Thursday, January 05, 2006
Intelligent Duhsign
I'm really tired of how the coverage in corporate media for ID vs. evolution in schools panders to the idiots in the Religious Right. The corporate media clearly don't want to step on any toes.
To see/read the average coverage of this, you'd think there was some sort of split in the scientific community about evolution vs. ID, instead of just coming out and telling the viewers that ID is so much untestable and unscientific nonsense. The only time I've ever seen anyone approach this topic in the corporate media - without gingerly tiptoeing around people's delicate sensibilities about their particular superstitions and creation myth(s) - has been on the wonderful show Bullshit! with Penn and Teller.
A few thoughts for you people still clinging to ID/creationism:
1. Don't give me that nonsense about the eye and how complex it is. The eye has evolved at least 40 different ways. Throwing your hands up in the air and saying, "Whelp, God must have dunnit!" when something is complex is not science.
2. If you claim that the fossil record was put there by Satan/angels or whatever to "test your faith" you are not qualified to talk about what sort of things should be discussed in a science class. Shut up and sit down.
3. Breakthroughs in science and engineering provide a nation a lot of wealth. If you want your child taught your particular creation myth, by all means, go ahead, but don't call it science, and don't bring it into the public schools. The U.S. already has plenty of competition in science and engineering without having our schools hijacked by religious nutjobs.
4. Young earth creationists are the funniest of the bunch. Do you guys think the Earth is flat, too? Grand Canyon, formed in days from a flood? Hilarious!
5. Do some reading. Something more than "Left Behind".
6. All you folks that still want your creation myth taught as science - will you swear off any sort of cures or preventative treatment that used evolution theory in the process? Didn't think so. Otherwise, there would be a lot more folks with polio.
7. Yes, it's "just" a theory. Like gravity. And relativity. If you don't understand the preceding sentences, your homework is to find out how science works, and then stop using "theory" (as applied to science) interchangeably with "hunch".
8. I know that you have no real interest in science, and that your interest in "teaching the controversy" or "teaching both sides" begins and ends with your religious agenda - there is no real interest in scientific inquiry here.
9. Stop confusing evolution with other areas of science. Here's a clue: the big bang and abiogenesis are different topics. When you confuse them with evolution, you are only showing your ignorance.
10. It's a damn good thing we don't have ID folks/creationists doing criminal investigations. "Uh, we found a body and no one was there to witness the complex details of the murder - must have been God^H^H^H a designer that did it."
Yes, this topic gets me angry. I seriously doubt that the educational systems in up-and-coming economies like China and India waste time and money fighting over whether they should teach their creation myths as science.
To see/read the average coverage of this, you'd think there was some sort of split in the scientific community about evolution vs. ID, instead of just coming out and telling the viewers that ID is so much untestable and unscientific nonsense. The only time I've ever seen anyone approach this topic in the corporate media - without gingerly tiptoeing around people's delicate sensibilities about their particular superstitions and creation myth(s) - has been on the wonderful show Bullshit! with Penn and Teller.
A few thoughts for you people still clinging to ID/creationism:
1. Don't give me that nonsense about the eye and how complex it is. The eye has evolved at least 40 different ways. Throwing your hands up in the air and saying, "Whelp, God must have dunnit!" when something is complex is not science.
2. If you claim that the fossil record was put there by Satan/angels or whatever to "test your faith" you are not qualified to talk about what sort of things should be discussed in a science class. Shut up and sit down.
3. Breakthroughs in science and engineering provide a nation a lot of wealth. If you want your child taught your particular creation myth, by all means, go ahead, but don't call it science, and don't bring it into the public schools. The U.S. already has plenty of competition in science and engineering without having our schools hijacked by religious nutjobs.
4. Young earth creationists are the funniest of the bunch. Do you guys think the Earth is flat, too? Grand Canyon, formed in days from a flood? Hilarious!
5. Do some reading. Something more than "Left Behind".
6. All you folks that still want your creation myth taught as science - will you swear off any sort of cures or preventative treatment that used evolution theory in the process? Didn't think so. Otherwise, there would be a lot more folks with polio.
7. Yes, it's "just" a theory. Like gravity. And relativity. If you don't understand the preceding sentences, your homework is to find out how science works, and then stop using "theory" (as applied to science) interchangeably with "hunch".
8. I know that you have no real interest in science, and that your interest in "teaching the controversy" or "teaching both sides" begins and ends with your religious agenda - there is no real interest in scientific inquiry here.
9. Stop confusing evolution with other areas of science. Here's a clue: the big bang and abiogenesis are different topics. When you confuse them with evolution, you are only showing your ignorance.
10. It's a damn good thing we don't have ID folks/creationists doing criminal investigations. "Uh, we found a body and no one was there to witness the complex details of the murder - must have been God^H^H^H a designer that did it."
Yes, this topic gets me angry. I seriously doubt that the educational systems in up-and-coming economies like China and India waste time and money fighting over whether they should teach their creation myths as science.
# posted by Sean LeBlanc : 6:44 PM
