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The debates over creation science (and more specifically, intelligent design) and evolution continue to heat up, although reasoned discussion (indeed, successful communication) is still difficult to find. It is difficult to say anything about the issue without being abruptly labeled an insensitive supercilious atheist or an anti-intellectual blind ignoramus. I’ll try….
Recently I was asked to speak to the inductees of the Philosophy Honors Society (Phi Sigma Tau) at the University of South Carolina. What follows is a rough approximation of what I said, rewritten for a wider audience.
…In 2003, the average household in the U.S. spent $372 on state lottery tickets…. On average, over 10 years spending this much money on the South Carolina lottery, a household will have lost $2046….
…It is possible to misinterpret the law or judicial precedent, and it is possible to do so willfully, either by ignoring relevant aspects of the law or judicial precedent, or by ignoring good arguments against one’s own interpretation. Doing so is a form of intellectual dishonesty….
…I did learn something new from the indictments — the origins of the phrase ‘weapons of mass destruction’. It turns out, as reported by several news agencies, that Libby was the inventor of that phrase. I remember hearing the abbreviation for the first time, because it also happens to be my initials….