www.jeffthefish.com

In my heart of hearts.

_______ at its best.

After Casey responded to my email on Monday, I sent him a response which outlined why I thought he was being dishonest.

Casey,

Thank you for forgiving me. I was admittedly a jerk, and have no way of knowing what your motives really are. Also, thank you for responding to my email.

Here is what is happening as I see it:

1. Stein asks Dawkins if there’s any way ID could be correct.
2. Dawkins says that it could only be true if aliens seeded earth with the first life.
3. Stein ridicules Dawkins.
4. Dawkins explains that ID proponents often mention that aliens could well have been responsible for the design they see in life.
5. You write a post significantly downplaying the fact that they (especially Dembski) say this.

If Dawkins is ridiculed for bringing up aliens, why shouldn’t Dembski be ridiculed?

I think it’s wrong to say that Dawkins “gives away the store”. I don’t see how anyone could get that from what Dawkins said. If aliens seeded the first life on earth, the theory of evolution would still hold true.

Also, you cite your Google search as if that’s evidence that ID proponents rarely if ever say that aliens could have been the Designer. But your search was for a phrase in quotes. That’s the only way that Dawkins’ article could have been the only result. Dawkins wasn’t trying to quote anyone directly, he was simply saying that this is the kind of thing ID proponents have been known to say. I don’t see the point of searching for the phrase in quotes, except to dishonestly misrepresent the search results. Please explain this to me.

The links I sent show the kinds of things you would have found if you had searched in earnest for evidence of ID proponents citing the possibility of alien designers.

On an unrelated note, I work in SODO, not far from you guys. Isn’t it nice how the weather turned around today?

Jason

That was two days ago. I have yet to recieve a reply. He was pretty quick to answer my email when for all he knew I was just some raving lunatic. What’s going on now?  Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that I work in SODO?  Could that be construed as creepy?  I was trying to be genteel. Maybe he got very busy after I sent my reply? I don’t know.

This actually makes me angry.

Today I read a blog post by Casey Luskins in which he lies his creationist titty ass off. As I’ve said before, Win Ben Stein’s Integrity makes fun of Richard Dawkins for saying that the only way Intelligent Design could be true is if space aliens, who themselves had evolved, had seeded earth with the first life.

Dawkins responded to this ridicule with an op-ed, saying basically what I said before, only better.

Now that the truth is out there, Luskin tries to deny, or at least de-emphasize, the the things his colleagues have said. How does he try to prove that Dawkins is wrong? He googles a phrase from Dawkins’ op-ed, “For all we know, the designer might be an alien from outer space.” With quotes around it. Let me repeat that. WITH QUOTES AROUND IT!!!!

I can’t include a picture of Luskin in this post, because I am at work, and Luskin is A GIANT EMEFFING TIT.

Luskin thinks it’s telling that he only gets one search result for his query. But Dawkins wasn’t quoting anyone specifically. He was merely showing the kind of thing ID proponents say!

The truth is that ID proponents often say things like that. Especially William Dembski. They have to, otherwise they’d be confused for creationists (they are). What can I do when I catch someone is such an outright blatant lie? All I can do is tell you people. And email Casey.

Casey,

In the blog post [in the subject line], you clearly misrepresent the truth, or you just don’t know how to use Google. In any case, you should probably watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j_SD1EgcUI

Or read this: http://www.discovery.org/a/1283

Or read Dembski’s The Design Inference.

Or stop lying.

–
Jason J Brunet

There was another option I didn’t suggest because I didn’t want to be considered part of the The Machine. And that option is to shut the hell up.

 Edit: Casey responded to my email, and actually called me out for accusing him of lying, as it is a serious thing.  And he’s right. I apologized to him by email, and even though I don’t think he’s read this post, I am apologizing here for the things I said about him in this post and in the comments.  I don’t think it would be right to take it down, since I said it and have to own up to it.  But from now on I will be endeavoring NOT to make fun of him.  But I still do think he’s wrong and have more than an inkling that he’s not being completely honest.

Here is my African Knife Fish, Xenomystus nigri.  I am completely enthralled by his undulating fin!

And yes, I know it’s dirty.  I have a diatom problem.

Does anyone have Skype?  I’d kind of like to try it out on my new machine and new internet.  My username is jeffthefishdotcom.

At this time.

From the offices of Filipino Friend:

Hey y’all!  I just wanted to show you what my own rabbit looks like.  OK!

I just happened upon an article called  “Homeopathy For Pet Health” in the Spring 2008 issue (pdf) of Changing Times, a Christian fundamentalist newspaper in the New Orleans area.  Since it’s in PDF format, I can’t link to it directly, but it’s on page 22.

In case you don’t know how I feel about homeopathy, it’s a load of crap. It’s been shown time after time to the same effect as a placebo.  So why give it to your pets?  Here’s why:  you’re dumb.

Full Disclosure:  I used to work for the people who publish this newspaper, but I did not work directly on this particular newspaper.