Highly amusing diatribe from Carl Hiassen. Digital Sextant directed me to it:
The difference between straw man and satire is that one is funny, but the other is coy. Or maybe the other way around. Whatever. I found the above to be amusing and enlightening. Hiassen knew his target audience. He wrote to amuse his fans and piss off his detractors. I know he accomplished the former, and imagine the later was achieved as well.In recent weeks, the Board of Education has been swamped by e-mails and letters from religious conservatives who advocate teaching creationism or intelligent design, and who believe evolution should be discussed strictly as a ``theory.''
For those who wish to see Florida standing still, if not sinking, this is a fantastic strategy. In fact, it could be expanded to revise other educational doctrines.
Let's start teaching gravity as a ''theory,'' too. And don't forget the solar system -- what proof do we really have, besides a bunch of fuzzy, fake-looking photos, that Mars really exists?
...According to The St. Petersburg Times, one speaker compared Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary science, to Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, well-known tyrants and mass murderers. Such loony gibberish is actually good for the anti-evolution crusade, providing the best evidence that the human species has not advanced one iota in the last 100,000 years.
I believe in Evolution, but I don't think it's honestly comparable to gravity. It's more like black holes, or the big bang, or UFOs. We are surrounded by evidence of evolution, but the evidence is not clear or immediate enough for it to serve as incontravertible proof to those who are inclined to be skeptical of it. I have faith such proof is out there (because I see it on a small scale nearly every day) but we lack the resources and technical know-how to document it on the large scale in a way that can't be questioned. The big E is the most logical conclusion, but mankind does not always prioritize logic above belief. To insist that we do so is a tall order, even in this day and age.
6 comments:
Evolution is crap! Crap I tell you! The would stinking works was created last Thursday... Duh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Thursdayism
You state that you believe in Evolution and have faith that proof is out there before stating that Evolution is the most logical conclusion but mankind does not always prioritize logic above belief.
Apparently so.
And while we experience a phenomenon that we call gravity, scientists haven't got a clue of how it actually works despite all the formulas they taught you in school. Those formulas only work in very specific conditions. I can't decide if that makes it exactly like evolution, exactly the opposite, or just another mystery of the universe too important to leave in the hands of God.
Nice.
We rarely prioritize logic over belief. Ironically, that's one of the evolutionary distinctions separating man from monkey.
Wait, which part of evolution is controversial again?
I believe that everyone should believe whatever they wish to believe. I just don't want anyone to want me to believe it too. Especially if it means condemning curiosity and the search for knowledge.
There's a really great documentary on this subject, called Flock of Dodos. In an interview available through the Skepticality podcast, he makes a really interesting point about the seductive charm of creationists vs. the condescending pricks of science.
Flock of Dodos sounds like a fun listen.
Part of why belief outweighs logic in my post is that my own beliefs fall somewhere between Intelligent Design and Evolutionary Process.
It soothes me to think there is an intelligence at work directing the cosmos. I don't think it particularly cares for us, though it does care about us. I don't think it's some dude in white, or in any other way rightly personified. I just think the Universe is self-aware on some level, and guides not only evolution, but also destiny and chance. Everything happens for a reason.
And I am currently of the opinion that things happen and the brain gives them reason. Our brains love to organize shit.
But this is coming from a guy who has nicknamed his brain Hank. And Hank has some very strange organizational skills.
"You state that you believe in Evolution and have faith that proof is out there before stating that Evolution is the most logical conclusion but mankind does not always prioritize logic above belief.
Apparently so."
That was exactly my point. Evolution is the best theory - it's backed up by evidence that very strongly suggests it's correct, but there's no way to prove it. We can theorize about what happened in the past, but we can't see it nor prove specific evolutionary events. There's no direct observation possible that doesn't take at least thousands of years.
There's something we have to do in order to accept evolution. It's a tiny leap of logic, we tell ourselves, but really it's a tiny leap of faith. That's why it bugs me so much that people get so up in arms vs the Intelligent Design folks. They're doing the same thing we are, it's just a matter of scale. Our leap is tiny, there's is much larger. But it's definitely NOT "We aren't leaping, but they are!"
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