Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

@spendius,

Aw, come on, Spendi, we all know your bedroom ceiling is probably mirrored with carefully stenciled lettering stating, "Objects in mirror are much smaller than they appear."

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CANADA UPDATE

Quote:

Darwin would think again, Lunney tells House of Commons
(Darrell Bellaart, The Nanaimo Daily News, April 04, 2009)

Armed with the knowledge that exists today, Charles Darwin may not have written the theory of evolution, Nanaimo-Alberni MP James Lunney told the House of Commons this week.

"Any scientist who declares that the theory of evolution is a fact has already abandoned the foundations of science," Lunney said in the House on Thursday. Given what is known today, he added: "Darwin would be willing to re-examine his assumptions."

The MP raised the issue two weeks after Science and Technology Minister Gary Goodyear, a Christian, sidestepped questions about his belief in evolution.

Lunney's brief speech contained references to controversial theories espoused by Robert V. Gentry, a creationist, Seventh-day Adventist Church member and nuclear physicist. Gentry concluded, after studying radiohalos, microscopic zones of damage found around radioactive crystals in rock, that the rock must have been formed in minutes, not the generally accepted millions of years. Gentry's theory, discredited as pseudoscience by the mainstream scientific community, has spawned a new field of study for creationists who take the story of Genesis literally.

Lunney also made reference to plate tectonic and fossil evidence theories some Christians consider proof of creationism. He gave the speech in Ottawa at 2:10 p.m. Eastern Time but has been unavailable for comment since then, despite repeated calls.

Sarah Otto, a University of B.C. zoologist and evolution expert, said Lunney's views clash with a mounting body of scientific evidence.

At some point, all science relies on a basic foundation of faith, but the evidence is growing in support of the theory that all life on Earth evolved over thousands of millennia from a single organism.

"It is not correct that the majority of science is moving away from evolution," Otto said. "Scientists more and more are understanding evolution as a way in which they can interpret patterns they see in the biological world. Without evolution as a guiding principle, they can't make sense of a bunch of things.

For example, they can't make sense of why the flu virus changes and the way they do change. They can't make sense of why, if you look at the genome of certain organisms, they are similar."

Science, which is based on logic, also evolves, and Otto said the problem scientists have is what to accept as indisputable fact. For example, the belief the sun will rise in the morning is based on empirical evidence: It rose today, yesterday and every day before.

"I have less doubt that evolution explains the organisms we see around us," Otto said. "I have more doubt about the sun rising tomorrow, because I don't know that will happen."

Scientists say the evidence for evolution grows with every new look at DNA, the material that makes up the building blocks of life. The latest research shows a strand of human DNA shares about 94% of the same sequences as that of chimpanzees.

On March 18, Goodyear sidestepped questions in Toronto about whether he believes in evolution, saying: "My personal beliefs are not important. What is important is that this government is doing the right thing for science and technology to support scientists."

Goodyear had already come under attack for cutting Canadian research funding in the last federal budget.

While Otto said she respects the rights of others to hold their own personal beliefs, she called it "pretty horrific" if the federal science and technology minister can't accept the theory of evolution.

"It's like the government official in charge of science is going against what the majority of scientists believe the world is like. It would be one thing if it didn't have huge ramifications. If we get this wrong, we're hampered in our ability to develop cures for diseases.

"Right now, we're using evolutionary tools to predict how they'll evolve. That's the key to developing vaccines."

Calls to Lunney went unanswered Thursday. On Friday, staff members at his Ottawa office said he was unavailable. When asked where Lunney was, Dale Wolley, his administrative assistant, said: "He's not available to your beck and call," and refused to answer.

Curtis Hansen, his constituency assistant in Nanaimo said Lunney was expected in the riding Friday afternoon and would give convey the message, but Lunney did not immediately return the call.

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@wandeljw,

from Chris Sulley's Full Pundit in the April 6 Canadian National Post edition:

Having witnessed Canada’s magnificent tolerance for Conservative MPs Gary Goodyear, who envisions evolution as “some sort of bizarre Lamarckian witchcraft involving high heels and the sun,” and James Lunney, who believes scientists have “exposed their own arrogance and intolerance” in criticizing Goodyear, the Ottawa Citizen’s Dan Gardner finally feels emboldened enough to out himself as a Lunatarian. “I worship the moon, which I believe to be a living creature,” he declares. “A cat, to be precise. A really big, very round cat. In space.” And you’d better not criticize him for it, either"because that, as Messrs. Goodyear and Lunney have argued, would be un-Canadian.

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I'm a believer

By Dan Gardner, The Ottawa Citizen nApril 4, 2009

I believe the earth has existed for precisely 3,213 years, five months, seven days, and four hours. Of course the reader will have to adjust these figures somewhat as I am writing this column a day before it will be published.

I further believe that scientific evidence to the contrary -- geology, biology, and a couple of other "-ogies" -- is uncertain, inconclusive, hypothetical, epistemological, scatological, or phantasmagorical. As these polysyllabic words plainly demonstrate, I am an expert. Plus, I'm a trained chiropractor. And I'm really big on natural health products. So I'm a physician, a scientist, and a guy who uses very long words. I believe I have earned your respect.

You may call me "Dr. Gardner."

Another critical fact you won't hear in the mainstream media is that much of the evidence allegedly establishing that the earth is 4.5 billion years old and life has evolved from common origins over the last 2.5 billion years is fraudulent. Yes, fraudulent. Those responsible are dwarves who dwell in vaults dug deep beneath the Swiss Alps.

Indeed, Mr. Charles Darwin was not the bearded Englishman people believe he was. He was, in fact, a Swiss dwarf. He did have a beard, though. All dwarves have beards.

Yes, I am a Lunatarian. I worship the moon, which I believe to be a living creature. A cat, to be precise. A really big, very round cat. In space.

In my faith, we believe it was 3,213 years ago -- plus several months, days, etc. -- that the moon coughed up the most awesome hair ball in the history of the universe. And thus was the earth created.

The dwarves don't want people to know any of this. They prefer dogs.

Generally, I avoid speaking so frankly about my fundamental beliefs. It's not that I'm embarrassed I believe things belied by five centuries of scientific observation. Heavens, no. It's the bigotry I can't stomach.

So many people are intolerant and hateful toward people whose views are not their own. Just look at what Gary Goodyear went through.

Goodyear is the minister of state for science and technology. He's also a chiropractor, so he's practically a scientist himself.

But that wasn't good enough for the reporter who asked him if he accepted that evolution is true.

Imagine asking the minister responsible for science if he accepts basic science. It was clearly an attack on religious belief. Pure bigotry.

Naturally, Goodyear refused to answer the question on the grounds that basic science is a matter of personal faith and thus out of bounds for reporters. But the media wouldn't let it go. Pundits ridiculed the man. Some even suggested a cabinet minister who doesn't accept basic science shouldn't be the minister of science.

Clearly, this was a witch hunt.

Goodyear defended himself in an interview the next day. He accepts evolution, he said. "We are evolving every year, every decade. That's a fact. Whether it's to the intensity of the sun, whether it's to, as a chiropractor, walking on cement versus anything else, whether it's running shoes or high heels, of course we are evolving to our environment. But that's not relevant. And that's why I refused to answer the question. The interview was about our science and tech strategy, which is strong."

So the minister very clearly accepted that evolution -- defined as some sort of bizarre Lamarckian witchcraft involving high heels and the sun -- is a scientific fact.

Naturally, this settled the matter for most reporters. Evolution is pretty trivial stuff, after all. They were keen to get back to serious news, like the prime minister going to the loo and missing a photo-op.

But the fanatics wouldn't give up. You know the type. They're the Torquemadas with a not-so-hidden agenda of encouraging everyone to learn about and accept basic science. The arrogance and intolerance of these people is breathtaking.

Fortunately, one man -- one brave man -- wouldn't back down.

"Recently, we saw an attempt to ridicule the beliefs of a member of this house and the belief of millions of Canadians in a creator," said chiropractor and Conservative MP James Lunney in the House of Commons this week. "Certain individuals and in the scientific community have exposed their own arrogance and intolerance of beliefs contrary to their own."

Now, I don't actually recall anyone ridiculing Goodyear's religious beliefs. I don't even know what those beliefs are. But let us not get distracted by details.

What matters is that Lunney has articulated a magnificent rule for dealing with knowledge and belief in a pluralistic society: If someone believes something, you have to respect that belief.

Even if the belief is untrue. Even if it is ludicrous. Even if it is as patently false as the lies spread by those nasty little dwarves in Switzerland.

You have to respect it.

And so now -- finally! -- I can state my Lunatarian beliefs openly, knowing that James Lunney, Gary Goodyear, and all the other sensitive conservatives would never, ever dare say I'm wrong.

Or make jokes about hair balls.

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Texas School Standards: Age of the Universe Erased
April 7th, 2009 by Miranda Marquit
Antennae galaxies

http://www.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/1-antennaegala.jpg

Texas school standards next attack: Removing references to the age of the universe. Image source: NASA Hubble Space Telescope.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The fight over the new education and curriculum standards for the public schools in Texas has been long and publicized. Most of the publicity, though, focuses on the school board's focus on "intelligent design" as it relates to the biological question of evolution. Because evolution has long been contested in public schools, it is no real surprise that this has gotten the most play from the media. But one thing that hasn't been mentioned as much is the fact that the Texas school standards also remove mention of the age of the universe. Long-standing ideas of cosmology are being challenged as well.

Originally in the Texas school standards was this phrase: "concept of an expanding universe that originated about 14 billion years ago." However, board member Barbara Cargill thought this wasn't good enough. It was too definite. The standards now read, "current theories of the evolution of the universe including estimates for the age of the universe." You can bet that the age of the earth is not listed in the Texas curriculum as about 4.5 billion years old -- in spite of the fact that most of the people my age and older have known (or rather, estimated) this for years.

There certainly are many different theories about the formation of the universe. Whether it was a big bang or a big bounce are two of them. Cosmologists and astronomers wonder about the rate of expansion in the early universe, and they debate the effects of gravity (not to mention its nature) as well as consider questions about the composition of the universe and the kinds of particles that exist. However, despite the questions that do exist about the origination of the universe, there is very little debate about its age.

Right now, the latest estimate is that the universe is 13.73 billion years old, plus or minus 120 million years. This information is the latest from results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe (WMAP). While the age of the universe is likely to be fine tuned in coming years, it is extremely likely that it will remain in the neighborhood of 14 billion years. And few scientists see the age of the earth being cast in doubt as well. But it appears that cosmology could now be thrown into the fray of science v. religion.

Until now, matters of space have been very little addressed in terms of religion. After all, couldn't God have created the universe well before putting humans on Earth? But it appears that by working from Earth outward, some are becoming concerned. If God created humans on Earth just a few millennia ago, then Earth can't be 4.5 billion years old. And if Earth isn't as old as all that, surely the universe isn't, either. It's an interesting train of logic. And one that could result in all we know about space science being brought under attack.

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@tenderfoot,

Quote:

I can just imagine Splendiouse's teaching in a Christian creationists science class in the USA school system -- all the kids down on their knees, hands religiously held together looking up to their God whilst the teacher ( Splendiouse's ) says, very scientifically --- " repeat after me -- thank you our lord who created the earth we live on, in 7 days, thank you lord for starting it on the Monday and finished it on the Saturday, and making Sunday a day off, so you can listen to the two people you had just created, get down on their knees and praise you."

I assume now that any subtle ambiguities relating to your username are comprehensivly dispelled and that it does mean one not yet hardened to life.

Your fantasy is a long way from any truth concerning myself in the situation you have so conveniently placed me in.

I would be much more likely to explain that evolutionary principles, as we find them in all of nature, when applied to the infinite extensibility of the human intelligence, would result in natural actions of a nature natured naturally by nature, there being nothing else in evolution, in natural creatures expressing aforesaid natured natures and that inhibitions of such expressions would result, as Freud said, in discombabulations of the cellular processes despite them, the inhibitions, being designed by generations of learned men to prevent the obvious natural proclivities in the general direction of theft, highway robbery, cruelty to children and animals, obtaining money under false pretences, nose picking and wiping boogies on the nearest convenient surface, such as a tablecloth, forgery, embezzlement, misappropriation of public money, farting in state ceremonials, malingering, libel, blackmail, contempt of court, arson, mutiny on the high seas, trespass, burglary, urination and defecating on the spot, the practice of unnatural vice, perjury, poaching, kidnapping, bushwhacking, leaping from tree to tree, smuggling, shoplifting, pickpocketing, plagiarism, looting, adultery, cheating at cards, knobbling racehorses, impersonation, rape and other casual acts of genital impulse, assault, manslaughter and murder.

As I would never underestimate the intelligence of my class, as anti-IDers are unable to prevent themselves from doing in order to point up their superiority, I think I would be content to allow my students the freedom to come to their own conclusions regarding Divine revelation after pointing out that all terrestrial intelligences would naturally be subject to the same contingencies and proclivities and that submission to the pronouncements of any earth-bound intelligences with those characteristics, as would be natural under the internal logic of the case, indeed inevitable, amounts to a form of cowed slavery leading to feelings of powerlessness, alienation, disgust, degeneration, hair loss, palpitations, bad breath, boils, fallen arches, piles, mechanical movement of limbs and other movable encumbrances in accordance with guidelines in instruction manuals, admiring Elton John, constant and unremitting self glorification either directly or invidiously, funny walking, liberal tolerance selectively applied for image confections and other general all-round unfortunate dispositions which disqualify people from standing at the bar in my company.

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What did Spendi do now? Eat a dictionary and then let it spew out in a stream of incomprehensible puke?

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@Lightwizard,

I was told by some colleagues that the upcomingnext few rounds in Texass will involve the actual science that underlies evolutions theroy. From geo to cosmo, it wont matter.
The ICS has already published several fliers calling radioisotopic age dating under question. There will be some quantum leaps in logic involved here and I am confident that this entire strategy by the ICS will bring down the mythos camp. ITs either that or we have to entertain that all of the US is a hopeless cesspool of deeeep ignorance.

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@farmerman,

Quote:

ITs either that or we have to entertain that all of the US is a hopeless cesspool of deeeep ignorance.

I hardly think that conclusion would cause any surprise in many circles effemm. A2Kers reading these threads have been treated to a prolonged display of a deeper ignorance than I have ever seen before. And all the more concerning for being reinforced by the most profound self-righteousness, intolerance and literary ineptitude.

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@spendius,

That would make you either a liar or someone with a very short memory, Spendi. I suspect the latter.

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@wandeljw,

Quote:

For example, they can't make sense of why the flu virus changes and the way they do change. They can't make sense of why, if you look at the genome of certain organisms, they are similar."

Yes- this irrational need to "make sense" of our predicament when it is perfectly obvious that no sense can be made of it however much you stretch your puny brains. It is the whole point of myth and symbol that the centre is empty and a void which cannot be understood.

What is interesting is this need to make sense of everything almost as if there is a fear of not being able to.

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Spendi, why don't you actually state your position for once and then defend it, instead of just criticizing everyone else? You're a pathetic snivelling ******* coward.

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@Wilso,

Wilso, Well stated; spendi works at the art of diversion.

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@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

The ICS has already published several fliers calling radioisotopic age dating under question.

What's the ICS again?

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@Lightwizard,

Quote:

What did Spendi do now? Eat a dictionary and then let it spew out in a stream of incomprehensible puke?

It is a sad advertisement for A2K when a post which makes an attempt, however inept, to get beyond platitudes and tired old washed-out and wrung dry playground cliche is greeted with a response so platitudinous and bleached from exposure to the sun that one can only assume that were it to be a pair of knickers the wearer ought, in the interests of dignity, to make sure she didn't allow any sudden puffs of hot air blowing out of a vent in the sidewalk to elevate her skirt too far.

And here it is paraded for no other reason than to parade it seeing as how a proper response to the post is unforthcoming for whatever reason.

And it says on Google that A2K is a prestigious American debate site. Ye Gods.

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@JTT,

Quote:

That would make you either a liar or someone with a very short memory, Spendi. I suspect the latter.

Would you explain JT. I'm at a loss for what you mean.

It's pub time.

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@spendius,

You most certainly aren't prestigious and you're here with more defensive nonsense.

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@Wilso,

Quote:

You're a pathetic snivelling ******* coward.

I know that. It was brought home to me under most unambiguous circumstances and somewhat forcefully before I was 19. Only those who have never experienced such things could possibly think they were an exception.

Do you read body-building magazine adverts Wilso?

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@spendius,

spendi, Does your daily trip to the local pub shield you from all the (self-imposed) abuse you get here?

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@cicerone imposter,

It is not abuse I get ci. It is the pitiful wailing of the stumped.

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