Pharyngula

Ever notice how whenever someone points out that these morons have nothing but bad ideas, these morons whip out the overused retort of "well, you're just closedminded!"?

Posted by: Stanton | September 19, 2007 7:54 AM

So Dembski didn't read ERV's thread on UD but somehow still knew that she was ERV? That sounds rather irreducibly complex* don't you think?

*BS

Posted by: Soldierwhy | September 19, 2007 8:10 AM

Dembski's intellectual failure is more manifest than the image of Behe I saw in a tortilla the other day.

Clearly, Dembski can't even hold his own with undergraduates (whom I greatly admire, by the way), thus it's no wonder he avoids contact with those who would be his peers when his only response to argument is childish taunts.

What's next, Dembski, armpit minuets?

Posted by: Doc Bill | September 19, 2007 8:25 AM

"...Eventually, a red-faced Dembski said in a panicky voice that he wouldn't believe it until he saw "every step", and that the scientist had only added "two more islands between Los Angeles and Tokyo"

Posted by: Stanton | September 19, 2007 8:28 AM

Now,for the umphtiest time,what we are dealing with here are deluded,manipulated,brainwashed people,some of them admittedly with brilliant minds,but there is no point whatsoever to engage in any rational discussion with creationists or the like at all,their minds are just not capable of processing any new or divergent information.
And i mean that in a clinical/medical sense.
A fact that i think Dawkins et al are sometimes underestimating,the psychological effects of childhood indoctrination/manipulation that have been practised for centuries now.

Posted by: clinteas | September 19, 2007 8:36 AM

I would give ANYTHING to have been there for that debate - and I'm currently enjoying the idea that there might be other events that go just like this one, all over the country. I'm glad we got such a great view of this one via ERV.

Posted by: Karen | September 19, 2007 8:39 AM

From the same blog John Morales linked to:

With a couple of my new friends present, I TAG-ed him, asking to provide evidence for his view that evidence is the best way to discover truth.

That about says it all. For IDists, evidence doesn't matter.

Posted by: Art | September 19, 2007 9:06 AM

I like the bit:
"even the art students had a go at him"

Posted by: sailor | September 19, 2007 9:31 AM

You also have to love FtK playing her role as the defender of those poor persecuted creationists in the comments.

big fat yawn

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | September 19, 2007 10:22 AM

#2 and others re: the "appeal to be opened-minded," check out Bronze Dog's Doggerel (#4 on the list, though the whole thing is worth reading).

Posted by: J Myers | September 19, 2007 10:50 AM

If Dembksi weren't so obsessive about getting Bashed By Baylor, he would be happy to lie about his pantsing at his blog, Uncommon Descent Into Madness. I'm looking forward to his cover-up attempt.

Come on Bill! Hurry up, find your pants, get your underwear out of your crack, and keep your eye on the Prize!

Posted by: J-Dog | September 19, 2007 11:19 AM

I was there and feel the audience was reasonably polite durring his presentation except for the groans after preposterous statements. But it was the complete mobbing durring the Q@A period that was most entertaining. ERV did a great job but it was the explanation of the evolution of the flagellum the left Demski stoped like a deer in the headlights. He admitted to the group he was not a biologist, as if that was supposed to get him off the hook. When you are missrepresnting science to a room packed full of scientists and their students what in the world can you expect? His treatment was richly earned. The truely sad thing here is that he will make exactly the same presentation to the next audience. David

Posted by: David Grow | September 19, 2007 11:55 AM

When you are misrepresenting science to a room packed full of scientists and their students what in the world can you expect? His treatment was richly earned. Posted by: David Grow

Bingo. And I am glad he was humiliated. Unfortunately, I don't think he'll learn anything other than the fact that his snake-oil isn't welcome at OU.

Posted by: Dan | September 19, 2007 12:57 PM

Also, I'm not sure if people noticed, but the flagellum is gone from UD's masthead!

That's their old site design/template. I wonder what gives.

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | September 19, 2007 1:45 PM

Awesome job by ERV - way to make Dembski look like even more of an ass than he already is.

The flagellum thing is just depressing - it's no surprise whatsoever that Dembski takes the filling of a gap to mean he now has two more gaps to play with. At least the audience understood that he was being humiliated.

Posted by: Micah | September 19, 2007 2:28 PM

LEAVE BRITNEY, err, DEMBSKI ALONE!!!

Posted by: BAWWW | September 19, 2007 3:48 PM

That's their old site design/template. I wonder what gives.

Not only that but somebody made a post that the old Uncommonly Demented look was the "new look":

http://www.uncommondescent.com/adminstrative/uncommonly-good-new-look-to-uncommon-descent/

I guess their "design inference" circuits are faulty and they can't even detect that their new design is actually an old design (although I do like the old look with the picture of Dembski doing his Church Lady impersonation...)

Posted by: Timcol | September 19, 2007 4:42 PM

oh man, i've been hearing stories about this from all over. someone PLEASE tell me they brought a video camera and this massive pwnage will be all over youtube?

Posted by: arachnophilia | September 19, 2007 4:45 PM

A little more background on how University of Oklahoma students and others opposed the Dembski appearance:

1. A group of students now forming a chapter of Center for Inquiry received permission to place chalkings on campus sidewalks to counter the ads for Dembski's talk sponsored by 'Pursuit College Example of the chalking: "A Federal judge ruled in 2005 that ID was Religion and Not Scince."

2. The same group of students, plus some grad students from Zoology handed out to all entering the lecture the pre-trial statement of Jeffrey Shalitt that fairly demolished Dembski's arguments for ID.

3. A full page ad in The Daily Oklahoman student paper against Dembski appeared the morning (Monday)of his talk and was signed by about 200 faculty, staff and graduate students. The ad was drafted by an English instructor. Dembski took bewtween 5 and 10 minutes at the beginning of his talk to defend the anti-Dembski comments in the ad. His defense was without merit, but did force him to skip about a dozen of the slides in his talk because he ran out of time. The ad was financed by contributions from many of the signers and by the OU Chapter of Sigma Xi, a national honorary scientific research society.

4. An excellent Op-Ed opposing Dembski and ID also was in the student paper on Monday morning, along with an ineffective counter by the paper's religion writer. A second excellent Op-Ed opposing ID appeared Tuesday morning after Dembski's talk.

5. The creationist group wanted a big audience and they got one. The room held 400 and many were turned away. However, I don't think they expected that more than half the audience was against ID and showed it - especially during the Q and A. Of course, the ID crowd will pull out there old strategem - 'See how important we are. We attracted all those scientists to our talk."!

The Baptist group may claim success (there is talk that they plan to produce a DVD [audio], but I doubt that it will include the Q and A, where Dembski was pretty much skewered - mostly by undergraduate students who insisted on answers when Dembski waffled in his answers! We are very proud of our students and how they handled there pertinent questions!

Posted by: vhutchison | September 19, 2007 4:57 PM