SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Darwin Day is a celebration of Charles Darwin's birthday, the theory of evolution and science in general. This year marks his 210th birthday and 160 years since the publication of The Origin of Species. Those looking to celebrate or learn more about Darwin and evolution will find a wealth of events going on, or if you'd rather not leave the house, try a Darwin Day card with designs generated by simulated evolution.
Recently, an important finding in man's evolution was announced; the so-called Missing Link was confirmed. Australopithecus Sediba fossils were found in 2010 but it took a decade of research and debate for scientists to confirm that this was indeed the missing link that connects man's evolution in an unbroken chain back to primate ancestors.
Not everyone is down with Darwin. The Pew Research Center reports, "In spite of the fact that evolutionary theory is accepted by all but a small number of scientists, it continues to be rejected by many Americans. In fact, about one-in-five U.S. adults reject the basic idea that life on Earth has evolved at all." In Indiana, senator Dennis Kruse introduced a bill that would, among other things, "require the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life, including creation science."
(Score: 5, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday February 11 2019, @04:54PM (7 children)
For those who have never seen it, I encourage you to look over the information page for the Biology program [bju.edu] at Bob Jones University. Here's a college that teaches biology without Darwin. Under "Program Objectives," the first goal given for the Biology curriculum states:
THAT is why the truth matters. Because if a significant number of people reject it, programs like this grow and spread misinformation based on mythology rather than science. People get degrees from programs like this. Then they spread their beliefs elsewhere and use credentials to claim authority.
Truth doesn't always win out logically or rationally among the public. In fact, it's rarely reason or logic that convinces the general public of anything. And since truth isn't guaranteed to win out, it is helpful to have a sense of what people believe (and why) so science outreach programs can do a better job of presenting science.
(Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Monday February 11 2019, @05:20PM (3 children)
Aren't people who fall for logical fallacies like credentialism and authoritarianism inherently doomed anyway, the first time they turn on a TV?
In a theoretical sense I could agree with you, but pragmatically I'm not seeing the harm in some radiologist really liking the book of Genesis, for example.
Abstracting the argument to another topic to de-conflict, its kinda like in theory gay teachers should be focusing on teaching calculus when they teach kids, not focusing on inappropriately touching the kids, so gay teachers are OK in the classroom.
Or another abstract theory; if my kids anesthesiologist likes Nickelback, I'm not going to a concert with him, but I'm pretty chill with him medicating my kid when he's at work.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @05:48PM
You are conflating arguments.
The bit you should be addressing is "I don't want people who are in charge of education being so ill-educated that they reject, and even interfere with the teaching of, hard science" but you seem to be focusing more on "personal opinions are fine stop the wrong-think witch hunts!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @05:58PM (1 child)
Most people are wired like that and those that aren't aren't necessarily any better at separating superstition from reality.
The only people more obnoxious than the true-believers are the skeptics. The lengths they'll go to in order to debunk things is insane. And often times it gets chalked up to coincidence as if that's a reasonable response. There are a great number of things that we don't know much about, so assuming that there's nothing there even when the arguments to say that there's nothing there are just as bad is hypocritical.
We know there's nothing to homeopathy because we can empirically demonstrate that the mixture contains no active ingredients and lacks any sort of scientific basis for working. We can go a step further and demonstrate that the effect doesn't beat the placebo effect. At which point, any reasonable person should consider that enough.
OTOH, I frequently hear skeptics chalking everything up to coincidence without giving things a thorough look and then wondering why nobody is convinced. And that Randi is probably the biggest douche this side of Musk. What he does does no service to science at all. All it does is help folks dig in. And allows the smug to laugh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @07:18PM
Lack of belief is not the same as an assertion that something is not true/does not exist. Learn the difference.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by FatPhil on Monday February 11 2019, @07:39PM (2 children)
https://www.thecollegefix.com/more-than-1000-scientists-sign-dissent-from-darwinism-statement/
[* The cynic in me tells me that some of those "scientists" are women's studies scientists or ethnic hair braiding made up history scientists. (No, I've not read it yet, I've only just come across the link myself, and was hooked by the headline.)]
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Informative) by NewNic on Tuesday February 12 2019, @12:01AM
Most appear to be hard scientists. Here is the list:
https://www.discovery.org/m/2019/02/A-Scientific-Dissent-from-Darwinism-List-020419.pdf [discovery.org]
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday February 12 2019, @12:22AM
So let's say you're the sort that incorrectly believes argument from authority, and you read that 1000 people claiming to be some sort of scientist affiliated with some sort of prestigious-sounding institution sign a petition.
You see "1000 Helens agree", and think "Wow, that's a really big number!" But it isn't even close to being a really big number: There are approximately 3,150,000 working biologists in the world. Which means that 1000 people actually represents at most about 0.03% of the population with an educated opinion on the matter.
And a hallmark of people who think this way tend to ignore their ability to go to places like La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles or the Field Museum in Chicago and examine some of the evidence for themselves. In part because they wouldn't know what they were looking at, and in part because it would challenge their worldview in a way that the Ark Encounter doesn't.
If you're going to believe 0.03% of the relevant authorities over 99.97% of the relevant authorities, and you refuse to even glance at evidence, I'm going to conclude that you're rejecting the data and the 99.97% of relevant authorities for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with facts, education, or the truth of the matter.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.