On "Believeing" in Evolution

Who Doesn't Believe in Evolution? According to Crooks and Liars, three presidential candidates: Sen. Sam Brownback, Rep. Tom Tancredo, and Gov. Mike Huckabee..

But I'm not here to make fun of their willful ignorance and arrogant anti-intellectualism. I'm here to critique the way that Democrats, Progressives, Liberals, Scientists, and thinking people in general think and talk about evolution

First, I don't believe in evolution and you shouldn't either. At least not any more than you believe in gravity.

It is not a question of belief. I accept evolution as a scientific fact. For over one hundred years, the scientific community has modified and refined the idea that organisms evolve over time. Every piece of evidence, every experiment or observation has reinforced the basic idea that 'survival of the fittest' is the mechanism by which new species come into being.

Every time we say that we believe in evolution, we put a scientifically demonstrable phenomenon in the same category as religion. This is dangerous. The forces of deliberate ignorance are already trying to have the 'religion' of secular humanism removed from schools.

Fundamentally, while 'belief' may be dictated by authority, knowledge can only be discovered by inquiry. In the pre-rational era, religious institutions could dictate scientific fact through theology and dogma. Ask Galileo. Evolution is not a mystical, un-provable process (like transubstantiation) that must be taken on faith. We shouldn't treat it or talk about it as if it were.

Evolution Belief Framing

Christian Threats of Violence

I never would have guessed that the judge in the Dover, Pennsylvania case striking down 'intelligent design' would have Christianists threatening to kill him. From the Witchita Eagle:

LAWRENCE, Kan. - A judge who struck down a Dover, Penn., school board's decision to teach intelligent design in public schools said he was stunned by the reaction, which included death threats and a week of protection from federal marshals.

Pennsylvania U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III told an audience in Lawrence Tuesday that the case illustrated why judges must issue rulings free of political whims or hopes of receiving a favor.

[...]

Jones didn't focus on that debate but instead discussed the fallout, which included the death threats and a verbal lashing from conservative pundits around the country.

He said much of the criticism showed a lack of understanding about the role of judges, who he said should rule based on the Constitution and legal precedence - not on personal whims or political favors.

Jones said many people expected him to rule differently because he is a longtime Republican and was appointed by President Bush.

"These criticisms point at something in the way that both the pundits and the public tend to perceive judges," he said. "It is false, it is debilitating and if unchallenged, I believe it will ultimately tear at the fabric of our system of justice in the United States."

People have a right to disagree with judges, particularly by filing appeals, but the level of debate needs to rise above personal attacks, he said.

"As we spend time, as we did in the Dover case, debating what to put in the science curriculum in our schools, we had better start paying attention to the curriculum of civics and government, as well as history," he said.

First, it's good to see a judge, especially a Bush appointee, standing up for an independent judiciary. He should be on Sunday morning talk shows, bringing that message to the people. Actually, if he's going to actually reach voters, he'd do better on Oprah.

That said, even if new guidelines for civics and government classes in public education were drawn up, they would be subject to the same underlying problem that forced John Jones to rule that science is science and religion is religion and the two shouldn't mix in publicly funded schools.

Forces on the Right are intolerant of anything presented in a public school with which they disagree. I can't imagine that any examination of civics and government drawn up by sane people could possibly do anything but enrage them.

My high school government class (I didn't have civics) was great. I spent a month learning (and reading) the Constitution. I read some of the Federalist Papers. My teacher, Miss Beaver, was great. We examined all three branches independently, throughout their history.

This was as Republicans were jockeying for the nomination in 2000. We discussed how these abstract ideas, some hundreds of years old, fit into modern politics. Miss Beaver was tremendously even handed. She had no agenda other than education. I credit her class, plus George W. Bush, as the reason why I'm a political junky.

This post is suffering subject drift.

When Pam wades into Freeper Land for "Actual Freeper Quotes" if the subject touches on education, there's always a comments encouraging parents to get their kids out of public schools, invariably called 'government schools' and into (presumably) a home-schooling situation.

Do we run the risk of having a generation of Americans of which a significant portion have a 'Madrasah' education?

Christianists Evolution Home Schooling Education

Missing Links of Evolution?

The fundies love to prattle on about how evolution can't possibly be true because none of the 'middle steps' exist. Well, fuck them. Here's a shark that walks on it's fins.

The AP via Yahoo News:

BANGKOK, Thailand - Scientists combing through undersea fauna off Indonesia's Papua province said Monday they had discovered dozens of new species, including a shark that walks on its fins and a shrimp that looks like a praying mantis.

The team from U.S.-based Conservation International also warned that the area — known as Bird's Head Seascape — is under danger from fishermen who use dynamite and cyanide to net their catches and called on Indonesia's government to do more to protect it.

"It's one of the most stunningly beautiful landscapes and seascapes on the planet," said Mark Erdmann, a senior adviser of Conservation International who led two surveys to the area earlier this year.

"Above and below water, it's simply mind blowing," he said.

Erdmann and his team claim to have discovered 52 new species, including 24 new species of fish, 20 new species of coral and eight new species of shrimp. Among the highlights were an epaulette shark that walks on its fins, a praying mantis-like shrimp and scores of reef-building corals, he said.

Of course all of the habitat is endangered due to fishing, but that's a seperate angle.

This was on the front page of Yahoo news. It isn't burried in some acedemic journal. But do you thik this will be acknowledged by the 'it's just a theory' crowd? Not a chance. Their belief-based (rather than observation based) world view allows them to ignore what they don't want to ackowledge without disrupting the logical continuity of their world view (mostly because it's not based on logic.)

Oh, the article ends with this:

Researchers also encountered the Long-beaked Echidna, members of the primitive egg-laying group of mammals called the Monotremes.

No signs of evolution there, either!


Photo credit: Conservation International

More Evolved Educational Standards

Ok, I'm really done with the obnoxious titles for a while.

The Washington Post reports that conservative Republican members of the Kansas Board of Education have been voted out of office:

Conservative Republicans who approved new classroom standards that call evolution into question lost control of the State Board of Education in Tuesday's primary election.

A victory by pro-evolution Republican candidate Jana Shaver over conservative Republican Brad Patzer, who supported the standards treating evolution as a flawed theory, meant conservatives would at best have five of 10 seats on the board.

Five seats were up for election in the primary, the latest skirmish in a seesawing battle between faith and science that has opened Kansas up to international ridicule.

Good news, of course. Sad that the article didn't ever bother to mention that 99.9% of all respected scientists support Evolution as a key concept in our understanding of biology, bio-chemistry, genetics, and countless other important fields.

Worse yet, the article finished with a blurb about the Discovery Institute, the anti-Evolution fiction factory in Seattle.

Perhaps the Washington Post assumed that it's readership was both well enough educated to know that on their own. I do know this: School children in Kansas are very well educated when it comes to the impact of political propagandising on their education.

Kansas Evolution Republicans Democrats

Kansas' Evolving Stance on Evolution

The Washington Post has an interesting article on the upcoming school board elections in Kansas:

Evolution's defenders, working to defeat Kansas Board of Education members who oppose modern Darwinian theory, are challenging three incumbent Republican conservatives and the political heir to a fourth in Tuesday's primary.

A shift of two seats to moderate Republicans -- or to Democrats -- in November almost certainly would lead to a reversal of state science standards celebrated by many religious conservatives and reviled by the scientific establishment.

The article goes on to mention that there are a lot of people in Kansas that are rather embarassed. The cartoons depicting a bunch of cave-men sitting at desks with the label 'Kansas' seems to rankle a bit.

Good.

One of the scariest parts of Republicanism 2.0 is it's virulent anti-science rhetoric. Well, that and the labeling of Liberalism and Science (Secular Humanism) as a religion. The piece notes that it isn't necessary to elect a Democrat to have the Creationist retrogrades thrown out. Moderate Republicans (Republicanism 1.0?) are also in opposition to the Christianists.

Here's hoping the people of Kansas vote out the crazies.

Kansas Evolution Christianists Republicans

Words Positively Fail Me.

I had meant to leave religion alone for a while. I don't want this blog to become too focused on any one subject. Read an article in the (online) Witchita Eagle today though that I can't let go past. I will reproduce it here in its entirety only because it will eventually disappear from the Eagle's site (I'm not making any money from this site, hopefully they won't sue me.)

Professor Beaten; Attackers Cite KU Creationism Class

Associated Press

LAWRENCE - A professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent design was canceled after he sent e-mails deriding Christian conservatives was hospitalized Monday after what appeared to be a roadside beating.

University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki said that the two men who beat him made references to the class that was to be offered for the first time this spring.

Originally called "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies," the course was canceled last week at Mirecki's request.

The class was added after the Kansas State Board of Education decided to include more criticism of evolution in science standards for elementary and secondary students.

"I didn't know them," Mirecki said of his assailants, "but I'm sure they knew me."

One recent e-mail from Mirecki to members of a student organization referred to religious conservatives as "fundies," and said a course describing intelligent design as mythology would be a "nice slap in their big fat face." Mirecki has apologized for those comments.

Lt. Kari Wempe, a spokeswoman for the Douglas County Sheriff's Department, said a deputy was dispatched to Lawrence Memorial Hospital after receiving a call around 7 a.m. regarding a battery.

She said Mirecki reported he was attacked around 6:40 a.m. in rural Douglas County south of Lawrence. Mirecki told the Lawrence Journal-World that he was driving to breakfast when he noticed the men tailgating him in a pickup truck.

"I just pulled over hoping they would pass, and then they pulled up real close behind," he said. "They got out, and I made the mistake of getting out."

He said the men beat him on the head, shoulders and back with their fists, and possibly a metal object.

Wempe said Mirecki drove himself to the hospital after the attack.

Mirecki told the student newspaper, the University Daily Kansan, that he spent between three and four hours at the hospital. He said his injuries included a broken tooth.

"I'm mostly shaken up, and I got some bruises and sore spots," he told the Lawrence Journal-World.

Wempe said Mirecki described the suspects as two white men between 30 and 40 years of age. One of the men was described as wearing a red, visorlike ball cap and wool gloves. Mirecki said the men left in a large pickup.

Wempe said the department would investigate "every aspect," but couldn't discuss specifics.

Andrew Stangl, president of the Society for Open Minded Atheists and Agnostics at the university, described the attack as "bizarre and terrifying." He said Mirecki, who is the group's faculty adviser, was adamant that the beating was related to the recently canceled course.

"That absolutely shocked me," he said, "because people don't do that in a civilized society."

State Sen. Kay O'Connor, a Mirecki critic, said there is no excuse for someone physically assaulting the professor -- regardless of their politics.

"I have zero tolerance for thugs," she said. "There is never an excuse to behave in such a manner. This was just thugs. They used a flimsy excuse, if they had one, to behave as thugs. They can talk about the ID (intelligent design) course if they want to, but that's not an excuse."

When will the Christians in this country show as much strength and conviction as the ones working for peace in Iraq? This professor was beaten because he didn't toe the Christianist line. Christians better be careful. They're letting their more extreme elements give them a very bad name.

OK. No more religion posts for a while.