#50714: — 11/26  at  01:05 PM
Perhaps scientists should start selling T-shirts mocking intelligent design? Create a list answering the question: What's so intelligent about?

1. Men having nipples.
2. Recreation area next to waste facilities.
3. etc...

I mean honestly, WHY DO I HAVE NIPPLES?

#50717: — 11/26  at  01:11 PM
I'd be all for the "Why do I have nipples" T-shirt, except that it gives even more attention to the ID side of the debate. If people don't understand your un-intelligent design shirt, you end up having to explain ID to them.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that maybe the 'stick your fingers in your ears' approach might actually work with regards to ol' Dembski. Let the kid have his tantrum and just ignore him until he stops.

#50718: Kristine Harley — 11/26  at  01:14 PM
That t-shirt is a hoot! I can't wait to see them being worn by audience members of the Jerry Springer Show--the ultimate commentary on the sad state of education in America. It seems that Mike Behe has nothing on Bill Dembske for suckiness. "Nice hair?" "Special?" "Beautiful eyes?" Such modesty, too.

#50719: Kristine Harley — 11/26  at  01:19 PM
BTW, I notice that Dembski's so-called intelligently-designed "beautiful eyes" require glasses. Now, why should that be?

#50723: QrazyQat — 11/26  at  01:25 PM
I mean honestly, WHY DO I HAVE NIPPLES?

The designer just knew you'd look fabulous with a pair of nipple rings, and you needed somewhere to put them.

#50726: jinx — 11/26  at  01:51 PM
In response to the "R U [Monkey]?" portion of the graphic -- creationist.

#50727: — 11/26  at  02:11 PM
PZ,

1.) If you agree with Ken Ham, you say: "You'd have to be dumber than Ken Ham" to disagree. Alternatively, if you disagree with Ken Ham, you say: "Ken Ham is an idiot. This is typical Creationist nonsense." So everything that Ham says is construed as an endorsement for the anti-ID movement. What spin!

2.) I think the point of the "Eternal Soul" and "Need for Love" DNA markers are to ridicule the idea that we are all determined exclusively by our genetic make-up.

#50728: T.H. Huxley — 11/26  at  02:19 PM
That's odd. I zoomed in, too, but saw something entirely different.

#50741: — 11/26  at  04:06 PM
I only score a 10 out of 11 of those ID attributes. I guess i'm one ID rung below Dumbski since I don't have the eternal soul part yet. And who said that ID wasn't just about marketing?

#50743: — 11/26  at  04:16 PM
Is it just me or is that shirt mocking the idea that we came from the ancestors of apes (The 'R U [ape picture]?')? Has Dembski finally cleared up whether Intelligent Design proponents have an answer to whether we evolved from other organisms or are a specially created case? Or is he deliberately making the shirt suggestive but not explicit in order to ensure he snags the creationist on the street who assumes ID = God, not knowing about the Design Institute's legal strategy; without having to show his hand?

It's cute because I'm actually hoping for an answer from Dembski or one of his wee followers. The incorrigibility of youth!

-The Rev. Schmitt.

#50749: Les Lane — 11/26  at  04:51 PM
Dumber than Ken Ham?

Dr Dino comes immediately to mind.

#50753: — 11/26  at  05:11 PM
Bill D certainly has a "Need For Love" -- in spades, apparently. And he's "Distinctive", but it's hardly a positive thing in this case.

It's also a nice little touch that the "intelligent" design advocate needed to use AOL-speak shorthand: the refuge of subliterates and dizzy 12 year olds. What, was he in such a hurry to rush his clever little shirt to the printers that he couldn't type out "ARE YOU?" all the way?

Way to look SMRT, Billy. LOL! G2G BBL!!1!

#50755: Heathen Dan — 11/26  at  05:14 PM
Hahaha, the eternal soul is coded in DNA? That sounds like an empirically verifiable (and falsifiable) claim. Is Dembski willing to take his superstitions to the court of real science? No wonder some people call him Dumbski.

Les Lane, I can top you on that. Carl Baugh. Ray Comfort & Kirk Cameron. William Dembski. ¬_¬

#50762: Martin Wagner — 11/26  at  06:17 PM
You know what's revealing about this stupid shirt? Look at some of the things Dumbski labels his double helix with. "Good Looks!" "Charming!" "Intelligent!" "Special!" "Unique!" If this isn't more proof that religion is simply about puffing up the fragile egos of its pitiful believers (so they'll be more willing to cough up their cash), and that their resentment of science has everything to do with science's habit of popping the bubble of their inflated sense of self-importance, I don't know what is.

#50782: — 11/26  at  08:19 PM
"Special".

Yeah, IDers are pretty "special" all right.

#50788: — 11/26  at  09:16 PM
Sure seems like Dembski's slip is showing. Eternal soul? Aside from the cute helical graphic, this t-shirt is not exactly the best way to convince a court that ID represents science. Are the patriarchs of ID self-destructing?
Or... are they just ensuring that they will never be called into court as ID experts?
I can hear it now:
"Mr. Dembski... is this the shirt you are selling on your web site? Can you show us evidence for the Eternal Soul?

Trackback: The Dissent of Ham Tracked on: PhaWRONGula (72.9.234.70) at 2005 11 26 21:31:57
The Hamster (Kenneth) treadmills tracts That treat beyond his ken; He grasps the rungs of fossil facts And foists them round again...

#50796: — 11/26  at  09:32 PM
It definitely will be an entertaining read on uncommondescent.com when his sycophants start proclaiming how wonderful the shirt is and asking for the price and availability. Does anyone know offhand how much Dumbski makes per year? I'm curious because I seriously think this guy is only in it for the infamy and money.

#50804: jinx — 11/26  at  10:28 PM
In my previous zeal to count coup I neglected to mention that I too am shilling intelligent design shirts.

With definitions for "intelligent design," "creationist," and "evolution." To be had on the Devil's Dictionary X cafepress store.

If the good Dr Myers wishes a free shirt, he has but to drop me a note with size, type, and delivery address.

Trackback: "You'd have to be dumber than Ken Ham" Tracked on: The Uncredible Hallq (72.9.234.70) at 2005 11 26 23:17:33
PZ posts an example of some T-shirts being hawked by the Intelligent Design movement. What are they like? Let me put it this way: if he's said, "look at this T-shirt making fun of ID," I'd have believed him, and ordered one.

#50810: — 11/27  at  12:42 AM
You supposed Dembski would make a prototype T-shirt just for one of his "gotcha!" moments?

#50812: — 11/27  at  12:45 AM
"supposed" should be "suppose" in the above post. At least until after his "gotcha!" moment or lack thereof.

#50815: The Inoculated Mind — 11/27  at  01:40 AM
Wilhelm Dembski proclaims all over the place that biologists don't allow design detection in biology.

What's funny is that "design detection" is perfectly reasonable in biology, because we know the ways that humans do or could engineer things into organisms, and we can design PCR reactions to find them. So all Dembski needs to do is come up with a PCR reaction that can detect design reliably. Hell, not reliably, how about even ONCE?

I would be very interested to see the sequences for the primers that would amplify the "Eternal Soul" fragment. How fascinating that we find it proximal to NFL (No Free Lunch gene, aka Wilhelm's Need For Love) but yet distal to other loci such as those that code for hair and intelligence. I would love to see Dembski submit these loci to the BLAST database at NCBI...

But we must watch out, because now that we know where on the chromosome the soul gene lies, we can now give nonhuman animals souls, as well as plants, and we can create a stock of human clone slaves that have had their souls deactivated by RNAi or plain cut out by targeted deletion and fast neutrons. And then we can also genotype Ham and Dembski and see whether or not they actually possess it...? Hehehe

#50826: Bartholomew — 11/27  at  08:23 AM
Why doesn't his T-shirt make reference to the DNA for short-sightedness? After all - just like me - Dumbski wears glasses.

#50849: Kristine Harley — 11/27  at  03:10 PM
My point exactly, earlier. Dembski wears glasses, and so does Behe. I wear contacts. Thanks, Designer (aka "God-or-aliens").

I don't know why I didn't think of this before--but what's with all those "ultimate makeover" shows, if most Americans believe in creationism? And wherefore botox?