March 02, 2005
Dover Debate on ID
The York Daily Record has a nice article about a 3 hour debate which took place between Thomas More (Richard Thompson) and the ACLU (Vic Walczak) at Elizabethtown College on March 1.
They were each given 45 minutes to make their arguments. Then they were given 10 minutes for rebuttal.Thompson used nearly 15 minutes of his time to present an updated version of "The Emperor's New Clothes" and to tell a joke about the first lawyer to go to heaven.
"A town with money is alot like a mule with a spinning wheel. Danged know how he got and danged know how to use it." - Lyle Lanley
In his "emperor" metaphor, Thompson said evolution is king. And anyone who tries to make the king aware that he is naked is "stupid and unfit for public office." Then he said the Dover Area School Board is the child in the story, courageous enough to tell the king he has no clothes on.[...]
Thompson also said legal efforts to keep God out of classrooms, and other government funded forums, were part of a greater effort to "de-Christianize America." Later though, he said intelligent design has nothing to do with Christianity or religion, saying it offered a legitimate scientific alternative to evolution.
No word on whether Walczak pounced all over this, but nice pickup by the reporter. Here we have the superfunded Thomas More Center blowing shotgun holes through its feet by making arguments that, had they any sense at all (and read the Cobb Cty. Decision), would force them to tears had their clients argued the same.
[Thompson] offered up a three-prong test the court uses to determine if something is religious. He said intelligent design does not address the ultimate question of our existence, does not have any liturgy or clergy and does not intend to identify the designer. Thus, he said, the court would see the theory is not religious.
He's offering! How nice and intellectually dishonest of him. As Walczak was forced to point out later on, Thompson's offering is wholly unrelated to the religious test that will be applied by the Middle District of Pennsylvania and any court that will hear its appeal.
When Walczak began his 45 minutes, he asked the audience if everyone could see his clothes.Then he said intelligent design is inherently religious, and that the test Thompson referred to was used more by the courts to determine if inmates could grow their hair long or demand more recreation time because of some unfamiliar religious claim.
[...]
After the debate, several students gave their opinions.
Vanessa Ide, a freshman, said Walczak won.
Fellow freshman Laura Belkot agreed.
"(Thompson) presented an awful lot of fluffy stuff today," she said. "Walczak definitely made the better arguments."
posted by scott pilutik at March 2, 2005 05:18 PM
digg |
del.icio.us |
reddit
permalink
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://realitybasedcommunity.net/mt-tb.cgi/47