Friday, October 03, 2008
Science says that dissent over descent is dumb
I was just catching up on this week's scintillating issue of Science, and was surprised to see that the editors have obviously been keeping up on this week's debate on creationism versus evolution here on the RAZZY.org comment pages. While I'm hardly surprised that the obviously smart person who puts together the "Books et al" section of Science reads my website, I was a little shocked to see that they selected a book review to contribute to the debate.
The reviewer, Michael Ruse, doesn't think much of philosophy professor Steve Fuller's support of the intelligent design theory, either as an expert witness supporting its relevance in a Pennsylvania classroom or as a competent philosopher. This is probably not surprising, considering this review is published in America's most highly regarded science publication, which also happens to be called Science. However, Ruse nails exactly what those of us in the scientific community reject about intelligent design as a viable, reasonably sound theory on the origin of life. Specifically, after you strip away all the scientastic lingo intended to discredit Darwin's reasoning and give some sort of scientific credibility to Biblical accounts of the origin of the species, you're stuck with something that is based on faith and religious conviction rather than experimental evidence. Ruse scathingly notes:
Intelligent design theory is a form of Christianity made up to look like science. The judge correctly ruled that it has no place in science classrooms. Reading Dissent over Descent should not change anyone's verdict. As a historian and philosopher of science, I can only hope that the science community does not judge us all by Fuller's example.
Well said, Michael Ruse. Could you please get on my comment boards and start explaining this?
Oh, and is anyone besides me disappointed that last night during the VP debate Gwen Ifill didn't ask Sarah Palin if she really believes that Adam and Eve coexisted with the dinosaurs, and those dinosaurs weren't so much "dinosaurs" as mythic dragons? I wanted to see Joe Biden grimace smugly as she tried to tackle that question with Joe Six-Pack in mind. Missed opportunity, Gwen Ifill!
Labels: Dear God, nerd alert, scathing indictments, science
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