You know how we all love to screw up online polls … here’s another one. Scroll down to just below “What others are saying”, on the left, where the poll question is:
Do you think the theory of Intelligent Design should be taught in our education system?
“Yes” is currently leading by about 3:1. If everyone goes over there and votes “no”, it will raise Mark Mathis’s blood pressure a few points.
(via Skippy)
how typical of the smug atheists so common on the internet. It’s typically sad that you have to disrupt and subvert things to prove just how “right” you are.
Personally I don’t know what to believe because no one can say what the spark was that set the wheels in motion to create life. Neither do you, so get over yourselves.
W(.)(.)T
No (38989 votes)
hahaahha
Currently 56:1
Yeah, baby! Rock that vote!
Brad,
They joy of being an atheist is the burden of proof isn’t on us? Hows your proof of God working out?
If you want sparks at the early age of the Earth, you should look into something we call lightening. Very Abundant stuff back then. If you didn’t mean that, stop confounding me with metaphor! And look up modern theories of abiogenesis or panspermia if you’re feeling open-minded. None of this has anything to do with evolution.
i voted yes!!!
Currently 56:1
Oh, and brad: STFU. This is not about being “right” (we already know we are), it’s about fucking with a douche who’s bullshit propaganda poses a huge threat to science education.
FYI, Evolution is change over time; all it says about the origin of like is that it is possible for we we see now to develop from very simple structures. It makes no predictions and explains nothing in that field, just confirms that abiogenesis of some sort is plausible.
My Method of voting may be flawed.
Too bad I believe in evolution, therefore I’m not smart enough to understand polling…
This is my method:
http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/256557
“NO”
“Vote”
<-- BACKSPACE "NO" "Vote" <-- BACKSPACE (loop until I got bored...)
I’m amazed at how horribly the ID’s are doing. You’d think they would at least try.
Your free to joe and we wouldn’t dream of trying to stop you, thats not how we operate. Though it does tell us a great deal about both your level of scientific knowledge and your credulousness and not for the better.
i too dislike this movie for reasons beyond a disdain for intelligent design. however, this is a perfect example of the ignorance of which this film speaks. the fact that a mass of people will mindlessly click a link on stumbleupon so as to purposely alter a poll indicates the kind of brain-dead acceptance that plagues proper evolutionary teaching.
true science is about an exchange of ideas, not about ridiculing someone because he thinks differently. whether or not you agree with intelligent design (i don’t) it is still a theory that obviously captivates a great deal of people. as such, it (just like any belief) deserves a proper discussion as opposed to infantile mockery
More than 94% No
Less than 2% Yes
Mission Accomplished!
Brad your statement exposes your ignorance of evolution. The reason ‘you don’t know what to believe’ is because you’re dumb.
You’re very wrong. Mockery of idiocy is critical to the free exchange of ideas in science, no matter how many people might have bought into it.
Currently (1015h, Singapore time)
Yes: 709
No: 39699
I’ve always felt that the major thing theists have going for them is the social and emotional network they get from people who are “on their side”, while atheists tend to work more alone.
Still, it’s a helluva difference there, ladies and gentlemen.
Vote! Vote!
Mmmmm, that click on ‘NO’ felt good.
Brad, if you want to discuss being right, you can:
a) Look at the evidence (creationism has none)
b) Guide yourself by public opinion (over 94% of respondents say creationism is crap)
@501 brad —
1. Evolution is not abiogenesis.
2. Spark could be lightning, UV light, iron-sulfur redox reactions, radioactive beach sands brought to the surface by strong tidal influences, and any other number of hypothesized scientific possibilities. No, we don’t know for sure. But the great thing about these theories is that they can actually be empirically studied (unlike, say, God), and maybe one day someone *will* be able to say what set the wheels in motion. Then your God-of-the-gaps will be relegated to some other role, like starting the spark that set the Big Bang in motion.
If scientists “got over themselves” and stopped trying to explain phenomena (as you seem to be suggesting they should), we’d live in a sadly intellectually stinted world indeed.
You creative design people fail to prove the fact the there is no fucking proof that goddamn aliens set the cogs of life into motion, I’m gonna go out on a limb here but there is a lot more proof to support almost any other theory but your
You show me aliens, I show you Jesus fucking riding in a garbage truck
Wow, we all understand evolution here. This is no ignorant mass. No one has brain-dead acceptance. Ask anyone here to explain details of evolution, and you will see knowledge come at you. Do you think people who don’t care about science would frequent an evolutionary development biologist’s blog?
If you’ve discovered the theory of ID we would love to here it. We honestly have never heard them state a scientific theory of intelligent design. It had it’s proper discussion, years ago. Its being mocked because it refuses to die after being exposed.
Blo me
Do you think the theory of Intelligent Design should be taught in our education system?
To the 709 retards who voted YES, do you really expect any competent biology teacher would agree to waste time teaching supernatural magic instead of science?
I noticed in Dover the number of teachers who agreed to read the required intelligent design creationism statement was exactly zero. One teacher quit his job, and the rest refused to have anything to do with this religious nonsense. Then of course there was the trial, ID lost badly, and one million dollars of taxpayer money was wasted. Why don’t the creationists morons understand their idiotic ideas will never be allowed in public school science education?
To “the voice of reason” #511 – do you really think intelligent design magic bullshit “deserves a proper discussion”? These people are lying assholes, and they’re as stupid as a person can be. If you think their dishonest crap deserves a proper discussion then you’re as stupid as they are.
@#511 the voice of reason:
It’s had a “proper discussion”. Over. and over. again, both in various threads here and in other public forums. Unfortunately, nothing you say will persuade ID’ers that their belief is unscientific, so we’re reduced to mocking it in an effort to stay sane and salvage some enjoyment from the frustrating process. (Given the choice between crying and laughing at unrepentant idiocy, laughing is, I think, the healthier option).
Also: ID is not a theory. Theory, as defined by the OED, is “A scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of facts or phenomena; a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts; a statement of what are held to be the general laws, principles, or causes of something known or observed.” ID doesn’t fit this description one bit. It is instead (as you later correctly called it) a belief. A belief unfounded in rationality or science, masquerading as a scientific theory.
John@508: Here’s a better method, suitable for the bash shell:
the voice of reason, yeah right, we are not ridiculing them because they think differently but because they are ridiculous and because they slandered any evolutionist as effectively being a Nazi and/or a communist and/or an eugenicist etc. etc. And they did it largely through deceit every step of the way, as is well documented all over the web as well as other media sources.
This was purely a bit of fun on our part. However, I can guarantee you that if they had ‘won’ the vote they would have presented that as another factor to try and influence law makers to allow the teaching of IDiotism in science when it isn’t science by any definition of science.
And as to being properly discussed, it has been endlessly, nowhere more so than in the Dover trial where a right wing religious judge ruled, after seeing the evidence for himself, that it was only creationism repackaged So cry me a river.
Beyond that, we keep asking IDiots what exactly does their theory say apart from goddidit. I.e. when you put forward a scientific theory it must be falsifiable. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for anything that isn’t just an argument against evolution based on the god of the gaps, every one of their god of the gaps having been proved wrong. If they ever did propose a genuine hypotheses or theory and did some research we would look at openly. However, scientific theories aren’t decided by popularity but by evidence, which they have none of.
the voice of reason, yeah right, we are not ridiculing them because they think differently but because they are ridiculous and because they slandered any evolutionist as effectively being a Nazi and/or a communist and/or an eugenicist etc. etc. And they did it largely through deceit every step of the way, as is well documented all over the web as well as other media sources.
This was purely a bit of fun on our part. However, I can guarantee you that if they had ‘won’ the vote they would have presented that as another factor to try and influence law makers to allow the teaching of IDiotism in science when it isn’t science by any definition of science.
And as to being properly discussed, it has been endlessly, nowhere more so than in the Dover trial where a right wing religious judge ruled, after seeing the evidence for himself, that it was only creationism repackaged So cry me a river.
Beyond that, we keep asking IDiots what exactly does their theory say apart from goddidit. I.e. when you put forward a scientific theory it must be falsifiable. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for anything that isn’t just an argument against evolution based on the god of the gaps, every one of their god of the gaps having been proved wrong. If they ever did propose a genuine hypotheses or theory and did some research we would look at openly. However, scientific theories aren’t decided by popularity but by evidence, which they have none of.
Unfortunately, nothing you say will persuade ID’ers that their belief is unscientific, so we’re reduced to mocking it in an effort to stay sane and salvage some enjoyment from the frustrating process. (Given the choice between crying and laughing at unrepentant idiocy, laughing is, I think, the healthier option).
I’m thinking I might have to add this as a sig, just to avoid having to paste it so often…
“Ridicule is the only weapon that can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them.”
-Thomas Jefferson
I freaking love the internet. This is great. Voted no.
the fact that
a mass ofpeople will mindlesslyclick a link on stumbleupon so as to purposely alterconstruct a[n internet] poll [and assume the results meant anything suggests they are playing up to] the kind of brain-deadacceptancepublic that plagues proper evolutionary teaching.there, that’s a bit more accurate now.
94% voted no!
Very nice!
VoteEarlyAndOften@ 524: I stand corrected.
I will bow to your coding abilities once you prove it works.
I apologize for being skeptical. ;-) We’re like that here.
If you can get it over 100,000 votes in the next 30 minutes, then YOU ARE THE MAN. (or woman, depending on your chromosomes)
Challenge on.
Good luck.
So, everyone is voting to ban the teaching of a certain subject in public schools run by the government. How is that not faciest?
How is that not faciest?
You’re right. It’s the most facy thing I’ve ever seen.
AC, its already banned by the Constitution, and the voting is for fun. But if it was a real poll, we’d be voting to enforce the Constitution, how faciest.
Ya know… this blog post/thread does kind of support the whole countercreationist conspiracy thing. I mean, I know it’s just a collection of individuals who got together to break a fragile online poll because we each personally felt that the message being spread was bullshit, but it wouldn’t be hard to spin it into an evil cult type thing.
You’re right. It’s the most facy thing I’ve ever seen.
LOL
I rather think it was an unintentional attempt at combining the common creobot misspelling of “atheist->ahtiest” and another misspelling of “fascist->facist”
a combination of a double misspelling, and misused to boot.
bravo?
AC, no we are having fun with a stupid Internet vote that if they had ‘won’ they would have used it as a factor to try and influence law makers to allow IDiotism to be taught in science class as science when it isn’t science. Even a right wing religious judge ruled in the Dover trial that IDiotism wasn’t science but creationism repackaged, i.e. it is a religion. There is nothing stopping IDiotism being taught in philosophy or comparative religion classes, not that it would take long to cover. What is fascist, is trying to break the constitutionally mandated state/religious divide as the proponents of IDiotism are trying to do. Admittedly, the poll only asked should it be taught in schools. However, everyone knows there is nothing stopping it being taught in schools, only that it can’t be taught in science classes because it isn’t science but religion.
I just watched Richard Dawkins claim that life could have been planted on Earth by aliens. That constitutes Intelligent Design in my book. Where is the religion in that?
I just watched Richard Dawkins claim that life could have been planted on Earth by aliens. That constitutes Intelligent Design in my book. Where is the religion in that?
What if the aliens weren’t very bright?
Maybe Dawkins was referencing the ‘alien septic tank dump’ theory of terrestial biogenesis.
Anyone else notice this blurb for the movie on the Expelled site?
“Powerful, creative, and winsome…”
– Lee Strobel
WINSOME??!! Was this man homeschooled or did he have a Language Arts teacher who believed in teaching the controversy in Vocabulary class? ‘Winsome’ means, “generally pleasing and engaging, often because of a childlike charm and innocence. Syn. see ‘sweet.'” Have any of the Expelled apologists (acolytes? clacquers? addlepates? oh, heck – they all apply) referred to the “fulsome praise” the movie has received?
Although maybe “excessive to the senses or to moral or aesthetic sensibility” isn’t an inaccurate description of the positve comments Expelled has received.
And, if we give Mark Mathis et al. the benefit of the doubt, perhaps Expelled is a manifestation of “childlike innocence.” “Creative” really is true too. Lee Strobel doesn’t say creative with what – creative with the facts certainly fits.
I can’t wait until I get AC’s kids in my class, where we’ll be studying how my ass created Saturn out of those little plastic pull tabs from frozen juice cans. And if the little fuckers squeal about it, I’ll fail ’em faster than you can say “Jehovah is Vishnu’s Bitch!”
And nobody better complain to the authorities about my teaching of this subject. That would be faciest.
Do you get it now, AC?
Maybe Dawkins was referencing the ‘alien septic tank dump’ theory of terrestial biogenesis.
actually, and I’m sure you know this, but anybody who saw the movie probably doesn’t. Dawkins was referring to the very thing the IDiots themselves have proposed as a potential alternative “intelligence” to “god” in their “theory” (yes, a lot of scare quotes, but all necessary).
It was a thought experiment, exploring the most likely scenario building the concept of ID from a non-deific conception.
Moreover, what was shown in the film was a deliberate quotemine of the interview that did NOT show the context, nor the actual question that was asked that Dawkins was responding to.
How does it feel being lied to, Dan?
Now then, Dan, let’s extend Dawkins own thought experiment to its natural conclusion, shall we?
Assuming that “aliens” have influenced the development of life on earth… how exactly would we go about testing that idea?
would we go about it in any different fashion, logically, than we would if a deity was proposed as the “design mechanism”?
do you really want to know the answer?
stumbled here but my GF reads SB every day. Voted no – great fun to read the posts!
Hey Sabrina,
go make me dinner.
Hey Ichthyic
OT but did you get the email I sent regarding NZ? Having problems with my server and am missing the odd email, in and out. Bastard rural backwater service. If you didn’t get it let me know, I saved a draft in case.
Cheers
V
Soylentseth
Are you ordering your GF to make your dinner on an internatrional forum? Lad, you’ve got balls the size of grapefruit.
Dan, what you saw was Dawkins after much repetitive questioning in real life from BS speculating, not claiming, that it was a possibility. I realise the subtlety is lost on the average creobot, especaily when it was edited in an attempt to make Dawkins look stupid with BS’s oh so clever comments. Of curse, by now we are used to the complete dishonesty of the expelled crew before the production even started. But the image BS portrays of the evil evolutionist fits in well with the preconceptions of those this piece of dross is aimed at, such as yourself.
The poll is still open? Ok. I’ll vote.
OT but did you get the email I sent regarding NZ?
got it yesterday.
thanks much!
Update:
Yes: 733
No: 41,926
THAT is a ratio
You know, something that occurred to me while reading the comments is this:
From a certain point of view it is, indeed, “unfair” to vote our honest opinion on an opinion poll which wants a different answer from what we are willing to give.
Of course, this is the _same_ point of view that said not voting for and believing everything Dubya Bush says is “unAmerican.”
Bride of Shrek:
Yeah, can’t give ’em too much freedom!
I can’t comment like that on her feminist blog or those grapefruits would be surgically extracted with a 1800’s bayonet :(
@#538 Dan —
Been pointed out by other posters, but can’t be mentioned enough: what you actually watched was a quote-mined segment of video showing RD responding to repetitive questioning as to what the most likely possibility of ID was. Between the options of an unmade maker or alien intelligence (which would have itself had to evolve, or be ID’d by evolved aliens, or be ID’d by aliens that were ID’d by evolved aliens, or…well, you get the point), Dawkins logically chose the latter.
The segment they didn’t show you was the segment in which he said that he found both so-called theories unlikely and unscientific.
Also, for most of the rest of the movie, Stein talks a lot about God and very little about ID, so if you’re using that film as your source for IDeology, you should realize that ID rests heavily on the idea of God and just pays lip-service to alien intelligence in a (failed) effort to seem scientific.
Uh Oh
“Server is too busy”
94.29% say No. Absolutely glorious, PZ. But just wait for their rebuttal – “the evil atheist cabal has crashed our poll results and interfered with the will of the peoplez!!!”
err…couldn’t GOD just wipe out all of the no votes?
Holy crap, this is just getting absurd. When I first caught on to this there were like 6000 no votes. I’ve been at my computer all day working on a final paper for school, and this thread is the reason I have been sitting at my computer all day, am still sitting at my computer, and still have not finished the goddam paper.
Anyway, well done everybody. This is some funny shit.
I read this would happen in the Bible. I wonder what they think about quantum mechanics.
Just reading some of the comments on the expelled MySpace page. Holy shit, Christians are scary people!
Pass the Kool-Aid!
I think the creator of this myspace page broke the 9th Protestant Commandment when they listed their/his age as 100 (check the title bar).
And who is this wild Heidi Almighty in the friends list right next to the poll? Her occupation is (employed by?) “HUSTLER”. Also of note, some of her interests are “Books, Bible, Beer and Coffee oh and Manslaves”.
[kazakh] Very nice! How Much? [/kazakh]
FWIW, poll is currently at:
Y 753
N 44080
NS 164
WTF 1728
Currently at 44485 No… I wonder if the poll will last long enough to reach 66600. By the looks of it that should be some time tomorrow morning…
@ 559: Heidi Almighty only needs 6 more friends.
Free Hovind!
http://www.myspace.com/freehovind
The ‘No” vote is currently 94.46% of the poll.
I wonder if the makers will take this a sign that perhaps the message of the movie is not getting across in the way that they had hoped.
Perhaps it wasn’t designed intelligently enough.
That is so fricking awesome!!!
Free Hovind!
not even for free.
you couldn’t pay me.
PZ you have too much power…
PZ you have too much power…
LOL
welcome to the internet.
new here?
I just posted my F-rated (that would be, Fuck NO!) review at Yahoo. Mine’s the one titled “Contemptible and manipulative trash” . . .
Enough with the voting, guys. Time to flood Yahoo and IMDB with a healthy dose of reality and knock that B- overall rating down a few notches.
It looks like I’m number 57662 for no :P.
PZ, you mischievous stinker you ;O).
Y 769 1.16%
N 63326 95.76%
NS 164 0.25%
WII 1874 2.83%
I think that the point is made!
Rev. BigDumbChimp: Good one! How about adding it to the LOLScience pool on flickr and tagging it “lolexpelled” and “expelled exposed”? I’ve been collecting stuff like that over there.
Come to think of it, maybe we ought to start a LOLEXpelled pool. MWAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA…….
Hey, we’re almost at 66600 No’s and 666 comments, keep it up people!
won’t even let me vote! it’s been ‘loading’ for 5 min!
i believe this is a sign of capitulation.
The poll has been removed. Can’t imagine why!
Results like that aren’t the product of a small number of evilutionists hammering the poll. No beat Yes by a factor of 82. That’s astonishing.
The poll has been removed. Can’t imagine why!
oh no, it’s still there, it’s just that somebody has been successful in programming a scripted voting loop (see some of the discussion upthread).
if you wait about a minute or so, it finally shows up, but good luck trying to get another vote in!
if they don’t actually shut it down, I predict numbers in the millions come tomorrow.
April 26, 02:47 CST
yes: 783
no: 71183
not sure: 164
What is it?: 1879
BobC @400 says:
On the April 18 episode of his 60-Second Science podcast, Scientific American’s usually-cool Steve Mirsky really got his back up over BS’s egregious quote-mining of Darwin in Expelled. Audio and transcript here.
You go, Steve!
Did my bit, yesterday and checked today. I am one happy teapot.
Also, there are more “what is it” votes than “yes” votes! If only we could direct them here to educate their enquiring minds.
Keep up the good work PZ.
As of 3:01 CST —
yes 783
no 74,120
not sure 164
what is it? 1879
As of 3:04 CST —
yes 783
no 75,384
not sure 164
what is it? 1879
The Unknown Coder has this under control. Time to write some reviews, folks!
YES is down to less than 1%. amazing. we’re a bunch of mean, mean people. but its sooooo much fun.
91,192 votes for No and the Yes votes still haven’t broke 1000 yet. This one event has somewhat restored my faith in the overall intelligence of people. Even vanilla Christians accept that evolution is a fact that can’t be ignored. They also accept that the bible should not be taken literally. IMHO It is only the quite vocal minority of fundamentalist Christians who take the bible literally and dismiss evolution out of hand.
I don’t blame ignorance for the fundies dismissal of evolution because the vast majority of people are ignorant about evolution. At least they accept the words of ALL reputable scientists and biologists that evolution has been proven. Ingnorance is simply the condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed. If someone takes the time to educate, make aware and inform an ignorant person then that person is no longer an ignoramus. Therefore I class myself as being ignorant of evolution but I have seen enough to accept it as a fact and am open to being educated further.
A fundamentalist Christian will refuse to listen or see arguments and fact based evidence proving evolution. It does not mater how much evidence is presented, it will be dismissed out of hand. They refuse to be educated because they see evolution as a direct threat to Gods existance. That is not ignorance, that is pig-headedness, or more aptly, blind faith. Ironically this “blind faith” is not unshakable. If it was then the fundies would not kick and scream so much about the evil of evolution. It is my belief that a fundamentalist Christian sees the evidence proving evolution and KNOWS it to be true but they fight hard to convince him/herself to ignore the blasphemy. Fundamentalist Christians will happily lie to themselves to appease a fictional deity. Ironically this is not breaking any of this deity’s commandments as they are not not bearing false witness against their neighbour. It is only themselves they are lying to.
97947 nos when I voted and yes less than 1000 still – lets make it 100,000 to 1000 – wipe out
Just missed the 100k mark by }this much{ 100001 votes including mine! :-) (What is it?)
And the Yes and Not Sure are less than 1% COMBINED!
Grim pill time, Mark.
Yes: 789
No: 120,138
Not sure: 165
Huh?: 1186
Heh heh heh.
!!!!!!
Just back from mowing the lawn for some little old ladies.
Just stunning.
As of right now, this is how this major landslide stands:
Yes (790 votes) 0.61%
No (126025 votes) 97.81%
Not sure (165 votes) 0.13%
What is it? (1887 votes) 1.46%
Ha!
This just proves the power that PZ wields every time he posts to his ultra-powerful and ultra-influential blog.
If anyone is ever omnipotent, it is PZ-god!
It’s still pretty embarrassing that nearly 800 people have voted “yes”. Though cool that for every person that voted yes, two and a bit people don’t even know what ID is.
Yes <1% (793 votes)
No 98% (176,304 votes)
Not sure <1% (165 votes)
What is it? 1% (2,084 votes)
Good job people.
That didn’t show up right:
Yes <1% (793 votes)
No 98% (176,304 votes)
Not sure <1% (165 votes)
What is it? 1% (2,084 votes)
I kind of find it sad that even with 4392 friends on the myspace he has managed to only get tad short of 800 votes.
They seem to have taken the poll off the web site (or I’m too dense to find it). Assuming the former is true, it is more evidence that these weasels are ethically challenged.
No, poll is still there, even when I refreshed the cache. Yes is at ~0.4%
This is called framing. By someone who can’t even spell fascist. Homeschooled, were you?
We are voting to prevent a religious mythology, creationism, being taught to our kids as science. It is already unconstitutional to do so and the courts have ruled on this many times.
It is also just mythology and completely wrong scientificly, St Augustine was skeptical of genesis 1500 years ago.
it’s still up on polldaddy:
http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/256557/
Wow.
Yes (795 votes)
No (197885 votes)
Not sure (165 votes)
What is it? (2085 votes)
Bloody hell, it’s being updated by nearly a hundred people a second! It just crossed 200,000!
This isn’t Intelligent Design. It is a hypothesis called “panspermia”. It is scientific in that no supernatural intervention is required. No aliens are required either, the first cells or replicators could have drifted to our solar system in or on meteorites, dust etc..
It also just puts the origin of life question back a step. Who designed the aliens? Or did they evolve?
At present there is no evidence whatsoever that panspermia happened.
Hee hee, I just added my 2nd no vote from a different oomputer!
Where is the reaction from the poll host?
“Yes” is currently leading by about 3:1.”
Ahem… when I voted, ‘no’ was leading: :)
Yes (795 votes)
No (204957 votes)
Did this happen in just a few hours?
Or will have, soon …
Els…
This sort of thing doesn’t take long! And if you don’t want to gouge out your eyes with a fork, stay clear of the comments.
Physics PhD student at an Ivy (comment #184):
I’d just like to add my name to those who would like to know who these “many brilliant scientists, widely respected in their fields” actually are.
The nearest I can think of is Behe, whose mainstream scientific work has been (IIRC) fairly solid, although hardly brilliant, and who is so respected by his peers that his university department have a disclaimer on its website disassociating themselves from his views.
I think you’re misunderstanding. Ponder the phrase “make me dinner” and ask yourself, What is the secret of Solyentseth?
I wonder if Yoko voted?
216,586 – 799
98.62% – 0.36%
I’d say it’s crashed, LMAO!
Etha Williams @#176:
I’d like to strongly vote against this: if you want the link to open in a new window or tab (as I usually do), just middle-click on it. If your mouse doesn’t have a middle button, use Apple-click or Apple-shift-click, or whatever the equivalent is in Microsoftland, if that’s what you’re stuck with.
The current system works just fine. Let’s not break it. If it really bothers you, you can install Greasemonkey or something, to rewrite the links on the fly.
Wow… “No” is up to 98.36%. Nice job, PZ.
Yes: 805 (0.33%)
No: 243,314 (98.69%)
Not sure: 166 (0.07%)
Huh? 2274 (0.92%)
It’s still up and running on the MySpace page and at Poll Daddy.
Wooey! This is as much fun as Google bombing… and way easier!
Just voted…and the poll is STILL there!
Of course the IDiots will claim, “see how controversial this is that over 250K people visited our site? we must further this conversation! we have just begun!”
Cut to the b&w footage of jackboots on the pavement.
It doesn’t show up on their “Popular Poll” list yet, but the numbers place it as #1 for this week, and in the top 10 for this month.
MikeD do you have a like for the popular poll list?
I dont spend a lot of time on myspace and I have spent 10 minutes looking for it and I can feel my brain going to sleep :)
thanks bunches
MikeD do you have a link for the popular poll list?
<>
More coffee needed, back soon……
@Britmar
http://answers.polldaddy.com/
Smashing numbers right there! About half-a-percent on official expelled myspace site think ID should be taught! xD
I turned off my cookies, and repeated myself.
The popular poll list is on PollDaddy at:
http://answers.polldaddy.com/
This was brilliantly (although I think by chance) posted on a Friday morning. If it’s still here now I think there’s very little chance that it will be pulled before Monday, and will all the bots posting the ‘no’ vote will be up to a couple of million. It must suck to be as universally ridiculed as much as Mathis.
Wow, this has been beaten to death. This is amusing, sure, but in the end all it impacts are the visitors to Mathis’ little propaganda page. This horse you’re beating is no more. It has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone to meet its maker. This is a late horse.
Meanwhile, what has gone on at actual movie poll sites, as Expelled tries to squeeze out a decent showing this second weekend?
Internet Movie Database: Went UP from 3.6/10 to 3.7/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1091617/
Yahoo Movies: Down from B to B- (good)
movies.yahoo.com/mvc/drv?mid=1809995068&s=rc_d
Fandango: Went from 2 to 3 on fan rated top 10, and IS NOW BACK TO 2
http://www.fandango.com/
Brian K. also mentioned Box Office Mojo:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=expelled.htm
This is so painful, like watching a friend with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Spend a percentage of the energy on Mathis’ silly poll on sites that moviegoers actually read!
Great! I just voted No(4/26/08 12:17 EDT). Yes is currently in 3rd place (0.28%) behind No (98.77%) and What is it? (0.90%).
@119
Given he also lists his religion as “atheist” and has among his interests population genetics, evolution, comparative religion, the flying spaghetti monster, and critical thinking; I suspect he has been a victim of comment editing (like BobC @ 400).
Hey, is anyone up for some serious vote-rigging, the forces of godlessness are suffering in the TIME 100 internet poll. Just visit http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1725112_1726934_1726935,00.html, click on the name of the person you want to vote up (or down).
Neil Tyson, Ayaan and Hitchens are there.
308,000+ “No” votes! =crowd goes wild=
Off to bomb the Time poll……..
The poll now reads:
306430 votes no 98.82%,
816 yes 0.26%,
167 Not sure 0.05%,
2701 What is it 0.87%.
The rating on Yahoo movies is still B-
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809995068/user
If you leave a review, remember to take some time and rate other reviews as “Helpful”.
#625
MikeD,
My review and rating is there! At the very least, include ExpelledExposedDOTcom (write “dot” instead of period or it gets censored).
Bump.
Focus efforts at the following sites; also, add a review and help out similar reviews. You’ll have to register, of course, but they’re all free.
boxofficemojo:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=expelled.htm
(currently at B-)
fandango:
http://www.fandango.com/expelled:nointelligenceallowed_113802/movieoverview
(currently at 4/5, or “Go”)
flixster:
http://www.flixster.com/movie/expelled-no-intelligence-allowed
(currently at 4/5 stars)
imdb:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1091617/
(currently at 3.7/10 stars)
rotten tomatoes:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/expelled_no_intelligence_allowed/
(currently at 3/10, or 9% – yeah, weird)
yahoo:
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809995068/info
(currently at B-)
And FWIW, the poll is currently at:
Y 816 (0.24%)
N 331042 (98.83%)
NS 167 (0.05%)
WTF 3002 (0.90%)
I’d still like to know more about this wholesome-looking “Radical Psycho Jesus Freak” Heidi Almighty…
Yes I’m evil, but here’s the direct link to game the TIME poll for Hitchens.
No, you are a retard
Well over 300k when I added my 15 votes Saturday am…
…and climbing by about 30 votes per second.
A celebration montage:
http://www.evolutionsteori.se/images/expelled_poll.jpg
:)
I have a sneaky feeling that somebody who knows a fair amount about Flash programming has found a way to trick the voting software and engineered this result.
Kids never want to believe that Santa isn’t real when you tell them for the first time.
Why should intellectual children react any differently to Santa: Adult Model?
Meyrick Kirby, ya think :)
They have attracted the entire choir to their own site. All
584823 of them. What did you think?Being scientists, we have tried that. Several times. When the comment number approaches 2500, the ScienceBlogs server gets problems, and the powers that be approach PZ so he closes that thread…
Ask Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia, or Triad Systems.Well, there are now 366,563 “no” votes, with something like 120 being added if I refresh polldaddy twice in a row, so I think someone has automated it.The MS equivalent is a right-click which gives you options like “open in a new window”, “open in a new tab” (IE 7.0 and higher), “save target as”, “copy link”…
Correction: when I just refreshed this twice in a row, the “no” count rose by only 6 votes. It is now at 367,008. At this speed, it really might be just lots of people voting, rather than a script voting once every 10 milliseconds. Who has voted more than 20 times? :-}
“What is it” has climbed to over 1 % and is at 3,863. “Yes” stays at 823, “not sure” is at 167.
Wow! Thank you, PZ, for your efficient reach of an obvious fan base. I just went to the poll, voted (“No,” of course!), and saw the results:
Yes (824 votes) 0.22%
No (369456 votes) 98.71%
Not sure (167 votes) 0.04%
What is it? (3869 votes) 1.03%
Don’t let my bit of trivial glee dissuade anyone else from voting, though. Obviously, the poll could be reset at any time. If it’s not, wouldn’t it be nice to see the “No” votes top 99.5% of the vote, so it would round off to 100%? (Not that I’d advocate deceptive use of statistics!)
Thanks to all 369,455 others who voted. :)
Well, like many others here, I really really want to know what ID is, beyond goddidit that is :)
Latest Stats are (as of 23:27 BST):
No: 380,486 (98.59%)
What is it?: 4,511 (1.17%)
Yes: 824 (0.21%)
Not Sure: 167 (0.04%)
That’s a 461.75 to 1 ratio of No to Yes.
I gather that appropriate phrases to use at this juncture are “epic lulz” and “pwnd”.
I just worked out how to get past their comment filtering. If anyone wants to comment here’s how:
Send a very brief ID friendly comment with a link to a nice picture of Jesus holding a fluffy lamb or something. Wait til your comment gets approved. Then change the image the link point to into a picture which contains your real comment. I’m pretty sure that was the method employed by Justin as mentioned in #119 above.
I’ve not tested this myself yet (just about to) but I’m pretty sure this should work.
As of 02:40 EET
Yes (829 votes)
No (387851 votes)
So, I havn’t been here very long.
Whats the most comments a topic has ever had ?
And is this the most fun ?
Just wondering :)
thank you kindly
This poll is full of win and awesome. Bravo, ScienceBlogs, bravo.
Wow, 394040 No, 832 Yes. While I’m all for the merciless destruction of “intelligent design” at every opportunity, the massive rate makes me suspect somebody’s made a script that’s automatically voting. Or maybe I’m just pessimistic.
Interestingly, I can’t even add this lot as a friend. This is probably in some way related to the way I got banned from ever posting in a myspace group ever again: I used to occasionally go into creationist groups and give them a taste of my passable knowledge of science.* A couple of months after myspace was snapped up by that colossal knob Rupert Murdoch, I found I could no longer post in any of these groups, with no warning, no ban message, not even a hearty “fuck you.”
Occasionally deeply offending poor, innocent christians with science was almost certainly the cause of this insidious silencing, because it was pretty much the only thing I had used it for in at least a couple of years.
*I’m just now finishing the second year of a biology degree at Aberystwyth
I guess all the people who voted to keep intelligent design out of the schools do no believe in intelligent design. Would the results be the opposite if the question was “Do you think the theory of evolution should be taught in our education system?” I hope that people don’t think one THEORY can be taught in school when another THEORY cannot be, especially when the latter has more proof.
http://users.netconnect.com.au/~leedas/index.html
If there is no Creator, how do we know the difference between right and wrong?
Oh, Al, you’re funny. Tell another joke!
AI: a little thing called society, maybe?
If you thought that god would not punish you for your actions, would you immediately embark on an orgy of pillage and plunder and rape?
Oh, I should say hello too. Been reading Pharynula on and off for a while, but only just started posting. Well done, AI, for unleashing the beast.
I hope that people don’t think one THEORY can be taught in school when another THEORY cannot be, especially when the latter has more proof.
Theory, you’re using it wrong.
And how about defending your position rather than bashing the opposing one?
I’m not the one calling them theories.
I’m done here.
I’ve read the last chapter. We win.
Britomart @ # 643
We’ve a couple of threads go well into the 1200 region but they were usually on some contraversial topic and the dearly missed Truth Machine was usually responsible for about a quarter of them.
Al:
I’ve read the last chapter. We win.
http://www.jeffreysharp.org/fun/YouWinThePrize.jpg
…Because your post doesn’t dignify anything other than scorn
We’ve a couple of threads go well into the 1200 region but they were usually on some contraversial topic and the dearly missed Truth Machine was usually responsible for about a quarter of them.
one of the Expelled threads recently went over 2000.
If there is no Creator, how do we know the difference between right and wrong?
Of course there is a Creator.
“If there is no Creator, how do we know the difference between right and wrong?”
I suppose it never occurred to you that if, say, it hurts you to get bashed in the mouth, it might be mean to bash someone else in the mouth. That’s called empathy. It doesn’t require believing in God, or intelligent design or anything like that.
There’s also a word for people like you who don’t seem to have any of this “empathy”. The word is sociopath.
one of the Expelled threads recently went over 2000.
IIRC, all the Scott Adams threads ended up going over at least 1000, one to over 1500.
I’ve read the last chapter. We win.
I’ve got a lawn chair with a bunch of helium balloons attached with your name on it.
[IMG]http://i27.tinypic.com/14kfk2w.jpg[/IMG]
http://i27.tinypic.com/14kfk2w.jpg
I get the feeling that this web site + StumbleUpon has caused this, if this started out 3:1 earlier today.
WORD.
98.51% of people have voted NO.
Thanks for pointing it out PZ.
Yes: 849
No: 409,454
Don’t know: 170
Huh?: 5268
Al moans:
Don’t mind him, it’s a Calvinist Thang. Calvin taught that one of the essential characteristics of humanity was “Total Depravity.” That’s right – we can never do anything good on our own in spite of being “made in the image of God.” It’s a completely unbiblical concept.
Nonhuman animals have a lot of “do the right thing” hardwired into them. Altruism, cooperation, empathy, and loyalty are important survival instincts. Waitaminnit, Cal and Al! Are you saying that we somehow missed out on all those good qualities by dint of being human?
But I’m not going to go any further into theology than that. It’s a complete waste of energy, and this really isn’t the place for it anyway. Just one piece of advice, Al: If your church starts serving Kool-Aid for communion, WATCH OUT.
Al: “…I’ve read the last chapter. We win.”
Well thanks for confirming that the Bible is little more than a Clancy novel.
Now, any chance that instead of someone gaming the numbers on their end to flip the poll results, they change the question asked so the it’s about the whether evolution should be taught?
400,000 votes?
I’ve read the last chapter. We win.
DAMMIT! You’re supposed to put “spoiler alert!”
yes: 851
no: 409,561
¡666!
Hmmm, it looks like they finally pulled the poll. ‘Twas fun while it lasted, though. The last results were approximately:
Y 851
N 409606
NS 175
WTF 5300
Refer to the links in post #627 for the (major) movie review websites to post reviews & vote, as those will reach a larger audience.
Also, @628 (VoteEarlyAndOften), that link you posted for the Time poll has become broken.
OK, so now the poll is back up on the myspace page, though it was never actually unavailable on the polldaddy page.
And the votes aren’t currently changing by much, either:
Yes (854 votes)
No (409666 votes)
lmao @ #73
I think the poll has been pulled now…
For what it’s worth, the polldaddy link still works, but I think the bot must have been switched off ;)
855 yes votes
409702 no
175 not sure
5301 what is it.
I’m off to post a review on yahoo.
@#646 Al —
re: ‘theory’: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
And in case Inigo Martinez is not enough to convince you of the error of your ways, I offer you this definition of theory, straight from the OED: A hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts.
The very existence of a designer has not been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, let alone the notion that he/she/it/them was somehow involved in the process of evolution.
That website was…really bizarre…and kind of insane.
Mostly empathy and experience. Actually, that’s how you (or your pastor/figure of religious authority) know the difference between right and wrong too. Even the strictest biblical literalist shows some discretion about which of God’s numerous Old and New Testaments should be strictly followed and which can be ignored as out-of-date, etc. Those that can be ignored are generally those which empathy and experience (or the empathy & experience of your trusted religious authority figure) tell you are wrong. It’s thanks to the abilities to use our own minds to judge right from wrong — and no thanks to the Bible or other dogmatic religiomoral texts — that we aren’t doing absurd backwards things like stoning people today.
If you are truly unable to conceive of right from wrong without someone telling you what it is, then you really are a sociopath.
My review on Yahoo movies: http://tinyurl.com/5gnatt
I’ve been clicking ‘no’ on the ‘is this review helpful’ link on as many of the creationist reviews as I can. And ‘yes’ on the realworldist reviews.
(Did I just invent that? realworldist as in opposition to creationist?)
@#672 MarkW —
“realworldist” gets only two hits on google, both pertaining to things utterly unrelated to creationism, so yes, I think you did :).
My favorite, though, is simply: scientist. From the Latin “scio, scire, scivi, scitus” meaning to know. Sometimes etymological vindication is the best sort.
@291, etc.,
Ben Stein’s appearance on the Craig Ferguson Show:
Stein doesn’t seem too serious about the movie, especially with all the drug references he & Craig trade, and also due to the fact that half of the interview was off-topic. And Stein even throws out that pitiful, desperate cry for (guaranteed) applause: “the real stars are in Iraq…” No, nobody’s ever used that one before….
Also, the previous quotes about planets & Darwinism may need to be altered slightly (by a word or two).
And, FWIW, the poll is still active:
Yes (855 votes)
No (410210 votes)
This made my day. Oh and by the way, you all might be interested in this:
http://bluecollarscientist.com/2008/04/18/some-expelled-reviews/
Have a great weekend everyone!
No: ~412000 votes
from the comments:
“Thanks to
Aristotle,
Copernicus,
Galileo,
Pasteur
and other rebels of scientific thought,
who dared to question accepted “facts,”
modern scientists
now know that many past “truths” were false.”
too much pain. go read the biography of Galileo. who opposed his findings?
from aunt wiki on copernicus:
“It has been much debated why it was not until six decades after Spina and Tolosani’s attacks on Copernicus’s work that the Catholic Church took any official action against it. Proposed reasons have included the personality of Galileo Galilei and the availability of evidence such as telescope observations.”
“In 1633 Galileo Galilei was convicted of grave suspicion of heresy for “following the position of Copernicus, which is contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture,”[23] and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.”
@ Etha Williams:
Will you marry me?
and other rebels of scientific thought,
who dared to question accepted “facts,”
modern scientists
now know that many past “truths” were false.”
uh huh.
http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Galileo_fallacy
#673 Etha Williams,
While I’d agree that scientist is a good label, I don’t know whether I can accurately use it of posters of negative reviews of the “Expelled” movie.
For instance, for my day-job, I design and develop web sites and applications, so cannot with a clear conscience call myself a scientist. And as it’s my neologism, I’m quite attached to realworldist. :)
I’ve been clicking ‘no’ on the ‘is this review helpful’ link on as many of the creationist reviews as I can. And ‘yes’ on the realworldist reviews.
(Did I just invent that? realworldist as in opposition to creationist?)
I think the word you were looking for is “sane”.
Yes 855 (0.2%)
NO – 416,155 (98.45%)
REALITY RULES!!!
Re the poster link in 304, it needs a soundtrack of or a watermark-like banner across the sky of “We don’t need no education.”
John @ #680
‘Sane’. Thanks. Indeed. :-D
#661:
Maybe we lack all these moral things that the animals have because we were “made in the image of God”?
Calvin was right! God is a sociopath!
Refreshing those scripts whenever I get a free second or two. I justify voting multiple times not because I relish the ‘cheating’ but because I’m >1000 times against teaching anything other than realworldism in science class. Heh, Realworldism 101. PZ, can course descriptions have a subtitle? ;)
Currently:
Yes 867 or .2%
No 416,795 votes or about 98%
And then a few hundred of the last two “unsure” and “what is it?”…. both charming alternative responses. Barf.
SUCCESSS.
If anyone cares for my opinion, the movie was horrific religious propaganda… it did a horrible job “proving the case” for ID.
ID isn’t a theory by the way… theory is a very exact term in science and it isn’t handed out willy nilly.
LOL, I just burst out laughing when I saw the results, I’d only read PZ’s post that it was 3:1, now yes is insanly outnumbered by “What is it?”, luckily, I don’t think that many Emo’s are anti-science…
This surely means 1 of 2 things, either Mathis will quickly retract the poll(quickly, somebody take some screenshots, we may want this info for the DVD release) or they’ll claim it just proves how effective BIG SCIENCE are at INDOCTRINATING PEOPLE.
-Deus Ex Machina
Acabo de votar:
Yes: 0,2%
No: 97.89%
27/04/2008 3:53pm (VEN)
PZ, if you are still tracking this, will you please make a post with links for all the other sites we can usefully add our opinions to? Pretty please with squid ink on top?
There are a lot mentioned here in the comments, but as this has got so huge it’s hard to find them. I remember IMDB and yahoo movies, but I’m sure that’s not all.
I can’t speak for God, but Calvin certainly was! I haven’t a clue where he got all his ßu77$#!+….. but it wasn’t from any Bible I’ve ever read……..
HAS BEN STEIN LOST THE TATTERED REMAINS OF HIS CREDIBILITY OR RESPECTABILITY?
IS HE A JEW HATER AND ANOTHER FECKLESS LIAR FOR THE CALLOUS, ANTI-SOCIAL. MONEY HOARDING HATE MONGERS, THAT COMPRISE THE GOP?
I watched the EXPELLED super trailer and wonder if Ben Stein would’ve supported the Nazi’s easily dragging the whole self-righteous Christian machinery and followers with him. If you think I’m crazy, you didn’t see what i saw.
The Nazis were, by and large christians and the Holocaust was not about school curriculums being decided by ideologues who don’t consider Sunday School enough time for indoctrination. So, how are shocking images of the Nazi death camps on a par with no “Intelligent Design” in our public school curriculum?
The makers of EXPELLED apparently lack any sense of proportion. Ben repeats more than once, that freedom of speech is what’s at stake, as the jack-booted Nazi Wehrmacht marches across the screen. Huh? Did he say free speech? And how many people are being hauled off to jail for supporting this nasty “keep ’em stirred up,” film?
There’s nothing to explain what happened to the Jews and other undesirables, not for their un-christian ideas, for their race or that they might not be trustworthy patriots for the fatherland. None of it explains the German hatred of Jews that had been on a parboil for centuries ending so hideously.
If EXPELLED is the first salvo of BEN’s idea of a cogent argument for his belief in Intelligent Design the atheists have nothing to fear, since the religious right has apparently decided to hit the self destruct button!
Shame about the bot attack – it gives legitimacy to someone pulling the poll by claiming that all the ‘no’ votes were all fraudulent.
Very sad to see the poll has been pulled…reading the wall posts on the myspace page gave me the creeps…I have a feeling they delete/don’t approve the negative ones
So things have become so bad that people here have to resort to this kind of activity?
Really? Really?
After two weeks in theaters, millions in production and advertising, and the “expelledthemovement” myspace page has 4470 friends. In contrast, my snowboarding friend has over 8000. One of the girls that modeled my t-shirt designs (she’s a successful import model) has over 150,000.
The comments are hilarious, though, and worth a read.
EPIC. FAIL.
No, not really. Those kinds of polls are unscientific, and can never return meaningful results beyond whatever we can wring from the obvious: “Some percentage of people who happened to run across this poll think (a), another percentage think (b)…” and so on. The purpose of sporting with such a poll such is to demonstrate how easily an already pointless exercise can be skewed beyond recognition – and to deprive the pollmaker from getting the (essentially meaningless) result he’s hoping for. I doubt that many people believe that nearly half a million people voted on an obscure MySpace poll in under 24 hours, and I don’t think anyone is supposed to believe it.
Could this activity be described as somewhat ridiculous, and more than a little spiteful? You betcha. But I guess the alternative is to sit by while an ID site hands itself a meaninglessly favorable poll result to crow about.
OH I dunno, maybe I’m over-analyzing. ;-)
The Bad Astronomer posted on the myspace poll today, so it likely experienced another flood of not-so-desired votes — thus effecting its removal, no doubt. The poll remains active, though, here:
http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/256557/
And the current results are:
Yes <1% (906 votes)
No 98% (419,965 votes)
Not sure <1% (183 votes)
What is it? 2% (8,925 votes)
@689, cath,
Back in comment #627, I gathered a few links of movie review sites (some previously mentioned, some new) where one can add Expelled reviews.
Well, it was an interesting experiment, but Expelled have pulled the poll from their MySpace page.
Shame really, had they left it up I might have been fractionally more inclined to believe their movie was about not suppressing contradictory views to your own.
Apparently, freedom of speech is something they deserve, not necessarily something anyone who disagrees with them is entitled too.