…and this is a 
Behe: spanked again
Category: Creationism
Posted on: February 1, 2006 2:53 PM, by PZ Myers
Behe's ideas have been rejected by his colleagues; it seems those ideas were also the subject of a public forum at his university, with essays on the issue available online.
During the fall semester, a Chaplain's Forum held on campus to offer differing perspectives on the contentious issue drew a standing-room-only crowd. The six faculty members who participated addressed the implications of intelligent design for science and for religion. This series of essays, which grew out of the Lehigh forum, is intended to shed light on an issue that all too often engenders only heat.
Behe's essay is the only one that defends ID, and it's more of the usual nonsense from the Church of the Butt Propellor*, an argument from incredulity in which he brings up both Paley's watch and the bacterial "outboard motor". (Does he think if he calls the flagellum an "outboard motor" enough, he'll fool everyone into thinking it was manufactured by Evinrude?)
The other five all dismiss it, even the one from the university's chaplain.
(via A Concerned Scientist)
*"Church of the Butt Propellor" is my new favorite name for the Discovery Institute and their minions (here's the source).
Comments
PZ, I know you're not a big fan of religion, but you must be getting a kick out of all the christian clergy calling ID baseless.
I know I am.
Posted by: IndianCowboy![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 1, 2006 3:25 PM
(Does he think if he calls the flagellum an "outboard motor" enough, he'll fool everyone into thinking it was manufactured by Evinrude?)
Yes, any idiot can see that it was manufactured by Mercury.
Posted by: Mike Nilsen | February 1, 2006 3:26 PM
As a Lehigh grad, I am embarrassed that Behe gets to add the tag "affliated with a major university" with his name. At least the rest of the biology department has a disclaimer about him.
Posted by: Sean | February 1, 2006 3:47 PM
Don't feel bad, there's kooks in many established and respected departments/fields.
Most of them just don't have the luck to have well-funded political machinery propping up their bizarro views.
Posted by: jbark | February 1, 2006 3:49 PM
Funny thing I just found out while mentioning this new meme to my dad: Apparently my mother's old interior design group is now distancing themselves from their old slogan "Intelligent Design", and have replaced it with "Excellent Design", since they don't want to be in any way, shape, or form associated with the evangelical propeller heads hiding in a lab coat.
Posted by: BronzeDog | February 1, 2006 4:06 PM
"Most of them just don't have the luck to have well-funded political machinery propping up their bizarro views."
Yeah, just like with the Wedge document being revealed in all its church-basement "fiction contest"-level quality, someday we'll find out how much $$$ was floating around this nonsense, and who got paid how much. I'd like to see that. (Do I sound like I spent my morning combing through my department's way-too-small budget?)
Posted by: Kristine | February 1, 2006 4:52 PM
"These engines look as if they were designed by the Mazda corporation..."
That's it!!!!!!
GOD is Japanese!
Posted by: Rocky | February 1, 2006 4:58 PM
Before internet and DI was around for kookies, they used to stick crudely copied kookbooks into the nearest bookstore shelves at the science section.
"the evangelical propeller heads"
Oh, both propeller heads and butts? So that's why they get nowhere...
Posted by: Torbjorn Larsson | February 1, 2006 5:01 PM
Posted by: Bayesian Bouffant, FCD | February 1, 2006 5:09 PM
"You can bet that if I were God, I'd be driving an RX-8."
I personally prefer a Cummings Diesel, so in that light, GOD could be German. But we remember what happens when Germans claim GOD is theirs.............
Posted by: Rocky | February 1, 2006 5:17 PM
"These engines look as if they were designed by the Mazda corporation..."
And I thought ID had nothing to say on the identity of the designer.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 1, 2006 5:26 PM
Posted by: Bayesian Bouffant, FCD | February 1, 2006 5:27 PM
Bayesian, touché, I bow to your point.....
Posted by: Rocky | February 1, 2006 5:30 PM
i was just wondering what people think about the cache that "being affiliated with a major university" brings with it. i mean, most of the anti-ID people have resumes a mile long...
i'll rephrase: what do people think the audience of 'persuadable' people in the pro/con-ID debate looks like?
and if ph.ds aren't impressive, what other strategies can be used to speak to them?
Posted by: cate | February 1, 2006 5:37 PM
I always enjoy seeing Paley's argument surface, as it seems to contain its own rebuttal. Take Behe's gloss:
Really? Walking across a field? A field with flowers, grasses, insects, worms, ...
And only the watch stood out as designed? Hmmmm.
Posted by: Eric Wallace | February 1, 2006 5:57 PM
Evinrude? The quote from Meyer's op-ed (linked to my "butt propeller" comment) clearly identified Mazda as the designer.
I case you you're thinking Meyer has gone Zoroastrian, note that he didn't say Ahura Mazda http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahura_Mazda but rather:
I take this as a sign that God loves us and he wants us to adopt the Wankel rotary engine.
I was always skeptical about identifying an anonymous designer, but Meyer's application of "It looks kinda like, therefore it is" has led to a far more specific prediction. If the bacterial flagellum was indeed developed at Mazda, there ought to be some blueprints available in the company archives. If not, it sounds as if this whole "design inference" thing can lead to bizarre and clearly erroneous conclusions.
Posted by: PaulC | February 1, 2006 6:04 PM
So when a priest in the Church of the Butt Propeller walks down the aisle, instead of swinging his incence censor back and forth, does he spin it around like Roger Daltry's microphone?
Cool. That'd really fire up the incence.
Posted by: Ick of the East | February 1, 2006 7:45 PM
"These engines look as if they were designed by the Mazda corporation..."
That's it!!!!!!
GOD is Japanese!
We've known this for some time. His name is Hayao Miyazaki... or Shigeru Miyamoto. I forget.
Posted by: BronzeDog | February 1, 2006 8:02 PM
From the originating comment thread:
LOL! What wonderful imagery. Great catch phrase to add onto the new title.
Posted by: Troy Britain | February 1, 2006 8:26 PM
I would feel very sad if I were a scientist and even my students think I am nuts
Posted by: Dr. Marco | February 1, 2006 9:03 PM
"Does he think if he calls the flagellum an "outboard motor" enough, he'll fool everyone into thinking it was manufactured by Evinrude?"
Perhaps he's using a different name for it because, after Dover, he's tired of people laughing out loud at each mention of the dreaded bacterial flagellum.
Posted by: The Dreadful Porpentine | February 1, 2006 10:44 PM
Both wrong. It's Yukio Mishima.
Posted by: george cauldron | February 2, 2006 11:09 AM
Then there was the German who said "God is dead". How does that relate to automotive engineering?
Another German, whose organization created the Volkswagen, said that religion is paramount and that "secular schools cannot be tolerated."
Posted by: Alon Levy | February 2, 2006 11:26 AM
Re/ butt propellers:
We have, from good authority, the following:
This is significant in several ways. First, we have the obvious philosophical implications of the fact that multicellular organisms also employ the butt-propeller for their own purposes. Coincidence? I think not.
Also, it must be noted that the mental image of the hippo butt-prop is picturesque, and appropriate (on so many levels) to the topic at hand. Is it too much to hope that someone out there knows of a hippo butt-prop video, or would care to generate one?
Rather than cause schism in the Church of FSM, I would urge that those called to the way of the butt-prop found a lay order -- an Opus Hippo, if you will.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 2, 2006 11:41 AM
I did not intend to post anonymously, and will accept full blame for the preceding.
Posted by: jre | February 2, 2006 11:42 AM
Alon said; Another German, whose organization created the Volkswagen, said that religion is paramount and that "secular schools cannot be tolerated."
That's closer to what I was aluding to, didn't think the point was worth a long discussion tho. Burning witches and jews for GOD was particularly more popular in some countries..........
Posted by: Rocky | February 2, 2006 1:14 PM
So, what's this about the IDer being Ahura Mazda? In his book, Behe hinted it might be Ganesha (when he talks about Design being "the elephant in the room" that everyone pretends not to see). Do I smell a schism?
Posted by: lt.kizhe | February 2, 2006 3:41 PM