The John Adams Society

November 19, 2020

Note: Special Event Lecture this month

Dr. Rob Stadler, Ph.D.
“What Science Can Be Trusted?”

“Everything needs to be approached with an open mind. But, among the things that science does know, evolution is about as certain as anything we know.”

--Professor Richard Dawkins, from a 2004 PBS interview

OVER TIME, mankind has moved a long way past primitive, superstitious beliefs about the origins of life. Through centuries of study and science, we have gained a common understanding about the earliest natural origins of life in general that can be used to explain the particular origin of human life.

If there were an alternate scientific explanation about the origin of life, as a substitute for the theory of evolution, it would have been developed by now.

ON THE OTHER HAND, we still can’t explain everything. Surely, attempts to give a definitive explanation about the origin of human life inescapably lead to some other questions for which there are no easy answers, such as: How did life actually start? How do we know when our environment will cease to support life? Does science shut out some other possibilities, that perhaps it ought to be more open to considering? More and more, the people are directed by powerful elitists to trust the conclusions of scientists, and to reorder their lives according to them. However, the elitist platitudes “In Science We Trust” and “Follow the Science” neglect the importance of qualitative distinctions about science, made from judging the level of confidence provided by different samples of scientific evidence.

THE CHAIRMAN, who is so idiosyncratic as to not have evolved one whit in all of his time as a member of our Antient and Honourable John Adams Society, has decreed that now of all times is the time to call a debate on the topic:

RESOLVED: The Science of Evolution Is Settled.

The Debate will be held on Thursday, November 19, 2020 at Burger Moe’s, 242 West 7th Street, St. Paul, MN 55102. The Chancellor will preside over drinks beginning at seven o’clock p.m. The debate will begin at half past seven. This month, the debate caucus will host a Society Lecture, during the literary presentations: “What Science Can Be Trusted?”. Rob Stadler received a BS in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University, an MS in electrical engineering from MIT, and a PhD in medical engineering from the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. As a scientist in the medical device industry for over twenty years, he has obtained more than 140 US patents.

There is no dress code, however gentlemen who wish to speak must wear a tie; ladies are encourage to adhere to a similar sartorial standard. For those gentlemen arriving sans tie yet wishing to discourse on the resolution, the Purveyor of Ties will keep on hand several remarkable selections. Questions regarding debate caucus procedures of about the John Adams Society itself may be directed to the Chairman at (651) 494-9008 or the Secretary at (651) 398-9316.