Post by Anodyne on Feb 1, 2007 19:56:38 GMT -5
The highlight of my weekend was playing the War on Terror Board Game (left). It's a satirical, strategic game that rewards players for achieving world domination — either as superpowers or as terrorists. Now it looks like even more fun might be in store, although perhaps of a different nature, with the Intelligent Design vs Evolution Board Game.
Yours for just $29.85, the game pits intelligent design — the idea that certain features of living organisms are too complex to have evolved without the direct intervention of an intelligent designer — against evolution. But unlike the War on Terror, this game is not intended to be a joke (nonetheless it has already provoked giggles from those on the evolution side of the argument).
"We are very excited about this game because it presents both sides of the creation-evolution argument, and in doing so, shows that the contemporary theory of evolution is perhaps the greatest hoax of modern times," said creator Kirk Cameron in a statement. Cameron was also the star of the 1980s sitcom "Growing Pains" and more recently the creator of an evangelical ministry. “The co-hosts said they hope the game will help fight against what they maintain is the brainwashing of an entire generation,” according to the Christian Examiner.
In 2005, the debate over intelligent design reached fever pitch when 11 parents in Dover, Pennsylvania, sued their school board for teaching intelligent design in high school biology class. But the movement suffered a blow later that year when federal court judge John Jones ruled that it was unconstitutional to teach ID in public schools because it would violate the separation of church and state as laid out in the First Amendment. More recently, New Scientist discovered that ID proponents had started their own laboratory.
Is there no end to the mutations that this debate can take? Apparently not — nor to the fantastic puns that it seems to invite. "This game didn't happen by accident," Cameron said in a statement. "It was intelligently designed with a specific purpose in mind, and we hope it creates a big bang in the Christian and secular world."
www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/
Yours for just $29.85, the game pits intelligent design — the idea that certain features of living organisms are too complex to have evolved without the direct intervention of an intelligent designer — against evolution. But unlike the War on Terror, this game is not intended to be a joke (nonetheless it has already provoked giggles from those on the evolution side of the argument).
"We are very excited about this game because it presents both sides of the creation-evolution argument, and in doing so, shows that the contemporary theory of evolution is perhaps the greatest hoax of modern times," said creator Kirk Cameron in a statement. Cameron was also the star of the 1980s sitcom "Growing Pains" and more recently the creator of an evangelical ministry. “The co-hosts said they hope the game will help fight against what they maintain is the brainwashing of an entire generation,” according to the Christian Examiner.
In 2005, the debate over intelligent design reached fever pitch when 11 parents in Dover, Pennsylvania, sued their school board for teaching intelligent design in high school biology class. But the movement suffered a blow later that year when federal court judge John Jones ruled that it was unconstitutional to teach ID in public schools because it would violate the separation of church and state as laid out in the First Amendment. More recently, New Scientist discovered that ID proponents had started their own laboratory.
Is there no end to the mutations that this debate can take? Apparently not — nor to the fantastic puns that it seems to invite. "This game didn't happen by accident," Cameron said in a statement. "It was intelligently designed with a specific purpose in mind, and we hope it creates a big bang in the Christian and secular world."
www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/