Charles Darwin
February 10, 2009
February 12 marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. Darwin’s theory of evolution as set forth in his “Origin of Species” published in 1859, and his subsequent writings, is considered the foundation of biology.
Darwin’s theory is supported by information which has been tested again and again. The later discovery of DNA further confirmed Darwin’s theory and explained how traits are passed on. Genetics also confirmed the most controversial part of Darwin’s theory: that humans and apes have a common ancestry. Remarkably, only 40 percent of Americans accept Darwin’s theory of evolution. Here is a bit of background on the issue.
The Bible (Genesis) tells us that God created heaven and earth and all contained therein in six days. (God rested on the seventh day). Genesis is treated by most scholars as an allegory, not literally true. Adherents of an “intelligent design” theory of creation believe the Bible is literally true. (“Intelligent design” is “creationism” repackaged.) While most Americans probably agree that God was responsible for the creation of life on earth, many disagree on what happened next. Darwinists believe that humans and other living things evolved over time, while the creationists believe that humans and other living things have stayed the same since creation.
The courts have ruled that intelligent design and creationism should be taught, if at all, in Sunday school – not in our public schools. An important court decision in this area is the 2005 federal district court case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (Pennsylvania), where the court ordered the school district to refrain from maintaining an Intelligent Design Policy whereby intelligent design had to be offered as an alternative to evolution. The court stated: “Intelligent design cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents” and thus, he ruled, is unconstitutional. The judge also stated: “Intelligent design is not science and cannot be adjudged a valid, accepted scientific theory as it has failed to publish in peer-reviewed journals, engage in research and testing, and gain acceptance in the scientific community.” (I recommend Nova’s “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial” (2007), a documentary about the Kitzmiller case.)
What is troublesome about creationism and intelligent design is that it contributes to an anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism in our public life and in our schools, resulting in a dumbing down of Americans. The ignorance of the average U.S. adult of basic scientific facts has been well documented by surveys, finding that fewer than one in five Americans met a minimal standard of scientific literacy. How are we going to keep up with the rest of the world in innovation and scientific discovery when adherents of pseudoscience wield so much influence in our society?
What is more troublesome is that there are creationists teaching science in our colleges and universities and even in our high schools. Junk in, junk out.
Ralph E. Stone is a retired Bay Area attorney.
The Hunger Site
February 19, 2009 at 11:38 am
“Religion and science (evolution) are very different things. In science, only natural causes are used to explain natural phenomena, while religion deals with beliefs that are beyond the natural world.”
“The misconception that one always has to choose between science and religion is incorrect. Of course, some religious beliefs explicitly contradict science (e.g., the belief that the world and all life on it was created in six literal days); however, most religious groups have no conflict with the theory of evolution or other scientific findings. In fact, many religious people, including theologians, feel that a deeper understanding of nature actually enriches their faith. Moreover, in the scientific community there are thousands of scientists who are devoutly religious and also accept evolution.”
February 19, 2009 at 5:43 am
Now we know from the last three posts, that you hate religion. but all the comments are sadly lacking any substance. Besides ridiculing religion what do you know about Intelligent design? Do you know that Intelligent Design is not about religion. Do you know anything about mutations? Do you have any idea what is in a living cell? Do any of you have any idea how proteins, found in a living cell, are manufactured within the cell? What is DNA, RNA and what functions do they perform in your living cells? I guess the poor little cells are a lot smarter than most of you. A single cell, without any help from evolution, managed to build all of the body parts you are currently using. And with out much help except for food and exercise will maintain your body for as long as 100 years in some cases. They manage to do all this without any help from the Government.
February 12, 2009 at 2:03 pm
If humans are the product of intelligent design, then please explain the Ill-engineered wrist or why the brain needs blood but blood can kill brain tissue.
Perhaps this suggests that the ‘designer’ was not so intelligent after all, a merely ‘average’ designer?
-marc
February 12, 2009 at 12:36 pm
@tfagen – In science NOTHING is ever proven. You make observations, come up with theories to explain the observations,, then make more observations to see how the theory stands up. The Intelligent Design folks could prove their case in one fell swoop if they’d just find the Designer and convince him to go on Letterman. Let me know when they do.
February 12, 2009 at 2:31 am
INTELLIGENT DESIGN: BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
This whole idea of intelligent design explaining what we can’t yet explain is nothing new. In fact, it is the oldest technique that humanity has ever used for explaining the natural world. Supernatural explanations, using deities to explain what humanity could not understand, have been around for thousands of years and have been woefully unproductive in advancing civilization through understanding and knowledge about nature. Look at the results of thousands of years of intelligent design (a.k.a. religious) methodology to the results of the last few decades that scientific methodology (a.k.a. naturalism) has been explaining the world. Intelligent design has taken us from hunter-gatherers to horse-drawn carts over thousands of years. Science has taken us from horse-drawn carts to man on the moon and exploring the outer reaches of the universe in just a couple of centuries. What more really needs to be said?
Intelligent design answers have shackled human intellect for thousands of years with dead-end explanations. Intelligent design explanations offer nothing; no way of predicting what the future may hold based on evidence, no ability to recognize patterns in nature that could be used for explanations or further investigation. Intelligent design is the knowledge killer not an answer. It is time that we crushed this horrible antiquated movement to keep human intellect in the dark ages of ignorance, fear and superstition. The credulity in vast numbers of our populace, in this anti-science movement is a real threat to the very foundation of our civilization. Remember: never underestimate the power of large numbers of ignorant people. Carl Sagan once mentioned that the greatest danger facing humanity is to have the technology of an advanced civilization being directed by the superstitions of an ancient philosophy. All it would take is a few very religiously motivated individuals in positions of absolute power to bring about a self-fulfilling prophecy of doomsday.
The only way to prevent what has already happened several times in human history (e.g. ancient Greece, Mesopotamia etc.), the demise of intellectual advances in civilization by superstitiously ignorant masses, is to promote the vigorous and complete education in the natural sciences of all young people. Science is the most objective endeavor for knowledge and understanding of the natural world that humanity has ever developed. It is without question the most profound way to develop skills of critical thinking in each and every citizen, skills that are so important for being able to make informed decisions on policies that affect the direction our country and our lives take each and every day.
Keep intelligent design where it belongs; in the history books of bad ideas based on ignorance, fear, superstition and credulity.
February 11, 2009 at 12:05 pm
For you very bright people that say CO2 causes rising temperatures, Intelligent Design is Creationism, and over the last 150 years Evolution has been proven. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
This is an interesting article. Some of you talk as though Evolution has somehow (when no one was watching) been shown to be true when in fact no such proof exists. That is unless, when you are talking about Evolution, you are using the usual Darwinist ploy of mixing breeding (variation within a species) with Evolution.
Just to be clear Micro-evolution (breeding or variation within a species) has been shown to be controlled by the genes which is found in the DNA chain. There are limits to the variation within a species. For example, a cat can never be as large as a blue whale as the result of breeding. Of course, there has never been an example of breeding from one species into another in the history of the world. (I am sure the wise crackers will say otherwise.)
So macro-evolution is just an unproven theory, an idea, without any known proof whatsoever.
I guess we are debating an idea that has no natural scientific credibility when we talk about Darwin’s Evolution or other faith based theologies.
What about Intelligent Design? Are we dealing with faith or are we dealing with scientific methods to determine if Intelligent Design has merit. ID deals with Information theory, Probability theory and Biology. ID is delving into the living cells of animals and plants. ID Considers DNA, RNA, amino acids, proteins, genes, all the molecular machines and instruments contained in the living cell. Based on the evidence therein derived ID is a proposed theory showing that mutations and survival of the fittest can not explain how life began. ID shows us that spontaneous helpful mutations in the thousands necessary for Macro-evolution is not possible under Darwin’s speculations. Thus, ID is as credible as Evolution and in my opinion ID is a better theory than Evolution for how life began and has prospered.
Based on the above, I think we should teach all popular theories even though Evolution has fallen on hard times. We should especially teach the strength and weakness of Evolution so people can judge for themselves the motives of the Darwinian faithful.
February 11, 2009 at 11:38 am
Greetings all,
Science and faith might coexist beautifully were it not for political/religious extremism.
The creationism/ID lobby seeks to establish their sectarian interpretation of faith over physical evidence by promoting as science an astonishing religious error which actually contradicts the Bible!.
This teaching claims that evolution by natural processes, including what both creationists and ID’ers continually label “blind chance†(random occurrence), could only be “accidentalâ€, and therefore godless. In this they agree with the atheist position.
Why this current marriage of convenience, agreeing with atheism against the Bible, in order to promote a religious agenda? Might it be because this heretical tactic permits them to deny the possibility of guided evolution through chance?
This startling and contradictory machination is carefully explained here:
Intelligent Design Rules Out God’s Sovereignty Over Chance
http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=34289
“What proponents of so-called intelligent design have cynically omitted in their polemic is that according to Biblical tradition, chance has always been considered God’s choice as well.â€
February 11, 2009 at 1:47 am
You ought to have placed ‘Still Controversial’ in quotes there Mr. Stone. It is ‘controversial’ only in America. And in America it is controversial only because of the alarming widespread ignorance of about half the population.
Whether this ignorance is by choice or academic neglect, it is astonishing to most of the rest of the world. Then again we often hear that “70% of Americans believe in Alien abduction” and the like. I used to put such slanders down to envy of Americas wealth. Now I know they are true.
February 10, 2009 at 2:33 pm
It may seem like a quibble, but Darwin did not offer a theory of evolution. Evolution was, even in Darwin’s time, accepted as the truth that the form of living organisms had changed over the course of time.
Darwin’s theory concerns the process of how the evolutionary changes happened. He proposed the mechanism called natural selection as the “how” of evolution.
And further, there is absolutely no controversy about Darwin’s theory of natural selection. The community of educated peoples across the world accept the basic truth that natural selection is the process that has resulted in evolution.
It’s important to make this distinction because of the strident clamoring of those who wish there was a controversy, who use the “it’s controversial” bleating as a club to eradicate the truth and pummel the world with their ignorance.
Darwin was right. There is no need to invoke god in the processes of life that have resulted in the forms of the world as they exist.