I’m posting a Destin Log column I did four years ago about evolution to this blog. As I’m not sure how long my stuff my stay on the Log website.
Not the best way to celebrate Darwin’s birthday
(Fraser Sherman, Opinion Column, The Destin Log, February 23, 2009)
If State Sen. Stephen Wise wants creationism taught in public schools, I have a plan to do it in a way that will save Florida money.
Wise prefiled a bill this month (the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth month, no less) requiring science classes teach intelligent design along with evolution, on the ground “you have to teach the other side so you can have critical thinking.” He then goes on to grumble that this will probably lead to a lawsuit since freedom of religion groups “use the courts all the time. I guess if they have enough money they can get it in the courts.”
This is, of course, the classic creationist/creation science/intelligent design tactic, posing as unbiased seekers of truth battling against the crushing orthodoxy of Darwinian dogma. My normal response would be to point out that critical thinking is exactly what scientists have used to conclusively disprove creationism and intelligent design ” a less religious name for the same belief ” time and again.
I would then go on to quote Rep. Alan Hayes “”We must keep the discussion scientific. I don’t know of anyone who is in favor of teaching religion in public” ” and point out that if the state teaches intelligent design, it’s teaching religion, no matter how much Hayes pretends otherwise.
I would explain that the Discovery Institute, the country’s main advocate for intelligent design, has admitted its goal in pushing “ID” is to replace secular science with one that’s “Christ centered.”
That one of the best-known ID textbooks, “Of Pandas and People,” is a creationist textbook reprinted with “intelligent design” wherever it used to say “creationism.”
That courts have consistently found ID and creation science to be thinly disguised religious doctrine. I imagine that’s why Wise is so huffy about having courts weigh in on what constitutes science but thinks it’s just fine for the Legislature to do it.
But even if I said all that, it’s quite possible Wise’s bill will become law; this is Florida, remember? So instead I thought I’d show him a better way to get intelligent design into schools.
The reason we know evolution is science is because it makes a number of predictions regarding natural selection, intermediate fossils, genetics and other things that have been born out. It can be tested, and it can be disproved: As scientist J.B.S. Haldane put it, if someone finds fossilized rabbits in billion-year-old rocks, evolution is done for.
If creationists/IDers want some scientific respect, that’s all they have to do: Make a prediction about what we would discover if ” and only if ” creationism/ID were true, then go out and find proof the prediction holds up. Do that, and creationism will start getting some scientific respect.
So what Wise should do is take all that money the state will have to spend defending his creationist bill and put it into a grant for serious ID research (he could even invite the Discovery Institute to kick in, instead of spending all its money on news releases). If any scientific breakthroughs result, Wise will look like a visionary.
The catch is, nothing would result: Creationism doesn’t work, it’s been disproved multiple times and nobody’s ever come up with a research project to prove otherwise (sorry, saying “I don’t think people could have evolved without God” is not proof of anything). That’s why ID supporters pour money into politicking and PR rather than research.
I fully understand that for some Christians this is irrelevant: If facts contradict Genesis ” or more precisely, their interpretation of Genesis as an absolutely literal six-day event ” they chose to believe the Bible. I will defend to the death their right to do that, but no matter how fervent their belief, it isn’t science, any more than those Christians who believe the “inerrant” Bible proves the Earth is flat have a place spreading their views in geography classes.
If creationists want to do real scientific research and prove me wrong, go for it.
But I’m not holding my breath.
