Bogus Gold

A very good popular presentation here by Kenneth Miller on the topic of evolution and intelligent design. No science degree required to understand this. You'll get annoyed by the camera guy refusing to show the screen where Miller is showing his graphics, but he explains them well enough they're not really necessary.

I've defended certain ID researchers and the ID movement in general when I've seen them unfairly attacked, or attacked with bad arguments. But, as I've mentioned repeatedly, I don't find ID arguments persuasive. And I especially don't like the kind Miller is going after here.

More interesting to me ...

The citation of Alan Bloom's "The Closing of the American Mind" and it's relevance to this. He's right, and it's the single biggest problem for even the good (i.e. properly scientifically framed) ID research.

The exposure of a certain ID text intended for high schoolers as clearly a work where ID equals a faith statement. Because it's important to remember that, just because you can point to a responsible ID scientist, that doesn't mean there's nothing amiss here.

A very cool explanation of the chromosome difference between humans and the great apes I'd never heard about previously.

A palpable pride coming from Mr. Miller in regards to the sciences in the U.S., amounting to devotion to the notion of American Exceptionalism.

An excellent explanation of the reason "it's a theory not a fact" is most often a fallacy.

He takes a question about stem cell research as an opportunity to explain why embryos are becoming irrelevant to that entire branch of research, taking the ethical issue off the table.

He takes a break from political neutrality to take a shot at the Huckajesus and Ron Paul. Hooya! (and no, the shots are not gratuitous - they pertain entirely to his topic.)

His admirable consistency in talking about how sound scientific theories make predictions. And these predictions can be tested. Good stuff to keep in mind when other scientific theories come up.

There's more good stuff in there too. It's well worth an hour (technically a wee bit more than an hour if you watch the Q&A period) of your time.