In a previous post I noted the governor of South Carolina's inane comments on evolution which he characterized as "[t]he idea of their being a, you know, a little mud hole and two mosquitoes get together and the next thing you know you have a human being". Well, not to be outdone, his counterpart in Kentucky, Ernie Fletcher (BS Engineering, MD) has gone one step further in demonstrating that an education doesn't stop one from spouting nonsense. Writing to the Kentucky Academy of Science - who sent him this statement, after he supported ID in his State of the Commonwelth address - Fletcher opines:
My educational background provided me with thorough understanding of science and the theory of evolution. Our nation, however, was founded on self-evident truths. Among these truths are inalienable rights "endowed by their Creator." From my perspective, it is not a matter of faith, or religion, or theory. It is similar to basic self-evident objective truths that are the basis of knowledge. For example, 2 + 2 = 4. It disappoints and astounds me that the so-called intellectual elite are so concerned about accepting self-evident truths that nearly 90% of the population understands. In fact, this acknowledgement led to the intellectual curiosity Einstein spoke of that, in turn, led to the exploration of new knowledge. ...
Our nation's founders gave credit for our inalienable rights to a Creator. Among our rights are your liberty to disagree with government officials and my liberty of free speech. Those who laid the foundation for our country knew this would be the greatness of America. Although you my question the intelligence of raising this issue, the computer, which is state-of the-art, and less sophisticated in function than this writer, was built by an intelligent designer.
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Idiot! Does he have any idea how much effort mathematicians have put into proving that 2+2=4???
(And the really scary part is that I'm not joking...)
I think my slide rule is more sophisticated than that writer. Nevertheless, perhaps the Gov could be asked to provide a clear, scientific explanation of what the "theory" of intelligent design is, what it is good for, and what scientific evidence there is for it. I bet that, like the ID proponents on the Dover area school board, he's clueless.
I am pleased that Corkscrew and Mark were able to fine even one coherent idea to criticize or make fun of in this ramble. They each found one more than I could.
The funny thing is, simulations of evolution are now sometimes used to optimize CPU design. In any case, humans haven't been capable of designing state-of-the-art computers for a couple of decades, now; they are designed by other computers using algorithms often based on simulations of physical (e.g. simulated annealing) and biological (e.g. artificial life) processes. Seems the natural world has a lot more innate intelligence than the Gov seems to be aware of (or perhaps possess).
Corkscrew says:
Looks like they wasted their time*, as Ernie tells us that that is a basic self-evident objective truth.
Suckers.
*Except for those sneaky mathemeticians who tell us that 2+2=4 isn't true in the base 3 system.