Evolution's Absence

[Brother Jeff]

http://wwwwashingtondispatch.com/article_10785.shtml

 

Evolution’s Absence

 

Commentary by Edward McSweegan

April 6, 2005

 

In May, the Kansas Board of Education is expected to stage a public debate about the teaching of evolution in its public schools. The consensus among scientists and educators is the Kansas event is intended as yet another forum for biblical fundamentalism and its pseudoscientific offspring, creationism and intelligent design. Indeed, it’s been a busy year as religious fundamentalists fought pitched legal battles in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Ohio and other states to replace a fundamental principle of nature with a minority religious opinion.

 

You would think after 150 years of accumulated data and observations from numerous branches of science that the validity, universality, and demonstrability of biological evolution would be as obvious as relativity or plate tectonics. Yet, the early 21st century remains cluttered with pockets of people who, when confronted with Nature, turn back to the Nurture of ancient tradition and parental habit.

 

The Kansas Board of Education is not likely to sway many people with another argumentative show-and-tell from the proponents and opponents of evolutionary biology. Never mind that only one side is actually qualified to make judgments about such things. Instead, it might be more instructive—and less disingenuous—for the Board to engage in a public “thought experiment” by asking what the world would look like if evolution was not a true and valid scientific body of knowledge.

 

Robert Pirsig, the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, conducted such a thought experiment when he sought to demonstrate the existence of “Quality:” that dynamic interaction between subject and object, which gives rise to our perceptions of reality. According to Pirsig, and a school of philosophy called realism, “A thing exists if a world without it can’t function normally.”

 

He used that approach to subtract Quality from his imagined world and discovered, for example, that the fine arts immediately disappeared. Without Quality one painting was as good as another (or a blank wall), and Beethoven was just as remarkable as Britney Spears. Poetry and comedy vanished (“Heard any good jokes lately?” was a question that made no sense in a world where there was no difference between a joke and no joke.). Professional sports became a collection of empty statistics. Industrial design, advertising, architecture, brand names and fashion vanished (everyone would dress like Ralph Nader and shop at Price Club). Much of applied science and technology also was altered. A world without Quality was a colorless, static existence not unlike that of ancient Sparta, present day North Korea, or the twisted utopias of 1984 and Brave New World. From this imaginary experiment Pirsig concluded that Quality, though difficult to define, clearly existed as demonstrated by the wounded world left in its absence.

 

We can similarly subtract evolution from the world and see what happens.

 

Evolution—the ability of populations to adapt over time to changing environments—is the beating heart of modern biology. Without evolution biology becomes just a collection of disconnected plants and animals frozen in time. Without evolution we also lose our understanding of the dynamic stability and mutability of DNA’s hereditary properties. Modern genetics and molecular biology disappear, as does the biotechnology industry. Horticulture and agriculture lose their rational underpinnings. (Try not to think about that giant ear of corn in the grocery store, that Clydesdale horse in the field or that tiny Chihuahua nipping at your heels.)

 

Industrial processes that depend on the genetic pedigree and metabolic behavior of microorganisms—such as brewing— revert to medieval guesswork and luck. Much of the clinical rational for treating infectious diseases and cancers in such a way as to prevent the emergence of drug-resistant variants is undermined. Genetic testing for disease susceptibility and birth defects ceases to exist, as does DNA forensics in criminal and civil cases.

 

Of course, paleontology—the study of fossils—immediately disappears as a scientific field of study. No more trips to the museum to ponder the remains of T. rex. Paleontology is a branch of geology so studies of the fossilization process, rock strata and the age of sedimentary rocks disappears, as does the scientific search for “fossil fuels” such as oil and coal.

 

The absolute dating of fossils, rocks and other materials by radioactive decay and isotope ratios is undermined, which in turns undermines a lot of modern physics. Without physics, chemistry doesn’t make much sense because it’s all just atoms, electrons and ions formerly obeying what used to be the laws of physics. Without chemistry, all of biology becomes an unknowable mystery, and we’re right back where we started.

 

The world ceases to function normally. The world ceases to make sense. Without evolution huge pieces of modern science and technology are distorted or destroyed; we lose our ability to investigate, to understand and to predict events around us and within us. “A thing exists if a world without it can’t function normally.” Evolution exists.

 

Pirsig’s thought experiment would add some honesty and originality to the pending Kansas debate on evolution. It would cost the Board of Education only a little effort, and a little thought, to stage one. Then, having run evolution through a public thought experiment, they might consider putting creationism, “intelligent design” or the Book of Genesis to the same test of worldly necessity.

 

Or perhaps not.

[atheist_thinker]

It is nothing more then relgious fanatisims encroachment in the public school system. What better way to protect its core concepts then to destroy all views and thoughts. Sweep it under the rug so no one will question.

 

Its all screwed up, I know back in 96 or 97 the Governor of Al "Fob James" Jumped up duing a debate and started to imatate a monkey so he could make fun of evolution. Seems like that every one else thought as he did and now they put those stupid stickers in the books now. I'm not sure if they even touch it now but I do remeber that we did learn about it when I was in school but that was back in 92.

 

I think the pro-evos need to bring in some reputiple biologist or even the ACLU to see if they can put a stop to this.

[Thurisaz]

I think the pro-evos need to bring in some reputiple biologist or even the ACLU to see if they can put a stop to this.

 

Can you hear the screams already?

"Persecuuuution! PERSECUUUUUUUTION!!!!!!111111!!!!!!!!"

 

[Ro-bear]

"I think the pro-evos need to bring in some reputiple biologist or even the ACLU to see if they can put a stop to this. "

 

This has been done with some success. Prolonged media exposure sometimes drives the roaches to seek cover. How long, though, before constitency pressures lead right-wing (and maybe some left-wing and moderate) politicians to pander to what they see as their base? Balance, lately, has wilted in the heat of partisan fervor.

[Colin Benson]

What we ought to do is to push evolution into churches and bibles everywhere. Then we will see millions of two-faced hypocrites take a dose of their own medicine.

 

[Guest riker115]

What we ought to do is to push evolution into churches and bibles everywhere. Then we will see millions of two-faced hypocrites take a dose of their own medicine.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

Might as well colin, evolution is pushed into schools and museums using abstract drawings and countless forgeries, i.e. the infamous piltdown man, nebraska man, neanderthal and many others. Just because you don't like what the bible says, doesn't make evolution a fact just because you want it too.

 

 

 

BTW

I love that quartz skull avatar, athiest.

[Dhampir]

Just because you don't like what the bible says, doesn't make evolution a fact just because you want it too.

Why is it always a matter of what we like and don't like? I didn't like finding that if any god exists, there wasn't one that gave a damn about me or anyone for that matter. I didn't like giving up the hope of an afterlife, of any sort, much less heaven, yet here we are.

[dustmouse]

Might as well colin, evolution is pushed into schools and museums using abstract drawings and countless forgeries, i.e. the infamous piltdown man, nebraska man, neanderthal and many others.  Just because you don't like what the bible says, doesn't make evolution a fact just because you want it too.

BTW

I love that quartz skull avatar, athiest.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

So, Riker, should they be teaching Christianity in schools, I am guessing? Faith?

 

 

Um, science class is used for teaching :GASP: science!!! And evolution IS science... it is observable, verifiable and falsifiable. It has just yet to be proven false, like so many other things, like um, gravity for instance.

 

And I don't see how museums displaying paleoanthopological information or artifacts can be construed as 'pushing'. Directorial boards and curators dertmine acquisitions, and if a museum doesn't want to be based on science (ie: it is for art, pop culture, what have you) it doesn't display what it doesn't want to. How is that pushing?

 

 

And hello, anyone can tell you piltdown and such were hoaxes. Like, duh!

 

 

But how, pray tell, is the Neandertal a hoax or fraud? Or is it the fact that it was previously classified in taxonomical nomenclature as homo sapien neandertalensis? You do know it is now known as homo neandertal neandertalensis, don't you?

 

 

 

Just because you don't like what the bible doesn't say, or something that 'contradicts' it, doesn't make evolution false, just because you want it to!

[Brother Jeff]

evolution is pushed into schools and museums

 

Evolution is 100% SCIENCE and is an easily verifiable reality.

 

Recommended reading:

 

The Origin of Species

http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-c...gin-of-species/

 

Introduction to Evolutionary Biology

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-intro-to-biology.html

 

Concerning the origins of mankind, evolution makes a hell of a lot more sense than the ancient biblical fairy tale that has god scooping up a ball of mud, fashioning a glorious little doll, and magically breathing life into it.

[Ro-bear]

Might as well colin, evolution is pushed into schools and museums using abstract drawings and countless forgeries, i.e. the infamous piltdown man, nebraska man, neanderthal and many others.  Just because you don't like what the bible says, doesn't make evolution a fact just because you want it too.

BTW

I love that quartz skull avatar, athiest.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Be honest, Riker. No one claims that the Piltdown skull is authentic. And who exposed the fraud? Scientists! The first time I heard of the Piltdown skull, it was in a discussion of frauds and fallacies of science. Lay off the straw man.

 

Neanderthal is quite real; many have been found. Don't believe your Chick tract.

 

Your closing remark is telling. Atheists don't dispute the veracity of the bible because they don't like what it says; they dispute it because they don't BELIEVE what it says. C'mon, Riker; three days in the belly of a fish? A worldwide flood? Killing a fig tree for not bearing fruit OUT OF SEASON? This stuff is unscientific and counterintuitive. No one believes in the validity of evolutionary theory because they want to; they believe it because it makes sense. It explains a great deal and fits the evidence.

 

I don't think you'll be back. I think you are in all likelihood a seagull fundy who has pooped and flown. If you return, however, I'll be glad to explain evolutionary theory if you'll answer a few questions I have about the bible. Deal?

[narcissist]

Of course, creationism is true and Godly and it never tells a lie. Ever. It's completely free of hoaxes and forgeries isn't it.

 

Oh, except for:

 

Paluxy dinosaur footprints hoax,

Polonium 218 hoax,

Shrinking sun hoax,

Missing moon dust hoax,

Bombardier beetle hoax,

 

...among others