a new soapbox for creationism
Dear Forbes editors, why oh why did you decide to publish a trio of essays by a pack of ignoramuses from the Discovery Institute? Maybe you confused them with the science entertainment company Discovery Communications? The two do have a similar logo (gee, I wonder how that could’ve happened) and there are some people at DI who claim they have PhD’s in scientific disciplines. Maybe you got a little confused with their standard wolf in sheep’s clothing tactic of pretending to be scientific while really they’re just making all this up as they go along by mandate of theocratic evangelical millionaires?
In their asinine condemnations of evolution, Jonathan Wells, Michael Egnor and John West in a tag team match worthy of the Three Stooges argue that Darwin was a hack, true science is not materialistic and the theory of evolution is to blame for eugenics, the Holocaust and racism. I heard it all before and all three arguments are absolutely downright ridiculous to anyone with even the slightest tidbit of education in biology and history. If you enjoy seeing someone who claims to have bona fide credentials in a particular field make a mockery of his degree, then all three of these writers will not disappoint. If you expect anything reasonable or valid from them, then I’m afraid you’re out of luck.
First and foremost, let’s start with their unhealthy obsession with Darwin. With all due respect to the naturalist, he was not the end all, be all of evolution. Since the first ideas of Buffon to the modern science of evolutionary biology, after 150 years there’s been a lot of progress that all three of these cranks refuse to acknowledge. Instead, they insist on smearing Darwin for what others have done. By their lapse of logic, since Darwin’s idea of natural selection influences an unsavory movement, evolution must be an evil idea that spawns racism and bigotry. Well, the Discovery Institute is ran by donations from fundamentalist Christians. We know that over the ages, countless people have died in religious conflicts. If we apply the same logic, the belief in some sort of creator or designer must therefore lead to genocide and their ideas aren’t much of an improvement. I’m just using their excuse for logic here.
Secondly, since when was science not materialistic? Does Wells even understand what he types for the world to see? He wants you to believe that tangible, materialistic evidence is not what’s necessary for good science and then claims that “Darwinism” doesn’t have any evidence. Like I said before, there’s this thing known as time. As it continues, things change. You can’t battle a 150 year old bogeyman and insist you have a valid argument when you ignore those 150 years of history between then and now. By Wells’ measure, there is no such thing as a science if there isn’t a praying PhD in a lab coat involved. If good science isn’t materialistic, we should consign gravity, medicine, electricity, astronomy, biology, physics, archeology and paleontology to the bad science bin and just go back to the Iron Age. Why? Because every science relies on tangible evidence, the same evidence Wells says evolution lacks because he’s apparently entered some kind of denialism competition with Adnan Oktar. (He has a good shot, but I doubt he’d win.)
I know it’s their opinion and they have a right to express it, but free speech doesn’t mean that you get to say anything you want with immunity from criticism. And while I generally go out of my way to keep things as civil as possible on WOWT, sometimes being civil sugarcoats a truth that needs to be said without mincing words. So dear Forbes editors, please keep in mind that having flacks from the Discovery Institute discuss Darwin is akin to asking white supremacists what they think of minorities.
