http://www.afa.net/petitions/intelligentdesign/takesurvey.asp

pass it on to all the intelligent secular science people.

However, the notion that “intelligent design” violates the “non-dualism” tenet of Vedanta is useful information. I’m an ignoramus concerning Eastern religion. Can you unpack the “non-dualism” concept?

Jake and Barbara: Your posts reconfirm my sincere belief that atheists are the only people capable of keeping the religious honest. Thanks.

(Most Pagans, Raelians, etc. make bad plaintiffs, in my view, because sadly they face the additional hurdle of convincing the judge that theirs is a real religion.)

Ideally, a plaintiff would be a member of a traditionally recognized non-Judeo-Christian religion, and one with a fair number of adherents in the U.S., if not in that state or county. They would either (1) challenge the “intelligent design” curriculum as pushing a religious idea antithetical to their faith, or (2) demand equal time in the curriculum for the scientific evidence that backs up the broad outlines of their creation story.

I’m too bad at comparative religions to attempt an explanation of the ways in which “intelligent design” is irreconsilable with the creation story of other faiths. Anybody want to take a shot at it?

Not yet, anyway.

Personally, I don’t trust any mammal that lays eggs and produces venom. That just ain’t right.

All matter, energy and what-all-else in the Universe (or rather, Multiverse), was formed when the three primordial entities; NIS (Chaos), W-E (Order) and the mysterious pseudo-lifeform known by many names including “the Craft” and “the Meta-Force” (Balance), met each other in open combat for the first time. After the Multiverse was created, NIS and W-E sought to dominate it, and the Craft resolved to create harmony by keeping the two of them in check.

The three created agents to accomplish their missions. W-E formed the Sea-Urchin Collective, a race of psychic beings bent on the complete subjugation and domination of everything in existence and eliminating all semblance of individual thought. NIS created the great, omnipotent, omniscient and omni-voracious Zpltzu, Lord of Misery, Master of the Macabre and Gerent of Chaos. And the Craft worked through the Pangaean Gods, under the great Menokon, and founded the Order of the Craft, a coalition of sorcerers who channel the Craft-energies through mystical golden gauntlets.

The Urchins were the ones who created Earth and genetically engineered life on it. Although Zpltzu briefly took control of Earth, in a bloody reign that lasted millions of years, the Urchins resumed power and have had authority over every human government since the time of Ancient Egypt.

Or something.

WHO CREATED THE “INTELLIGENT DISIGNER” ?????

Awesome theory. Flying Spaghetti Monster and pirate costumes. Brilliant.

But Jake Squid’s Unintelligent Design theory takes the cake. It does indeed explain things that Intelligent Design never will. Aside from the platypus and Moral Majority, there are such things as religions that tout celibacy while insisting that the same God who wants us to abstain from sex, also created humans so that sex is their method of procreation. Also the practice of naming professional baseball teams after various colors of socks. And how about the codpiece?

For other theories, talk to Amanda at Pandagon about the Church of the Mouse and Disco Ball–they believe the Universe was coughed up by the Great Cat in the form of a hairball after the Goddess shooed Him off Her bed for attacking Her lover’s foot.

Also how about the one with the Egyptian God Min jacking off, and forming the stars out of drops of semen. (Those would be the same stars that are depicted adorning the body of the Goddess Nuit, by the way.)

I figure it was gin, after all, gin, as well all well know, is the fount of all evil … tequila, now, on the other hand …