Kansas moves into dark ages
Reuters reports, "After months of debate over science and religion, the Kansas Board of Education has tentatively approved new state science standards that weaken the role evolution plays in teaching about the origin of life." This does not mean that intelligent design is in the curriculum, but it does mean that the official position of the state of Kansas is skepticism regarding evolution, which could lead to intelligent design being brought into the curriculum.
Time has a great article this week about the evolution/intelligent design controversy. One of the most important points the article brings up is that scientists don't wish to debate intelligent design theorists not out of fear, but out of scientific integrity:
Many scientists have been reluctant to engage in a debate with advocates of intelligent design because to do so would legitimize the claim that there's a meaningful debate about evolution. "I'm concerned about implying that there is some sort of scientific argument going on. There's not," says noted British biologist Richard Dawkins, professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University, whose most recent book about evolution is The Ancestor's Tale. He and other scientists say advocates of intelligent design do not play by the rules of science. They do not publish papers in peer-reviewed journals, and their hypothesis cannot be tested by research and the study of evidence. Indeed, Behe concedes, "You can't prove intelligent design by an experiment." Dawkins compares the idea of teaching intelligent-design theory with teaching flat earthism-- perfectly fine in a history class but not in science. He says, "If you give the idea that there are two schools of thought within science--one that says the earth is round and one that says the earth is flat--you are misleading children."
President Bush's statement last week that he would like to see intelligent design taught so that all viewpoints can be expressed is playing right into the hands of ID supporters. There is no "all viewpoints" about evolution within the scientific community. Real, actual, no-foolin' scientists accept that evolution is true. There is no controversy in the legitimate scientific community about evolution. No scientist is suggesting that there is scientific evidence for ID; on the contrary, it is ID people -- who are not scientists, even if some of them have scientific credentials -- who suggest that there is "scientific" evidence for ID. But their evidence amounts to saying, "Your evidence can't possibly be right." There is no positive theory being put forth by ID people. Their theory is nothing more than a negation of evolution, and they are using rhetoric and reason, not empirical data, to support their claim. More importantly, they appeal to public ignorance about how evolution really works and disguise their true purpose, claiming that they just want to "teach the controversy." They invented the controversy! It's like claiming that the Earth is flat and then teaching both the round-earth and flat-earth theories in order to "examine all the viewpoints," even if the flat-earth viewpoint is held by only a small minority of people who have no credentials to make such a determination.
So, rather than put forth their creationism theory, ID supporters have taken to inventing something that weakens evolution in the minds of people, making them ready to accept creationism in the future. ID is not about science; it's about public relations. It's about using straw men to confuse the public and it's about ID supporters counting on the fact that most people don't really know how evolution works. ID people tell the public, "Evolution states that X happened. Doesn't that sound silly?" when in fact evolution does not state that X happened. The public is getting its information about evolution from the ID supporters, and that's not good.
Comments
I think everyone should just teach the way I KNOW things happened:
So, there used to be this planet called Ywerta, and it existed like five billion years ago. And this planet had lifeforms living on it that weren't necessarily human, but they were alive by our current standards. Well, Ywerta was a planet with much process and success physically and scientifically, as it had figured out a way to alter its own atmosphere to shield it from the dangerous ultra-violet rays the sun had been emitting. And if books say the sun wasn't around ... they are wrong. It was. Dropping it like it was hot ... millions of degrees worth of hot. So this was a prosperous planet, figuring out how to make full use of the geographical features of the planet as well as their own intelligence.
So, this planet had a neighboring planet, Julox. This planet was full of devastation and disaster, as certain parts of the planet, because of the way it spun on its axis, were in complete darkness for part of the year. This planet's atmosphere breeded life-threatening bacteria whenever it was combined with sunlight, therefore its organisms would grow, but at their maturity be killed by this bacteria which spread. The two parts of the planet were so drastically separated by geological barriers that trying to stay in only the dark portion had never been successfully attempted. Finally, a small group of beings decided to make the trek and discovered a pathway between the two areas of land, therefore finally allowing growth in population and technology, but far behind that of Ywerta.
The beings of Ywerta and Julox were constantly aware that the universe was a place to be explored, but the two had an intense dislike for each other. Ywerta creatures felt the Julox were inferior, merely still alive by a fluke and dodging the surroundings that were, they felt, in existence to ensure they were destroyed. Julox felt the creatures of Ywerta were too powerful for their own good, constantly fearful the planet and its technology would seek ways of taking over or annihilating their own planet.
One day about 4.6 billion years later, the two planets launched expeditions to explore the universe. Both made spacecrafts equipped with equipment for science, and for protection. Both wanted to claim territory for their planets. They set off to different parts of the universe, but eventually met near one spot in space about 100 or so million miles from the sun. Each spacecraft saw the other space craft, and immediately felt threatened. The Ywerta thought the deceitful Julox would try to claim parts of the space they already discovered. The Julox thought the condescending Ywerta would disregard their claims as if they were jokes. Both felt threatened, and both fired off powerful laser beams of energy at one another.
The beams met and caused a massive explosion of energy. The Ywerta's beam was sophisticated, while Julox's beam was still elementary in form. the two together collided to create a sphere of molten lava. Whatever chemicals or fluids each used, they came together to create a combination of gases, which we now call Earth.
The Julox eventually succombed to their doom when its planet shifted off its normal rotation pattern and all those in the dark region were exposed to intense sunlight, therefore vaporizing the entire population within days. The Ywerta planet also shifted course after about two billion years and eventually ended up about six billion kilometers away from the sun. Earth scientists recently discovered it and renamed it Pluto, but are still unable to discover the life on Pluto because of the advanced technology of the Ywerta. They have evolved technologically with time and have managed to reproduce the atmosphere that kept them alive five billion years ago, as well as a cloaking-type device for inhabitants which hides any evidence of life from spectators. Only one alien race has even come close to Pluto/Ywerta, and the disguise the Ywerta created of a cold, deserted, resourceless and often unpredictable planet proved to make it unattractive to this race.
There you go! The history of the earth. Please refer all questions to me so that I can own you and you can cry yourself to sleep at night because you have been fooled by the man.
Posted by: Bud-dy | August 12, 2005 4:08 AM
That was LONG! DANG!
Posted by: Bud-dy | August 12, 2005 4:08 AM
ckathy... kudos on your yarn. you could start a scientology-esque religion with a story like that. you could call it lesbiantology....
every time i see something on this "debate," i'm reminded of a hilarious bit of footage i saw a few years back, of a high school football coach speaking out to a crowd against evolution.
dressed to the nines in exactly the clothes you'd expect a flat-topped high school football coach to be wearing, he was furiously yelling: "these people want to tell you that you came from a monkey! well, i don't know about you, but i didn't come from no monkey! do i LOOK like i came from some monkey?"
it was both ironic and hilarious (because he did look quite a bit like he came from a monkey. a big, sweaty, linebacker monkey).
we should now quit joking around and prepare ourselves for the next dark ages, in which magic, mysticism, and misinterpreted quips from an ambiguous ancient text replace science as the force that drives our day to day lives. i'll brew the mead.
Posted by: matt | August 12, 2005 2:53 PM