Man that thing looks eerily like a trilobite! But unfortunately it is isn’t. It is however a neat little baby isopod(Ceratoserolis). Isopoda is the group that the woodlice, AKA pill-bugs, AKA sow bugs, that live in your garden belongs to. This probably won’t stop some young earth creationist from claiming it is a trilobite and that therefore evolution is (somehow) disproved, but what can you do?
A treasure trove of more than 700 new species has been uncovered in the dark depths of oceans surrounding Antarctica, researchers report. (See a photo gallery of the finds.)
Me: Over at Post-Darwinist, Denyse O’Leary is quoting Expelled producer Mark Mathis as admitting that he…
Troy makes the following assertions regarding Denyse O’Leary’s post:
Someone has reading comprehension problems. I made no assertion about Denyse’s post, I noted that she quotes a statement from Expelled producer Mark Mathis from who she says wrote to her. That quote I believe expresses the true reason for his expelling Myers from the screening.
On the one hand the ID creationist crowd wail and moan about how they supposedly face discrimination and censure (that’s what film Expelled is about), and on the other we find this sort of stuff:
Nancey Murphy, a religious scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., said she faced a campaign to get her fired because she expressed the view that intelligent design was not only poor theology, but “so stupid, I don’t want to give them my time.”
Murphy, who believes in evolution, said she had to fight to keep her job after one of the founding members of the intelligent design movement, legal theorist Phillip Johnson, called a trustee at the seminary and tried to get her fired.
Strap yourselves in folks this is has some twists and curves.
OK first a synopsis of events: biologist/blogger/atheist provocateur P. Z. Myers signed up online to see a screening of Expelled (a film in which he appears and is thanked in the credits) along with his family and biologist/atheist provocateur maximus, Richard Dawkins, and as everyone not living in a deep dark cave in Borneo that lacks internet access knows, was kicked out of the theater and not allowed to view the film.
The lovely irony of one of the producers of a film, that decries the supposed discrimination and mistreatment of antievolutionists by the scientific mainstream, pettily expelling a scientists who was interviewed in that film, for no apparent reason, sent howls of virtual laughter through the blogosphere along with a sizable heap of scorn down upon the producers head.
This provoked a fairly desperate scramble amongst the ID creationism crowd to defend and justify the producers actions and vilify both Myers and Dawkins (as if they needed more reasons beyond their being evolutionists and atheists). Included in the counter charges they’ve made against Myers and Dawkins is that they were uninvited “gate-crashers” who “gamed the system” to illegitimately gain access to the screening.
Myers in his public comments on his blog and elsewhere has simply stated that he signed up online to see the screening but did not explain how he came to find the web page where this could be done.
This is where I was supposed to be telling you what I thought about the film Expelled after having paid (yes I know, “boo, hiss”) $10 to Biola university for a ticket to “Expelled! The Movie and the Event“.
Well I’m going to see Expelled for myself very soon. I won’t say exactly when or where I’m going, but I won’t be alone. At least two allies, a retired geologist and philosopher of science will be there as well.
Needless to say my post on the tangled web of Expelled RSVP pages will be delayed a bit longer. But on the up side you can expect another account of seeing the film on top of it.
In my previous post where it was confirmed that Paul “PZ” Myers fooled the hosts of a private screening of “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” by RSVPing to an invitation he never received I reserved judgement on Richard Dawkins, giving Dawkins the benefit of doubt that he may have been duped by Myers into thinking he was an invited guest at the private screening.
Well, there is no longer any doubt. Richard Dawkins registered for the screening as “Clinton” Dawkins. How many of you knew Dawkins’ first name was Clinton? Registering for the event using a first name which he never uses for anything else is about as red-handed as you can get. Dawkins was fully aware he was sneaking into a private screening to which he wasn’t invited and attempted to hide his presence by using his legal first name in the registration.
Over at Post-Darwinist, Denyse O’Leary is quoting Expelled producer Mark Mathis as admitting that he:
…banned pz because I want him to pay to see it. Nothing more.
Nothing about being uninvited, or sneaking in, or gate-crashing, but apparently the right hand of O’Leary didn’t bother to let the left hand of DaveScot know because over on Uncommon Descent DaveScot graces us with yet another round of bleating about Myers and Dawkins being uninvited gate-crashers.
Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers are running around saying they weren’t “gate crashers” at a pre-screening of “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”. But that’s exactly what they were.
"Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon; it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory."
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Posted by Troy Britain 
