Atheist Ireland Forum

He has an ad on the radio for this book and he's launching it at Buswell's hotel on Wednesday:

http://www.theoriginofspeciousnonsense.com/

he can also be found at darwinsdeadidea.com. However the reason it's noteworthy is because according to the website, Conor Lenihan, TD Minister for science will be launching the book! What a disgrace. This should somehow be highlighted. How can our minister for science not accept evolution as fact and if he does how can he launch a book such as this in his role of minister for science??

I've just sent out a pile of e-mails to science editors, rte correspondents, politicians making them aware of Lenihans reported launching of this book. Let's see if I get any resposnes. Ian O'Dohety replied to say he was aware of the book but couldn't believe Lenihan was launching it. No one else so far.

I also e-mailed Lenihan himself to see if it is true and if so to ask him was he fully aware of the book's content. No reply so far.

Any suggestions as to who else I could contact that might comment publicly on it?

My blood is starting to boil!!!!

Could be worth mailing Ivana about it. I wonder if she would like to get a dig in at an anti-science Science Minister.

Sample Quote


Is he talking about creationists or people who are right..... to me that quote is creationism in a nutshell


I've e-mailed this to PZ and a few students around the country!

[edit] Not sure about promoting this book, but I facebooked it anyway. Hopefully some biologists will pick up on it and give him a run for his money.... apparently there is a €10,000 bribe

The reward is for anyone who can prove evolution is a hoax.

I e-mailed Ivana and Ruairi Quinn as Labour's spokesperson on science.

Lenihan responded to an email I sent him about this. Pretty fast response.

His entire justification on promoting the release of the book is "The Author is a friend".

Good to know friendship is enough to justify an elected Minister engaging in something that is directly anti- the department he works in. An anti-scientific Science Minister is no small thing to explain away on helping out a friend.

Edit: My Follow up email raising that concern received the one line answer "I do not agree with your view on this matter. Regards Conor Lenihan."

It would be helpful if others were to also email him with their concerns so he realises this is not simply one single person kicking up a fuss.

Edit Edit: I was just given a second email, following up on the last one (maybe he put 2 minutes thought into it and decided to email again) with the grammatically suspect "Thanks for the email, relax and please do nor become alarmed." followed with the assurance that "There are no implications for existing science policy as a result of my presence."

This is a key point. He wrote to me saying he was going to be there for a friend. THIS I have no objection to, if he wants to do this in his free time I would be all for it and would be defending him AGAINST you guys.

But he is not. Look at the billing for the evening. He is billed as being there in his full official capacity. He is therefore not there representing a friend. He is there representing US the electorate.

I would be happy if he did the event but removed his title from it. If the author put up "My Mate leni will be opening up the procedures" I wouldnt have a problem with it at all, despite the fact he is our minister for science.

No. He is there pretending to represent his electorate, and most of his electorate dont even know what he is doing with the office they gave him.

And him telling me to "relax" shows he doesnt know the implications of it either. He, despite his time in office, does not actually realise the gravity of the position he holds.

When did you send it? And to what address? Before posting this I e-mailed him, but have yet to get a response.

The author, John May, is a fairly regular attender at the monthly meetings of the Humanist Association of Ireland and he may also have been at some of our events.

He believes in god as an intelligent first cause, but not in religion which he criticises as vehemently as he criticises evolution.

He spoke at an event I spoke at once, and he is pretty entertaining showman, but his basic argument comes down to a misunderstanding of how evolution works and a belief that frogs don't turn into princes so animals don't turn into people.

I have a copy of his book and I will summarise it here when I get a chance.

I mailed Conor Lenihan also.

I didn't mail Conor Lenihan. Let him make a fool of himself...

I read some of the free book extract on that webshite. It's like a bad science project cut and pasted from Wikipedia. As usual it seems to come from the "wow this is so amazing it couldn't just have happened by accident" school of intelligent design.

The formula is pretty well established;

1. Show a few electron microscope photos of a cell/embryo followed by exclamations of wonder
2. Ask some revealing questions to 'expose' the apparently yawning chasms in scientific knowledge
3. Fail to establish any sort of rational alternative theory that doesn't depend on elves/fairies/wondrous supernatural beings.

Can we call the fraud squad?

I called and mailed. Lenihan is making collective fools of us using the state to support this muppet just because he's a constituent - same old parish pump crap. The guy I spoke to in Lenihan's office agreed it was a bit all a bit crazy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgZUV-_S5zM

you'll remember conor lenihan launched the revamped humanist association of ireland magazine in 2008 Conor Lenihan launches Humanism Ireland http://www.politics.ie/culture-communit ... eland.html

now you could say well fairs fair treating everything equal, but no, this book is anti-intellectual nonsense, this book lamely attempts to repudiate accepted scientific theory, without going through the proper procedures, is this book peer reviewed? i doubt it, conor lenihan you're a national politician and minister for science show some _judgement_.

yerman seems to have been involved in lots of things if you look at his bio... wonder how they became friends

should a person not go to his friends book launch, well no they should but lenihan has been invited to speak because he is td and minister, not just a friend. what he going to say?
http://www.theoriginofspeciousnonsense.com/images/launch%20pic.jpg

hang on the posters being changed, "TD Minister of Science" isn't beside his name in the poster on his site

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php ... stcount=15

Can anyone answer this question here:

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/5171 ... ent_517164

(about the Science Minister's role)