The Discovery Institute moves on
Not content to mangle science, the DI’s Logan Gage declares war on the English language. After Time states that ID is “a stealth creationist theory,” Gage quotes a definition of “stealth” stating that it involves proceeding “furtively, secretly, or imperceptibly,” and then furtively observes that some people do not perceive the link between creationism and ID (or keep it secret):
First of all, ID is not creationism—and no one is more vociferously insistent about this than the major creationist organizations like Answers In Genesis. We’ve heard this charge before. But stealth?
Stealth…like black helicopter stealth?
‘I don’t know what you mean by “stealth”,’ Josh said.
Logan Gage smiled contemptuously. ‘Of course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant “there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!“ ‘
‘But “stealth” doesn’t mean “a nice knock-down argument”,’ Josh objected.
‘When I use a word,’ Logan Gage said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
‘The question is,’ said Josh, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
‘The question is,’ said Logan Gage, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’
Josh was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Logan Gage began again. ‘They’ve a temper, some of them — particularly verbs: they’re the proudest — adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs — however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!’
‘Would you tell me please,’ said Josh, ‘what that means?’
‘Now you talk like a reasonable child,’ said Logan Gage, looking very much pleased. ‘I meant by “impenetrability” that we’ve had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you’d mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don’t mean to stop here all the rest of your life.’
‘That’s a great deal to make one word mean,’ Josh said in a thoughtful tone.
‘When I make a word do a lot of work like that,’ said Logan Gage, ‘I always pay it extra.’
And that’s why the DI is “one of the most cited think tanks in the country.”
6 COMMENTS
FWIW, it’s Logan Gage.
Oops. Thanks.
A nice scamper down the rabbit hole…
Another correction: Di isn’t a think tank, it’s a belief tank.
Spread the meme. =)
Cheers.
Oh, and the business about being one of the most cited think … opps, belief … tanks is wrong too. That was from one survey by FAIR back in 2005–2006, when the run-up to Dover, the media frenzy around the trial and the aftermath of ID’s Armageddon, got the DI quoted almost as a matter of course in every article on the subject of ID and many about evolution. But FAIR is out with its newest survey and guess who ain’t on the list.
“logan gage” can be rearranged to spell “analog egg”.
Just, you know, fyi.