Evolution in the Blackboard Jungle: An intelligent design for a solution to the debate

Reason ^ | February 9 2005 | Ronald Bailey

[RightWingAtheist]

Here's an excellent article by one of the best science journalists out there.

[Sola Veritas]

"This proposal lowers political and social conflict, and eventually those made fitter in the struggle for life by better education will win. At least that's my theory."

Hypothetical (and smart alec) question. If "fundamentalists" were to start either eliminating or sterilizing proponents of evolution so they could not reproduce, would that not make the "fundamentalists" the "most fit" by Darwinian reasoning?

A simple disclaimer sticker in a textbook hardly compromises the bastion of science.

[Zeppo]

He pulled a fast one, though... He seems to be arguing that if it is possible to shed doubt on a single one of the irreducibly complex mechanisms postulated by Behe, then necessarily all of them will fall like dominoes. Yet he hasn't put forth any evidence or convincing argument to back that up. Instead, he seems to be saying that the rest of them are left as an exercise for the reader, because it is just too much work for Scientists to have to address all of those tiresome details, which is an obvious attempt to sweep things that he can not answer properly under the rug.

[RightWingAtheist]

Click on the link to the original article. It has hyperlinks to the various sources he cites.

[dr_lew]

Hypothetical (and smart alec) question. If "fundamentalists" were to start either eliminating or sterilizing proponents of evolution so they could not reproduce, would that not make the "fundamentalists" the "most fit" by Darwinian reasoning?

What is STRONG survives. If only this were not so often precisely what is evil and stupid. - F. N.

[microgood]

Fundamentalists can send their kids to schools that teach that the earth was created on Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC. Science geeks can send their kids to technoschools that teach them how to splice genes to make purple mice. This proposal lowers political and social conflict, and eventually those made fitter in the struggle for life by better education will win. At least that's my theory.

This is exactly why Kerry got spanked so bad. The more of this the better. In another 8 years, Republicans will have 80 Senators. Bring it on!!!!!!!!

[MRMEAN]

There is another way around this conundrum. Get rid of public schools. Give parents vouchers and let them choose the schools to which to send their children

I've long thought that this is the basic answer; we could have the Geocentric Creation School, the Old Earth Creation School, the Ayn Rand School for Tiny Tots, etc. I'd really rather have no public funds involved at all; and have parents or charity pay the way. I could live with vouchers if we could prevent public funds going to support Wahhabist madrassa.

[olde north church]

Matthew 5:15 - Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
The above scripture is a warning, not instruction. Intelligent Design, Scientific Creationism, beads, baubles and trinkets. Shallow faith needs the balm of reason. It provides comfort, makes the Word of God more palatable to the "educated" mind.
One can no more explain the mystery of God than the processes of the ocean using a candy recipe. It dishonors faith to camofluage it behind scientfic "proof". That was the reason for placing it high for all to see, openly.
Then none could claim they were fooled or didn't know what it was.

[PatrickHenry]

Excellent find. Cranking up the ping machine ...

[PatrickHenry]

EvolutionPing

A pro-evolution science list with over 230 names. See list's description at my homepage. FReepmail to be added/dropped.

[PatrickHenry]

Some snippits from the article:

Behe seems to be demanding that every step in complex molecular cascades must be worked out—and then justified somehow with empirical evidence—or else they are irreducibly complex.

Behe might then reply, all fine and well for blood clotting. But what about the bacterial flagella? This kind of response invites an infinite regress of demanded explanations: If the bacterial flagella are explained, what about the optic nerve, the Krebs cycle, and so forth? Behe's intelligent designer becomes uncomfortably trapped in the ever-smaller gaps of biology that remain to be explained.

Behe's fourth and final claim in his New York Times op-ed is "in the absence of any convincing non-design explanation, we are justified in thinking that real intelligent design was involved in life."

I think Behe has been posting in these threads for years.

[PGalt]

We were all created. Where do we go from here? Many devolve.

[jude24]

I could live with vouchers if we could prevent public funds going to support Wahhabist madrassa.

And that, precisely, is the problem with vouchers. Where do we draw the line? It's okay for Catholic, Lutheran, and Baptist schools to get federal funds, but what about Scientologists? Wahhabi Muslim maddrassas?

This is why, ultimately, vouchers would be unworkable.

[Thatcherite]

Hypothetical (and smart alec) question. If "fundamentalists" were to start either eliminating or sterilizing proponents of evolution so they could not reproduce, would that not make the "fundamentalists" the "most fit" by Darwinian reasoning?

Only if they were successful in doing so, and if fundamentalism were a heritable trait (which it appears not to be, since nearly everyone was a fundamentalist 150 years ago yet numerous fundamentalists appear to have raised non-fundamentalist children throughout the world since then). "Most Fit" is a value free term.

[PatrickHenry]

If all the evolutionists were eliminated, no, it wouldn't be an example of anything in evolution theory. Rather, such behavior would probably signal the start of human extinction.

[Thatcherite]

If all the evolutionists were eliminated, no, it wouldn't be an example of anything in evolution theory. Rather, such behavior would probably signal the start of human extinction.

They'd have to burn all the books too, as anti-evolutionism isn't a heritable trait. And discourage their kids from looking at rocks, or the animals around them. In fact best to discourage any kind of thinking at all.

[PatrickHenry]

In fact best to discourage any kind of thinking at all.

Why don't the creationist websites offer a specialized kind of internet filter that not only blocks porn sites, but that hijacks the browser to direct it only to creationist sites?

[Thatcherite]

I'd buy the internet filter that hijacks my browser to direct it only to porn sites. Then perhaps I'd waste less time trying to hammer knowledge into the heads of the determinedly ignorant in FR crevo debates.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!