Intelligent Design - the Creationists' Latest Wheeze

[Cathy Edwards]

Slavoj Zizek says some interesting things about belief and empiricism

http://www.culturewars.org.uk/2005-01/zizek.htm

"Žižek elaborated on this point in terms of belief as counter-factual. What this means is that there is a radical anti-empiricism at the heart of belief, which manifests itself as an assertion of will over and above what may appear evident from simple personal experience. One example Žižek gave was of a husband returning home, finding his wife in bed with a lover, and the wife imploring her husband to believe her words rather than his own eyes. Another example was Anne Frank's diaries, where at the end she affirms her belief in the 'divine light of humanity', in spite of what she has seen and known. Žižek counterposed this idea of belief with contemporary Christian fundamentalism in the United States. Citing examples of fundamentalists who defend their beliefs through science, Žižek argued that it was precisely this attempt to rationalise belief, to make it answerable to science, that exposed the hollow core of contemporary fundamentalism."

-----Original Message-----
From: John Carvill [mailto:JCarvill at algsoftware.com] 
Sent: 29 September 2005 10:40
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Intelligent Design - the Creationists' Latest Wheeze

1. Religions are Fairy Tales.

2. Faith is absolute belief in something for which there is zero evidence.

3. This can, arguably, be (relatively) harmless in individuals.

4. Organised religion transforms individual faith into an instrument of control.

5. This control is often used to foster persecution and killing.

6. The theory of Evolution put a stick through religion's spokes.

7. The religious nuts tried an outright denial of Evolution, and failed.

8. Intelligent Design is pseudo-science.

9. Intelligent Design is a clever attempt by Creationists to subvert Evolutionary theory.

10. As Bill Hicks said, "Ever notice how Creationists look really un-evolved?!"









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