Minister of State for Science to launch anti-science book!

oceanclub

P.

Yitzhak Rabin

So in order to promote the "smart economy" our politicians go on junkets.

I can only imagine what foreign science and technology firms think of us.

Imagine Biffo introducing the team to a foreign firm?

"This is our Minister for industry, she's a big fan of Einstein's theory of evolution.... our minister for science doesn't believe any of mumbo jumbo, he knows that it "It is a toxic poisonous mind virus which destroys the hearts immune system against hope and common sense"......anyway, as I was saying, we have a highly educated and trained workforce, you should definitely locate your R&D department in Ireland"

Biggins

So, just another random kook on the internet with a self-published book promoting his own ignorance…with one odd twist. He's having a launch party, and the big man doing the introductions is Conor Lenihan, the Irish Minister of State with special responsibility for Science, Technology, Innovation and Natural Resources.

Lenihan doesn't seem to have any actual qualifications in science. I think he needs a change of title.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/09/how_about_the_irish_minister_o.php

The sheer daftness of the situation is getting around:
* http://snarah.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/the-day-before-the-minister-of-science-was-about-to-launch-a-book-denying-evolution/
* http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57891-26-country-minister-to-launch-a-book-calling-evolution-a-hoax

Sparks

Apparently, the Minister has pulled out of the book launch...

Scofflaw

Sparks wrote: »

Apparently, the Minister has pulled out of the book launch...

Idiotus interruptus?

cordially,
Scofflaw

WalterMitty

Dawkins himself thinks the fine tuning of the universe is one of the biggest mysteries that would lead someone to think of a creator. But this guy seems to be loopy, does he not even realise that evolution would not neccessarily be in conflict with any creator or first cause?

And what caused the first cause? Or caused the creator? and the creator's creator? Mmm starting to sound like a multiverse there.

Just because our human minds are incpable of grasping much of the true nature of the universe and reality (if there is a true nature) doesnt mean we shoulc stop trying.

If he thinks a god created the universe for us he'll be very dissapointed that we are ruining the planet and wasting its resources and he didnt do a very good job if mongoloid babies are being born all the time.



Reminds me a bit of jake stevens the guy.

firstprime

To quote professor Farnsworth in futurama "I dont want to live on this planet anymore". Seriously, what is happening to the world. Talk about taking one step forward and two steps back, with the way things are going we will all be splashing about in a puddle of primordial ooze on our way back to the ocean before you can say 'Creationism'. If anything like this ever makes its way back into our schools I will personally find this guy, shove those tennis balls down his throat, and see how many goes it takes for them to come back out in order.

thebaldsoprano

Sparks wrote: »

Apparently, the Minister has pulled out of the book launch...

Not surprised, with a title like The Origin of Specious Nonsense it could well turn out to be about FF...

mambo

All these crackpot authors websites/books share the same characteristics. Poor grammar, punctuation, spelling and rambling incoherent sentences that lead nowhere.

For example, the home page says "All the pages in this book, Plus 42,000 more of Genetic information fits on the top of this small pinhead.." but makes no connection with WHAT this has to do with his argument on evolution.

The front cover of the book has a similarly pointless tagline that leads nowhere and makes no point.

I'm surprised the site isn't all in CAPS

ei.sdraob

people stop linking to the bloody site, all you are doing is pushing it up higher in google results

all publicity is good publicity and all that...

virmilitaris

ei.sdraob wrote: »

all publicity is good publicity and all that...

Lenihan had 3 subscribers on twitter last night. Now he has 103. :pac:

I wonder if they are fans

mike65

You know I suspect Conor Lenihan is not a creationist but he is a fool Yet again a minister thinks it would be a nice idea to do a constituent a favour without any consideration for the potential pot-holes or that maybe a Minister should be seen to be running the affairs of state not having a beano at a Buswells book launch.

TheFatMan

Will poor Conor have to be careful now when he gets up to go to mass on Sunday? Is any religious belief in conflict with his position as minister for science?

Ok he was going to help a friend and constituent launch a book full of dubious quasi scientific babble and logic. That's not much different from virgin birth, resurrection, spontaneous healing, burning bushes, messages from the creator etc., that most people consume daily as part of religious belief.

So why chase poor Conor now? Surely Judeo/Christian belief systems are as crazy as Mr. May's ramblings, not matter how entertaining they are?
Thanks to the original poster for this. I laughed my ass off last night when I was suppose to be working lateshift!

Nijmegen

TheFatMan wrote: »

Will poor Conor have to be careful now when he gets up to go to mass on Sunday? Is any religious belief in conflict with his position as minister for science?

Ok he was going to help a friend and constituent launch a book full of dubious quasi scientific babble and logic. That's not much different from virgin birth, resurrection, spontaneous healing, burning bushes, messages from the creator etc., that most people consume daily as part of religious belief.

So why chase poor Conor now? Surely Judeo/Christian belief systems are as crazy as Mr. May's ramblings, not matter how entertaining they are?
Thanks to the original poster for this. I laughed my ass off last night when I was suppose to be working lateshift!

I know plenty of people who attend church on a sunday (I should almost put a full stop there ) who are also perfectly comfortable with the idea of evolution. Cause it's God what made evolution, in their mind.

I think you can mix your beliefs with science, rather than it being one or the other.

feicim

Sparks wrote: »

Apparently, the Minister has pulled out of the book launch...

But Mr May said last night he had asked Mr Lenihan not to launch the book “because I am so embarrassed that the Minister for Science has been so insulted” and “eviscerated” on a political website. “He doesn’t even believe in my central argument,” the author said.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0914/1224278831472.html?via=mr

Sparks

Ha! The crackpot told the Minister not to come. Yeah, right...

Ludo

Nijmegen wrote: »

I think you can mix your beliefs with science, rather than it being one or the other.

Of course they can mix. It is only people with complete anti-religion or pro-religion extremist view points who cannot accept that they overlap. The majority of people are in the middle ground as usual.

Sparks

Don't think you can mix both; have both, certainly, but they're pretty much oil and water. The core of religious beliefs tends to be faith, the core of the scientific process is, for lack of a better term, anti-faith.

But that doesn't mean a bhuddist can't do particle physics.

P. Breathnach

Sparks wrote: »

... But that doesn't mean a bhuddist can't do particle physics.

Jaysus! You have just collapsed two irreconcilable stereotypes into one puff of very white smoke.

[-0-]

So the author of an anti-evolution book has more sense than our minister.

reallyrose

Sparks wrote: »

Don't think you can mix both; have both, certainly, but they're pretty much oil and water. The core of religious beliefs tends to be faith, the core of the scientific process is, for lack of a better term, anti-faith.

But that doesn't mean a bhuddist can't do particle physics.

Off topic a little: THIS is what I have been saying for years. God and science are playing two different games, not following the same rules.

On topic: I'm a little annoyed at how the press coverage is focusing on the quotes from May, rather than the more important issue of a Minister for Science (who was) attending an event that directly attacks the subject. Grr. But at least he isn't going any more.

Anyone want to go to the launch and ask questions? :pac:

Azhrei

I know everything about this country screams "stunningly incompetent", but this kind of thing was something I used to point at America and laugh over. I'm stunned this idiot is actually our minister for science... the irony is boggling.

Pawna

Let’s keep the issue focused squarely on Connor Lenihan. Mr. May has every right to publish his books, whether or not you agree with him. It’s free speech, and it is a wonderful thing.
However, evolution by natural selection is a fact, something that the minister for science in any country should be aware of, and this is further evidence that Mr. Lenihan is not capable of doing the job he is paid to do. Going to the launch “because Mr.May is a friend and constituent?” As a funnier fella than I said yesterday, does this mean Mary Harney could go to a constituent’s book launch if he was advocating witchcraft as a cure for cancer? That is a very apt analogy.
It is time that Ireland caught up with the late 19th century and get rid of Mr. Lenihan before he does any more damage to Ireland’s future, education, reputation or economy.

Azhrei

I'd love to see him at the top of Leinster House, shaking his fist while screaming, "I'm not a monkey!".

devilsad

I couldn't resist a visit to the launch. I arrived a little late but my impression is that the crowd was made up of family and friends and anti-creationists. Without the recent publicity it would have just been May, his family & friends and our eejit of a Science minister.

The main piece I recall from the event and nothing else is really required to illustrate just how mad he is was a stunt involving tennis balls. This sounds so stupid, I wish I had it wrong, but I don't. He said that evolution says that things have happened by chance. To illustrate how he disagrees with this, he held up a bowl of 15 tennis balls. He said, the chances of him throwing the bowl into the air and the balls arranging themselves in a perfedtly symetrical circle were 'zero'. This alone made me laugh at just how stupid it is. But he followed this statment up with 'and I'll now prove it'. He then threw the balls in the air, they didn't form a symetrical circle and he said 'see'. That's just how mad he is.

A chap with tatoo then challenged him on this ridiculous idea by asking him, 'what happens if you try that for infinity', May's answer was to say, we've only a certain amount of time as human beings. He's clearly deranged.

The same chap made perfect sense, he spoke the truth and rubbished May's lunatic ideas. Unfortunately, he was agressive, he swore, he had a sort of Mohawk and lots of earings, tattoo, piercings and bolts in the back of his neck, etc. etc.

I'm not for a moment saying that there's anything wrong with this; each ot their own. The problem is that he's too easy to dismiss.

Another part of the launch saw a chap confront him on the notion that one species has never evloved from another by citing examples of it which have been witnessed and documented. After several generations the new species couldn't reproduce with the original species. He asked May if he was aware of this, to which may replied (paraphrasing),

May: Yes, they're fruit flies. But they haven't evolved, they're still fruit flies.

Chap: Yes, but they have evolved into a different species as the last one can't reproduce with the original species.

May: Yes but a fruit fly will never turn into a pig.

Anther chap asked him about the reward. He wanted to know what constituted proof and who needed to be convinced. After much arguing he said that he had to be convinced by the proof in order to pay out. Apparently his brother has the money.

He is also the produced of the first porno mag in Ireland called 'Sin' and a chap sitting at the side of the room ot one point said, 'I know who you are, I met you on the steps of the GPO when you were a Jehovah's Witness'. To which he replied never mind what's in the past or other some such drivel.

It really was a most entertainng event! He's off his rocker.


I might add, afterwards I was speaking to a friend of May, well he said he knew him and had been given a copy of the book by May and he said that he heard Denis O'Brien was involved in the money side of getting the book published.

Of course this is complelte hearsay and not only is it 2nd hand but at least 3rd hand and probably more. Adds a bit of spice to it though!

[-0-]

Absolutely priceless stuff.

Scofflaw

Azhrei wrote: »

I'd love to see him at the top of Leinster House, shaking his fist while screaming, "I'm not a monkey!".

Perhaps with the Tanaiste tucked under one arm? She could explain Einstein's Theory of Evolution to him.

Then we send in the Air Force...

cordially,
Scofflaw

MrStuffins

Scofflaw wrote: »

Perhaps with the Tanaiste tucked under one arm? She could explain Einstein's Theory of Evolution to him.

Then we send in the Air Force...

cordially,
Scofflaw

Einstein's Theory of What?

Isn't that E equals M C.... Ooh ooh ooh ooh OOOH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH!!!

I just realised they look like sex noises.... they're supposed to be monkey noises!

donkey balls

just had a look at lenihans former occupation according to the FF site he was a journo&biz executive i wonder if the business is still going:eek:

Pat D. Almighty

There was lots of heated debate on his Facebook page. But he's deleted all the criticism.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=730793468&v=wall&ref=ts