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  Topic: Windows ID, More on Bill Gates' charity foundation.< Next Oldest | Next Newest >  
Apesnake



Posts: 7
Joined: Feb. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 24 2006,15:41   

I was unsure if it would be impolite to just plop down a link to a post I just made on my blog but it is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission so I will do so. I hope this is not old news to everyone but it was news to me.

If you don't want to read the whole thing here is the gist: A while ago the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was asked why they were donating money to the DI. They said it was just for their lame mass transportation scheme and had nothing to do with ID.

Now I see a news writeup on some actual research that, while not supporting ID in anyway, uses the term "intelligent design" and while at first I thought it was being used sarcastically I noticed that the research was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (as displayed by EurekAlert! on their biology page on Thursday.

Is this some funky coincidence or is the DI using the Gates' Money to plant seeds for later quote mining?

  
sir_toejam



Posts: 846
Joined: April 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 24 2006,18:19   

doubtless it has to do with some sort of politcal quid-pro-quo scheme between Billy boy and the Feds.

I'm of the opinion, and have been for some time, that the DI is NOT a ground-up grassroots organization.

It's a top-down political machine.

  
Apesnake



Posts: 7
Joined: Feb. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 25 2006,06:25   

In my more cynical moments I sometimes wonder if the Discovery Institute and perhaps some or most of the fundamentalist movements are not just a big conspiracy to make religion look foolish. Why was I not let in on the scheme?

  
sir_toejam



Posts: 846
Joined: April 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 25 2006,11:33   

you're not the only one  ;)

  
dhogaza



Posts: 525
Joined: Feb. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 25 2006,11:44   

Quote
Now I see a news writeup on some actual research that, while not supporting ID in anyway, uses the term "intelligent design" and while at first I thought it was being used sarcastically I noticed that the research was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.


It is being used sarcastically, by the journalist.  If you read the article you'll see that the inspiration for the research project is evolutionary theory.

Mass transportation is a big issue in the Seattle area.  I haven't looked at the DI's proposals so don't know if they're lame or not, but I don't see any reason to disbelieve the Gates Foundation's explanation of their funding of the DI.  The granting organizations I've worked with in the non-profit world require that you spend the money on what you proposed in your grant application and provide the financial reports to prove it (often subject to audit).

  
stevestory



Posts: 13407
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 25 2006,12:10   

Quote
Apesnake:

In my more cynical moments I sometimes wonder if the Discovery Institute and perhaps some or most of the fundamentalist movements are not just a big conspiracy to make religion look foolish. Why was I not let in on the scheme?
There's some evidence for this. Why else would Dembski turn his blog over to a 2nd-rate retired computer technician? Especially one who already has a track record of making painfully stupid commentaries on biology, such as the one discussed on the Uncommon Pissant thread?

   
Jay Ray



Posts: 92
Joined: Feb. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 25 2006,13:13   

That's an easy one, Steve.  Dembski turned UD over to a second rate programmer because Dembski himself is a second rater.  At math, at theology, at theory in general.   Nothing coming out of the ID camp is first rate.  Nothing is original theory, just old stuff with modern terminology.  The design inference goes back all the way to the greeks, IIRC.  Irreducible complexity as a concept goes back at least as far as the early 20th century, by a man who used it to argue fairly convincingly in favor of evolution.  The whole kit and kaboodle from the ID camp is like a remake of a B movie--overladen with special effects and volume, but still just a B movie.  UD is a B movie, Dembski is a B movie actor, and who better to cast in the remake than another B player?

*shrug*

  
Chris Hyland



Posts: 705
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 26 2006,13:32   

Quote
I'm of the opinion, and have been for some time, that the DI is NOT a ground-up grassroots organization.

It's a top-down political machine.
Quote
In my more cynical moments I sometimes wonder if the Discovery Institute and perhaps some or most of the fundamentalist movements are not just a big conspiracy to make religion look foolish.
In some of my more conpiracy theorist (read: drunken) moments I wonder if it isnt a conspiracy to get the public to distrust scientists.

  
Henry J



Posts: 5786
Joined: Mar. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 27 2006,07:23   

Or just a plot to collect political power, with scientists just being a convenient group to use as the "common enemy". :(

Henry

  
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