The Domesticated Primate

All I can say is FINALLY! It's great to see there is an organized group to fight against the very well-organized (but retarded when it comes to science or apparently even critical thinking) groups trying to push their backward and out-dated belief systems into science classes. I found out about CERT via this article in the Denver Post on Friday, by Jim Spencer. Hopefully other states have similar response teams. I know SEA is national and I'm glad to see them pipe up, too. If the bible bangers get their way, this country will continue to devolve into some poor international backwater theocracy.

I understand why many scientists choose not to get involved in these culture wars - they have real work to do, not argue against people who constantly use old arguments that have been refuted over and over - the people making the fallacious arguments would do well to read the site talkorigins.org or lurk on talk.origins newgroup for a while so as not to appear so stupid, instead of bothering scientists.

However, and even though I think what Penn said (roughly: "everyone who needs to accept evolution does") is a great idea, I think he's influenced by his position on public schooling - as a big-L Libertarian, he thinks there shouldn't be public schools. Well, we have them, and while we have them, we have to fight to keep the superstition out of science, so we can't have people muddying waters with bogus arguments that have been refuted time and time again and saying evolution is "just" a theory. So is the germ "theory" of disease, and we don't have these religious dolts throwing up walls to teaching that, or about the "theory" of gravity.

I think instead of having people put stickers on books, or try to remove the word "evolution" from this discussion because it's politically charged, I think teachers and administrators should be instructed to tell their students (and parents) to read talkorigins.org and find refutations to these old and naive arguments (a fave of mine is the one about the eye and the accompanying argument from ignorance). As an extra bonus, they can also discuss the various logical fallacies, something even the bible bangers won't object to, since some traditions teach their faithful about these as well.