Bill Dembski's Course Requirements -- The Trolls Are Coming

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Bill Dembski's Course Requirements -- The Trolls Are Coming

In case anyone missed the bulletin, Bill Dembski, the ID instructor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has the following as a course requirement:

Quote:
provide at least 10 posts defending ID that you've made on "hostile" websites, the posts totalling 2,000 words, along with the URLs (i.e., web links) to each post (worth 20% of your grade).

This Post is almost certainly a seminary troll.  Notice how he disengaged so quickly and "let us have the last word"?

I'm not sure that knowing this changes anything.  Just an FYI.  These folks are doing it for the grade.  They're not really listening.  Imagine that...


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I wish we could be part of

I wish we could be part of the grading process. I wonder how many F's for plagiarism I'd be giving out.

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jcgadfly wrote:I wish we

jcgadfly wrote:

I wish we could be part of the grading process. I wonder how many F's for plagiarism I'd be giving out.



In the Platonic framework, everything's upside-down. You get an F if you don't plagiarize. Plagiarism is the bread-and-butter of the apologetic format.

 

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HisWillness wrote:jcgadfly

HisWillness wrote:

jcgadfly wrote:

I wish we could be part of the grading process. I wonder how many F's for plagiarism I'd be giving out.

 

In the Platonic framework, everything's upside-down. You get an F if you don't plagiarize. Plagiarism is the bread-and-butter of the apologetic format.

 

Good point.

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This made me lol. I think we

This made me lol. I think we should try out hardest to deconvert these people. I think it would be hailarious to have one of Dembski's students come up to him one day and tell him they're dropping out to go to a real school. When he asks why the student will respond "Well you know that assignment you gave us..."


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How pointless, your first

Tbh that is the best assignment ever (if you believe in that kinda thing


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Stosis wrote:I think it

Stosis wrote:
I think it would be hailarious to have one of Dembski's students come up to him one day and tell him they're dropping out to go to a real school.

That would definitely be hilarious.

"A real school? What would you learn there??"

 

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Don't think this isn't an

Don't think this isn't an opportunity. The greatest weakness evangelist religion has is exposure to reality. And they're going to want to see a defense, not trolling, for high marks. There will be trolls, but there will also be converts. This strategy would be infinitely more effective on regular sites with a more even balance of theist to atheist. Aiming at hostile sites is equivalent to throwing their students to the sharks.

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Vastet wrote:Don't think

Vastet wrote:
Don't think this isn't an opportunity. The greatest weakness evangelist religion has is exposure to reality. And they're going to want to see a defense, not trolling, for high marks. There will be trolls, but there will also be converts. This strategy would be infinitely more effective on regular sites with a more even balance of theist to atheist. Aiming at hostile sites is equivalent to throwing their students to the sharks.

I'd love for you to be correct. Unfortunately the course reqs say nothing about having to stick around and defend themselves. Ten 2,000 word hit and run posts would meet the requirement.

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jcgadfly wrote:Vastet

jcgadfly wrote:

Vastet wrote:
Don't think this isn't an opportunity. The greatest weakness evangelist religion has is exposure to reality. And they're going to want to see a defense, not trolling, for high marks. There will be trolls, but there will also be converts. This strategy would be infinitely more effective on regular sites with a more even balance of theist to atheist. Aiming at hostile sites is equivalent to throwing their students to the sharks.

I'd love for you to be correct. Unfortunately the course reqs say nothing about having to stick around and defend themselves. Ten 2,000 word hit and run posts would meet the requirement.

Yeah, but how do you get a higher mark? 10 2000 word posts (I think its 10 posts totaling 2000 words, isn't it?) it seems would get you a B but to get an A most uhhhhh people demand more.


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Stosis wrote:jcgadfly

Stosis wrote:

jcgadfly wrote:

I'd love for you to be correct. Unfortunately the course reqs say nothing about having to stick around and defend themselves. Ten 2,000 word hit and run posts would meet the requirement.

Yeah, but how do you get a higher mark? 10 2000 word posts (I think its 10 posts totaling 2000 words, isn't it?) it seems would get you a B but to get an A most uhhhhh people demand more.


Indeed. This school doesn't just want students to parrot 30 or 1500 year old arguments, they want new ideas and holes to poke. They want students who can last ten seconds in a debate with a layman. Hit and run tactics and trolling is not going to accomplish that.

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 Well, I could be wrong but

 

Well, I could be wrong but this guy sets off by BS detector as well.  If so, I am not above playing with his head just a bit.

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Vastet wrote:Stosis

Vastet wrote:
Stosis wrote:

jcgadfly wrote:

I'd love for you to be correct. Unfortunately the course reqs say nothing about having to stick around and defend themselves. Ten 2,000 word hit and run posts would meet the requirement.

Yeah, but how do you get a higher mark? 10 2000 word posts (I think its 10 posts totaling 2000 words, isn't it?) it seems would get you a B but to get an A most uhhhhh people demand more.

Indeed. This school doesn't just want students to parrot 30 or 1500 year old arguments, they want new ideas and holes to poke. They want students who can last ten seconds in a debate with a layman. Hit and run tactics and trolling is not going to accomplish that.

Not a big fan of doing someone else's homework (giving them new ideas/holes to poke) either,

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They were filling holes

They were filling holes before science even existed. I don't see avoidance as an effective strategy.

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Vastet wrote:This school

Vastet wrote:
This school doesn't just want students to parrot 30 or 1500 year old arguments.



Actually, it seems as though they do.

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Vastet wrote:They were

Vastet wrote:
They were filling holes before science even existed. I don't see avoidance as an effective strategy.

Creationists were filling holes? Well, I guess if you think "magic man done it " is filling a hole, you might be right.

I'm not going to avoid them if they show up. I just don't expect much more than a bunch of hit and run artists.

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jcgadfly wrote:Not a big fan

jcgadfly wrote:

Not a big fan of doing someone else's homework (giving them new ideas/holes to poke) either,



What, because our position is so precarious? C'mon, if there's a smart one among them, he or she is toast. Denial can hold up only so long with a person who can use their brain.



I'm not talking about William Laine Craig, who is a kind of intellectual circus freak.

 

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HisWillness wrote:jcgadfly

HisWillness wrote:

jcgadfly wrote:

Not a big fan of doing someone else's homework (giving them new ideas/holes to poke) either,

 

What, because our position is so precarious? C'mon, if there's a smart one among them, he or she is toast. Denial can hold up only so long with a person who can use their brain.

 

I'm not talking about William Laine Craig, who is a kind of intellectual circus freak.

 

The position is hardly precarious - just not a big fan of intellectual laziness. If they want to try and poke holes in it fine. I'm not about to say "Hi, here's something that could be interpreted as a weakness in my position. Feel free to try and exploit it."

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If I was a proffessor and

If I was a proffessor and required my students to read Harry Potter and then tested them on it, and they all got As, how real would that make Harry Potter flying around on a broomstick?

Exactly what makes his title or "school"(cough cough) constitute magical births or magically surviving rigor mortis.

"ID" is a dead rehashed argument that replaced creationism. I would be as proud of getting an A in that class as I would if I could recite every line in all the Star War movies. Exactly what knowledge would I have?

 

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www.designinference.com/teach

www.designinference.com/teaching/teaching.htm

 

well according to this the due date for these posts is the 14 August so can we expect an influx of the lower end of the classes posts?

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:3

Look for a mass of posts on the 13th. Late at night.

 

Hey, if no one responds to them then, the slackers would have to go elsewhere...or..well,would they be failed?
 


At that kind of school, would they all be given good grades like the handout trophies in a little league game whether you won or lost?

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HisWillness wrote:Vastet

HisWillness wrote:

Vastet wrote:
This school doesn't just want students to parrot 30 or 1500 year old arguments.



Actually, it seems as though they do.


I don't agree. But even if such is true, it's just more win for us. If the next generation of apologetics only consists of trolls, then we've already won. It's just a matter of letting them bury themselves when they try and debate people and fail.
However, I don't believe this is the case for a moment. Theism hasn't survived the last thousand years by being lazy. It won't survive another 50 by being lazy either.

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ClockCat wrote:Look for a

ClockCat wrote:

Look for a mass of posts on the 13th. Late at night.

 

Hey, if no one responds to them then, the slackers would have to go elsewhere...or..well,would they be failed?
 


At that kind of school, would they all be given good grades like the handout trophies in a little league game whether you won or lost?

I suppose they'd just get late marks and eventually just fail. Not that it would matter, failure doesn't seem to bother these kinds of people.


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Vastet wrote:But even if

Vastet wrote:
But even if such is true, it's just more win for us. If the next generation of apologetics only consists of trolls, then we've already won.

What was the last generation of apologists? Geniuses? The absolute best they have going for them is William Laine Craig. He's the absolute top of the heap. Dinesh D'Souza (sp?) still can't handle himself against anyone serious, and Shelly Kagan already disembowelled Craig over morality without so much as a bead of sweat.

Vastet wrote:
Theism hasn't survived the last thousand years by being lazy.

Lazy is relative. They've been hard at work at making sure people believe whatever bullshit they feel like espousing at any given time, but in terms of actual inquiry and philosophy, they're pretty far behind.

Vastet wrote:
It won't survive another 50 by being lazy either.
 

I agree. Well, let's hope. It should at least be walking wounded.

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Like him or not, Craig has

Like him or not, Craig has won debates, and not by trolling his opponents, but simply by being convincing. That requires intelligence and thinking on your feet. God is as real for these people as he isn't for us, but that doesn't stop them from being reasonable inherently, else noone would have ever left theism behind. The true flaw behind all of their arguments stems from one simple requirement that science must not contradict scripture. That's what makes them jump through hoops every time science finds something new. I'd love for you to be right, and see this and other theist schools teaching their students to be lazy and unimaginative, but they've never given me reason to believe that's happening.

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Vastet wrote:Like him or

Vastet wrote:
Like him or not, Craig has won debates, and not by trolling his opponents, but simply by being convincing. That requires intelligence and thinking on your feet. God is as real for these people as he isn't for us, but that doesn't stop them from being reasonable inherently, else noone would have ever left theism behind. The true flaw behind all of their arguments stems from one simple requirement that science must not contradict scripture. That's what makes them jump through hoops every time science finds something new. I'd love for you to be right, and see this and other theist schools teaching their students to be lazy and unimaginative, but they've never given me reason to believe that's happening.

Or they simply follow Spurgeon when he wrote, "If science contradicts Scripture, so much the worse for science; the Scripture is true, whatever the theories of men may be."

Theism offers too much emotional comfort for some folks to abandon it in the light of reason, Picture Linus and his security blanket

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