From the Archives: Creationist Sticker Shock
---
After years of litigation, a redneck school district in Georgia has unconditionally surrendered along one front in the Culture Wars:
I blogged against the asinine stickers over two years ago, in a post titled "Creationist Sticker Shock.
---
"Evolution is a fact, not a theory." --Carl Sagan
"Evolution is a theory, not a fact." --A sticker in suburban Atlanta science textbooks challenged by the ACLU on Establishment Clause grounds.
My money's on the late great Professor Sagan.
When scientists talk about a "theory," such as the "theory of evolution" or the "theory of general relativity" or the "theory of supply and demand," they do not mean "theory" in the common, popular sense of " an explanation that may be right or may be wrong." They mean instead "theory" as "the most comprehensive understanding we have thus far, and although subject to future revision, possessing of no indications that tend to disprove it."
By that standard, there is no such thing as the "theory of creationism," since it has been thoroughly disproved at every single turn. Every new fact uncovered further shows it to be religious mythology (and rather silly mythology at that).
Evolution, meanwhile, does get revised continually (that's the very definition of science), but never discredited wholesale. Anyone who sits and works his way through the paradigm (lots of eggs, cosmic rays, DNA, mutation, little bit of variety in offspring, an asteroid every few epochs, six billion years, etc.) knows — yes, knows — that evolution is indeed a fact.
For crying out loud, go to the zoo! Look at the crocodiles, alligators and gharials. Look at the African versus the Asian elephants (and think back to the mastodon skeleton you saw last week at the natural history museum). Look at the gorillas, then look in the mirror. And, of course, look at beetles.
Many bloggers have suggested that gay marriage advocates should stop calling gay marriage opponents nasty things like "ignorant bigots." I've never used the word "ignorant" or anything similar to describe those who are anti-gay ("bigot," yes — but never "ignorant").
But creationists? IGNORANT! IGNORANT! IGNORANT!
More thoughts from UnCivil Defense.
---
EPILOGUE: Byintelligent design sheer coincidence, today is Carl Sagan Day. I praised his magnum opus, Cosmos, in this post.
A suburban school board that put stickers in high school science books saying evolution is "a theory, not a fact" abandoned its legal battle to keep them Tuesday after four years.The "evolution is not a fact" crowd is, for all intents and purposes, the same as the Intelligent Design crowd, which in turn is essentially the same as the Creationist crowd, with each manifestation more pathetic than the next. They are anti-science, anti-reason, and therefore anti-education and indeed anti-humanity.
The Cobb County board agreed in federal court never to use a similar sticker or to undermine the teaching of evolution in science classes.
...
The stickers read: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."
I blogged against the asinine stickers over two years ago, in a post titled "Creationist Sticker Shock.
---
"Evolution is a fact, not a theory." --Carl Sagan
"Evolution is a theory, not a fact." --A sticker in suburban Atlanta science textbooks challenged by the ACLU on Establishment Clause grounds.
My money's on the late great Professor Sagan.
When scientists talk about a "theory," such as the "theory of evolution" or the "theory of general relativity" or the "theory of supply and demand," they do not mean "theory" in the common, popular sense of " an explanation that may be right or may be wrong." They mean instead "theory" as "the most comprehensive understanding we have thus far, and although subject to future revision, possessing of no indications that tend to disprove it."
By that standard, there is no such thing as the "theory of creationism," since it has been thoroughly disproved at every single turn. Every new fact uncovered further shows it to be religious mythology (and rather silly mythology at that).
Evolution, meanwhile, does get revised continually (that's the very definition of science), but never discredited wholesale. Anyone who sits and works his way through the paradigm (lots of eggs, cosmic rays, DNA, mutation, little bit of variety in offspring, an asteroid every few epochs, six billion years, etc.) knows — yes, knows — that evolution is indeed a fact.
For crying out loud, go to the zoo! Look at the crocodiles, alligators and gharials. Look at the African versus the Asian elephants (and think back to the mastodon skeleton you saw last week at the natural history museum). Look at the gorillas, then look in the mirror. And, of course, look at beetles.
Many bloggers have suggested that gay marriage advocates should stop calling gay marriage opponents nasty things like "ignorant bigots." I've never used the word "ignorant" or anything similar to describe those who are anti-gay ("bigot," yes — but never "ignorant").
But creationists? IGNORANT! IGNORANT! IGNORANT!
More thoughts from UnCivil Defense.
---
EPILOGUE: By
All Related Posts (on one page) | Some Related Posts:
Posted by Kip on
20 December 2006
To comment on this post, please visit the new blogsite.