1. pharyngula
  2. It's the 7th annual Paul Nelson Day!

It's the 7th annual Paul Nelson Day!

By pharyngula on April 7, 2011.

How could I forget? Easy, actually, it's a rather forgettable event in which nothing happens. Seven years ago, Paul Nelson invented a creationist metric, ontogenetic depth, which purportedly measures the complexity of developmental processes and somehow implies that evolution is impossible. At that time, he wasn't able to tell us exactly what it was or how to measure it, but he promised to explain it…tomorrow. A tomorrow which has so far stretched out to seven long years, and we now annually note the anniversary.

I really don't care anymore if Nelson ever comes up with a nonsensical rationalization. It's symbolic. It's representative of all the promised 'science' the Intelligent Design creationists have been claiming to be doing, yet never deliver. Last year I predicted that there would be no revelations from Nelson in 2011, and now I predict that in 2012, I'll be making the same reminder.

Unless I forget. I might. It's hard to remember a specific day on which creationists fail — that's like every day, you know.

Tags
creationism

More like this

An anniversary, of sorts
Once upon a time, about two years ago, I dissected a claim by Paul Nelson that he had an objective measure of developmental complexity that he called "ontogenetic depth". I thought it was very poor stuff: no repeatable methods, no clear description of exactly what he was measuring, and actually, it…
Have a querulous Paul Nelson Day!
The new generation of creationists has been doing something rather remarkable. Flaming anti-scientific religious nutcases like Wells and Dembski have been diligently going to real universities, not the usual hokey bible colleges, and working hard to get legitimate degrees in actual fields of…
Three years and counting
I was just reminded that last year at this time I announced an anniversary. In March of 2004, I critiqued this mysterious abstraction called "ontogenetic depth" that Paul Nelson, the ID creationist, proposed as a measure of developmental and evolutionary complexity, and that he was using as a…
Shades of Ontogenetic Depth!
I'm pleased to see that the Intelligent Design creationists do actually occasionally challenge themselves — it's just too bad that they trip and fall flat every time they do. Over at Uncommon Descent, that hotbed of hot air hosted by William Dembski, one poster slipped the leash and asked an…