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  Topic: How Ann Coulter Exposed the Intelligent Design Mov< Next Oldest | Next Newest >  
MidnightVoice



Posts: 380
Joined: Aug. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: April 09 2007,14:35   

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/070407_coulter_hoax.html

In the summer of 2006, I heard that a new book called Godless presented an insightful and devastating criticism of the theory of evolution. Although I learned that its author, Ann Coulter, is not a scientist but a lawyer turned author and TV pundit, she nevertheless appeared to be an intelligent and well-educated person, so I started reading.

At first I was puzzled. There did not seem to be anything new; only tired and outdated antievolution arguments involving moths, finches, and fruit flies. But it wasn’t until Coulter dusted off the old Piltdown man story that I suddenly realized: it was a hoax! And it was brilliant.

Coulter has very cleverly written a fake criticism of evolution, much like the way NYU physicist Alan Sokal in 1996 published a fake physics article in a literary journal, an affair that has become known as the “Sokal hoax.” A self-proclaimed “old unabashed leftist,” Sokal was disturbed by the sloppily antiscientific, postmodernistic mentality that had started to replace reason and rationality within the academic left and ingeniously made his point by managing to get his nonsense article published by the very people he wished to expose.

Coulter’s aim at antiscience is at the other end of the political spectrum. An equally unabashed rightist, she is apparently disturbed by how factions within the political right abandon their normally rational standards when it comes to the issue of evolution. However, whereas Sokal revealed his hoax in a separate article, Coulter challenges her readers to find out the truth for themselves. Without claiming to do justice to Coulter’s multifaceted and sometimes subtle satire, I will attempt to outline some of her most amusing and salient points.

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If I fly the coop some time
And take nothing but a grip
With the few good books that really count
It's a necessary trip

I'll be gone with the girl in the gold silk jacket
The girl with the pearl-driller's hands

  
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: April 09 2007,15:02   

Quote (MidnightVoice @ April 09 2007,14:35)
Without claiming to do justice to Coulter’s multifaceted and sometimes subtle satire, I will attempt to outline some of her most amusing and salient points.


This has got to be the First, Last and Only time, in the entire History Of The World that the words "Coulter" and "subtle satire" ever appear in the same sentance.

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Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
Kristine



Posts: 3061
Joined: Sep. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: April 10 2007,23:42   

It's Peter Olofsson who is writing a satirical "postmodernist" piece. (He e-mailed me to comment on my dig at men at PT and confessed that the satire was his.)

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Which came first: the shimmy, or the hip?

AtBC Poet Laureate

"I happen to think that this prerequisite criterion of empirical evidence is itself not empirical." - Clive

"Damn you. This means a trip to the library. Again." -- fnxtr

  
MidnightVoice



Posts: 380
Joined: Aug. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: April 11 2007,08:58   

Quote (Kristine @ April 10 2007,23:42)
It's Peter Olofsson who is writing a satirical "postmodernist" piece. (He e-mailed me to comment on my dig at men at PT and confessed that the satire was his.)

I know.  I just like anything that points out how stupid Anne is.  :D

--------------
If I fly the coop some time
And take nothing but a grip
With the few good books that really count
It's a necessary trip

I'll be gone with the girl in the gold silk jacket
The girl with the pearl-driller's hands

  
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