Evolution vs Science

October 27, 2006 10:15am by Barry Ritholtz

Hysterical conversation between Stephen Colbert and Peter Agre, who won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry:

Stephen Colbert: "You said ‘anyone who grew up on a farm
knows that evolution exists’. OK, are you saying a monkey can milk a cow?"

Peter Agre: "Well, if I can milk a cow I suspect a
monkey as smart as I am can milk a cow."

Stephen Colbert: "Are there monkeys as smart as you?"

Peter Agre: "I’m sure there are quite a few, quite a few.

Stephen Colbert: "Oh really? Mmhum. Do they give a Nobel prize for
throwing your own feces?"

Peter Agre: "……..That’s the Economics prize, I think."

–Stephen
Colbert interviews Dr. Peter Agre of Scientists and Engineers for America

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jmf commented on Oct 27

this fits.

i have found a piece from colbert that is a kind of tribute to bloggers.

http://immobilienblasen.blogspot.com/2006/10/stephen-colbert-on-blogs-tribute-to.html

have a nice weekend
yc32 commented on Oct 27

It’s a pity that NBC or CBS won’t get Stephen Colbert to host the late night show. He is hilarious.
Eclectic commented on Oct 27

My father would take me to the Atlanta Zoo when I was a kid… we’d get to see the famous gorilla ‘Willie B’ that was a long-standing resident there:

Google ” Atlanta’s Willie B ” for all the references you can find.

Willie B had been brought to the zoo not long after his birth in 1958.

The first time we saw him, there were people taunting him and getting very close to the cage he was in. They’d throw peanuts and spitballs and other things at him. Even at that young age I couldn’t resolve in my mind what purpose they have for cornering this poor animal.

It was clear that the young ape didn’t like it… and he’d finally get enough and reach around and grab a handful of crap and throw it in the crowd around his cage. So the big mouths would get a face full of stinking crap because of their failure to respect Willie B.

This delighted my father to no end… cause he’d already figured out the the poor ape was stressed and long before Willie’d get that special look on his face that was an indicator of his developing attitude, my father would pull the both of us back to a safe distance and get ready to watch the fun.

You’d have to have known my father… he was a nat’l born barometer of human psychology (and simian I suppose).

Sure enough… the shit would fly, and the previously happy and unknowing zoo patrons would get a good lesson from Willie B.
DD commented on Oct 27

total copyright infringement…you have no morals…take that down immediatly.

its greeat when he tries to trade him an emmy for a nobel prize…
linkage commented on Oct 27

http://www.abstractdynamics.org/linkage/archives/008566.html

Stephen Colbert: “Oh really? Mmhum. Do they give a Nobel prize for throwing your own feces?” Peter Agre: “……..That’s the Economics prize, I think.” The Big Picture: Evolution vs Science…
dry fly commented on Oct 27

outstanding…
TG commented on Oct 27

— An unexpected increase in auto production last quarter was a statistical fluke that will be reversed, making current U.S. economic growth even weaker, according to a former Commerce Department economist.

Last quarter’s annualized 26 percent increase in auto production shocked Joe Carson, now director of economic research at AllianceBernstein LP in New York. Without the gain, the economy would have grown at an annual rate of 0.9 percent, not the 1.6 percent the Commerce Department reported today.
BDG123 commented on Oct 27

Colbert is hilarious. And, pretty doggone smart. Even if he cannot solve a second order differential equation.

As a man of the cloth, or science that is, it’s good to see the geeks attempt a transformation of all nongeeks for the betterment of the whole. In a society of semi-free will, the reality is most people could give a rat’s arse about science. And, that isn’t so bad. The people who need to understand how to solve a second order differential equation already know how to do so. It’s nice how he wants everyone to read a book but what the hell does that have to do with science? Most Americans never read. It doesn’t mean they are stupid. It means in their free time in a crazy existence they’d rather drink a bud and chow down on a Chicago dog with their friends watching college football.

It’s awfully funny to me that our god is now science. We are now enlightened. Those ridiculously stupid thoughts of our ancestors are just that. There is so much faith in science that I can say something arcane that a science-challenged person has no clue of and I’m immediately believed. It must be true. In effect, I am …. god.

Man created science to satisfy his curiosity. Outside of our minds, what law of truth does anything science has “uncovered” really matter? Why couldn’t we arbitrarily chose the act of sex as our new god and encourage everyone to have sex instead of learn something that, in the end, has given us debatable value? Because what is value? Do you really know? That implies you know the truth? We know nothing.

Science has nothing to do with the truth so why do I need to make sure my kids study it? Because it pleases the “Man”. It proves I’m capable of existing in our white picket fenced society of control. Because it allows me to live in the proverbial “Matrix”.

Science is nothing more than the boundary of imagination of the collective human conscience. The laws and discoveries are nothing of the sort. They have always existed. There is no truth in any of science. It’s our mind’s perception of truth at any given moment.

So, f*ck science and get all of your buddies together to watch the OSU-Michigan game on November 18th. Drink lots of beer, burp nonstop, take a dump on that math text book and all stand around and laugh about it. Being a nerd is great. If you want to be a nerd. Do I care if my kids are great at math? I’d rather have them be able to yuck it up with their friends, dream the unimaginable, believe in ghosts if they so chose and be compassionate to others. Send this guy back to his hole in the ground. Or, send him my way so I can help him spend that Nobel Prize money on our football party.

BOOYAH! lol.
Pen Island commented on Oct 27

Who doesn’t love those really great-big-long comments?
marblex commented on Oct 27

anyone else tired of living in Dumbfuckistan?
tyoung commented on Oct 27

“anyone else tired of living in Dumbfuckistan?”

Amen to that!
George commented on Oct 27

Jesus, what a wierd bunch of comments.
Earl Kirkman commented on Oct 27

I have not laughed that hard and that unexpectedly in a VERY long time. And that is a pretty good description of Econ…..
Jeff commented on Oct 28

The video is not available any more. Comedy Central made YouTube take all their videos down. Are they from Dumbfuckistan? I wrote a post about why they are being so stupid on my blog. I hope you like it: http://tinyurl.com/y66aav

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