The morning session included several light moments. Dr. Pennock testified that referring to a "designer" rather than "God" is like referring to "Ambassador Wilson's wife" rather than "Valerie Plame Wilson." As the gallery laughed, Judge Jones chuckled and said, "As an example."

More Kitzmiller v. Dover trail coverage at ACLU of Penn. and The Panda's Thumb.

Regarding Blackburn:

The Stones are better than the Beatlets. Quasi-realism can be extended to the Arts. C.P. Snows "two worlds," Creationism and an infinite regress of Intelligent Designers of Intelligent Designers of Intel..." is just plain ugly, like Ptolemy's solar system of wheels within wheels within wheels, or like the Beatles, for that matter, and it DOES matter:

De gustibus ignoramibus EST disputandam.

"God" answers a primordial adolescent need, an "answer" to the Heideggerian wonder at Being Itself: Why is there Something rather than Nothing? In the words of Admiral Stockdale, "Who am I, what am I doing here?" If I understand Wittgenstein, such wonder is misplaced, being should not be capitalised. Nothing shouldn't be either, nothing shouldn't BE! When one outgrows adolescence, one sees the mystery is a glitch in the software of our culture, a pseudo-paradox.

Nothing is no "thing".

Can you grok it?

Also, Robert Fogelin has some uncommon-sense things to say about such matters.

Thanks so much for the link to my latest poem, Norm!