Comments on: George Claassen by “Ons Godsdiens en die Wetenskap” Besprekingsgroep, Môre! (Vandag)

By: Kenneth Oberlander

Kenneth Oberlander — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:48:42 +0000

Jurie took me through his talk. It’s not exactly the kind of stuff that I would present, but this is just stylistic differences. But yes, Darwin’s Angel made an appearance.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:55:53 +0000

Kenneth, did you get some info on the contents of the talk? (E.g. that at the second link in the post?)

Or Wim anyone else that attended, for that matter, was the talk more or less about the kinds of topics at that link? (Darwin’s Angel on Wikipedia.)

By: Hugo

Hugo — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:52:56 +0000

& Thanks Wim, I’ve got the powerpoint slides waiting in my inbox, I’m keen to read it, probably this weekend. At that point I can figure out whether it is worth putting it up somewhere “as is” (getting George Claassen’s permission first).

By: Kenneth Oberlander

Kenneth Oberlander — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:02:36 +0000

OK. Just spoke to Jurie. He said it went well, and he was well-received.

By: Kenneth Oberlander

Kenneth Oberlander — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:56:48 +0000

Damnit!
Yes, I did. I’ll see if I have time today to go and speak to him about how it went.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:48:54 +0000

Ooh, great, thanks! How about giving us your general impression of Claassen’s talk?

Kenneth, did you miss Jurie?

By: Wim Conradie

Wim Conradie — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:38:04 +0000

Hi Hugo

Slipped up a little on reading your blog.

I was at both of these meetings and both are in my opinion the best I have heard so far at that church group (my involvement are just over a year now).

As always in any society there were one or two fundamentalists that were a bit emotional during the Q/A sessions. But in general I was very impressed about the group’s maturity in promoting open thought and also the organiser’s ability to keep the debate balanced and on topic.

I even asked George for his PowerPoint, which he was very willing to email to me – I’ll forward you the email, but please ask him first if you want to post it somewhere.

By: Kenneth Oberlander

Kenneth Oberlander — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:21:09 +0000

Damn…missed George Claassen. But will definitely go to Jurie’s talk if I can…ironically, I know him quite well, but I’ve never seen him give a talk! Should be entertaining.

By: gloep

gloep — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:25:53 +0000

Wens ek kon gaan.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:56:22 +0000

it took me a while to find a source confirming the “greyhound” name. I found a page that was mostly talking about Gould, that gave that name to Dawkins. (i’ll probably miniblog the page “tomorrow” when I’ve finished reading it.) Until I found that page, I worded it as a question rather than a statement. (shrug)

Does it sound derogatory to say “Darwin’s dogs” don’t represent Darwin’s personal opinion? (And personal opinions don’t represent science, of course…)

By: Ben-Jammin'

Ben-Jammin' — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 01:22:56 +0000

(”Darwin’s greyhound” refers to Dawkins, like “Darwin’s Bulldog” refers to Thomas Henry Huxley from way back when.)

I thought Dawkins' nickname was Darwin's Rottweiler. (shrug)