File under: Irony and Karma
P.Z. Myers, who is a biologist and Asst. Professor at the University of Minnesota, and the blogger behind Pharyngula.org., was supposed to be viewing the local premier of "Expelled - No Intelligence allowed", a film supposedly describing, in an even-handed manner,the tension between evolution and "intelligent design."
Long before the film was near to being released, the film was being shot at by the very academics who were interviewed for it -- under claims that the project was misrepresented to them, and that the interview tapes were being cut and reedited in a manner to misrepresent what they had said. (see this piece in the New York Times from 2007 and the footnotes in the Wikipedia article )
As one of the people who were interviewed for the film, Myers was eager to see it (Likely with some trepidations about how cringe worthy it would be).
Well, he needed have worried -- at the premier he was not allowed to enter the theater. It seems he was persona non-grata and was told that he would have to leave the property. But his wife and daughter, with a guest, were allowed in to see the movie.
The irony is that their guest was Richard Dawkins. Someone who is even less enamored of the ID proponents than Myers is -- if thats possible.
And, being a blogger, Myers has, very happily, written about the barring him from the showing. One of the premises in the film is that opposing views are shouted down and barred from being considered. Which makes this so much more surreal (actually not -- it just points up more of the deceit and hypocrisy of the creationists who keep trying to deny that science is real)
Caveat for full disclosure. -- I'm a Christian. Been one all my life. I even teach in Sunday School. I also believe in a manner of "intelligent design." Where I believe that our Creator built and set in motion the universe where we all live and function.
But not the "intelligent design" that says that the Lord has created and enforced physical laws, yet, for some reason, has pettily violated those same physical laws so that radio-carbon dating, and examinations of geology somehow need to be disregarded if the result yields an age for anything that is more than 6000 years old. The sheer pettiness and self-aggrandizement of those conclusions is staggering
And those who espouse the "creationists" and "Intelligent design" dogmas are, at best, fools with monumental hubris without any real understanding of science or intellectual rigor, and at worst, hucksters preying on those who have real faith but need guidance.
The illustration is one that shows the adaptive matrix of Galapagos finches -- also known as "Darwin Finches" "Click" on the image for a larger view.
Update -- the non-admittance story has made the New York Times Science Section
