museum of Natural History's "Darwin" exhibit. The entire $3 million display had to be funded by private interests.

I mean, c'mon. Pharmaceutical companies and agribusinesses that rely on evolutionary biology to further their business are terrified of pissing off the anti-science know-nothings in our midst? They want there to be no next generation of great scientists? What's wrong with these people?

I mean, contrast this with the Creation Museum in Ohio, run by Ken Hamm, aka "Dr. Dino." This is the guy who's going around the country buying up all the cheap roadside dinosaur exhibits and relabling them with biblical quotes. His campaign to do this is called "We're taking the dinosaurs back," and it has raised $7 million in the past year.

That's just sick.

Saar's

Omaha and I went to the QFC grocery store to pick up a ton of food for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner this evening. We had half of a shopping cart filled, but we were surprised that the local grocery store was out of shallots. We also tried Traders Joe's and the grocery store next to it, but they were all also sold out of shallots. All three stores were insanely busy, packed up to the noise-absorbing ceiling tiles. The crowding generated short tempers for people trying to park their cars.

When we got home with our bounty, we decided to make pizza for dinner, but we were also out of crusts. So Omaha dispatched me to the Safeway, the third-closest grocery store in our area. Well, it was, except that a new grocery store between my home and the Safeway had opened. It has the unlikely name of Saar's.

It looks like one of those grocery stores that caters to lower incomes: lots of two-color posters bragging about 59¢ soap and 79¢ toilet paper plastering the outside walls. But inside, I was pleasantly surprised, was absolutely nothing like the discount grocers of my childhood memory. The place was well-lit, well-stocked, and clean. It had extensive Asian and Hispanic sections, the fruits and vegetables were well-stocked, fresh, and clean. But better than that, the place was empty. There were more than enough checkers and staff, the other shoppers were calm and relaxed, and they had a large, full bin of shallots, plus the same brand of pie crusts and Mozarella cheese that we use.

On the one hand, it's still trying to establish itself: it just opened a couple of months ago. On the other, it was so relaxing that I definitely want to go shop there again.