Title: Re: paleonet Re: persistant hate E- mail (which is
OFF TOP
To all,
I have followed the argument with interest. I work as an
emergency physician in Tennessee in the USA, and I am sorry to report
that the majority of nurses and quite a few physicians that I work
with reject the "theory" of evolution.
How is it possible to address the impending biological holocaust when
so many Americans refuse to accept basic points of the argument?
I have come to respect the courage of men like Dawkins who point to
religion as the root of the problem. Blind religious ideology
and scientific curiosity cannot co-exist in the same
brain. Religious institutions start early in life
and create viewpoints that are almost impossible to overturn.
Although many of us would like to take a live-and-let-live viewpoint,
I can guarantee that school boards are filled with people who are
antiscientific, and committed to raising the next generations with
their viewpoints -- and if they are victorious, our best opportunity
for sparing Earth's biodiversity will be lost.
This is a supremely crucial argument, and
the role of scientific professionals has never been more
important. It is vital that we do everything possible to
give young minds a glimpse of the scientific method, and the structure
of knowledge that is their rightful inheritance.
All and sundry,
Over the years I have met a lot of religious scientists, but they
have all worked in ahistorical fields or in the ahistorical portion of
a historical field. I even know paleontologists who are devout
and culturally conservative Christians (of every stripe). They
tend to study morphology, ecology, preservation states, etc.
Anything that will allow them to avoid the subject of evolution and
(for literal believers) the reality of deep time.
I find the crux of the problem, when trying to explain evolution
to students or when discussing the topic with other doubters, to be a
failure to understand the concept of history and the dynamics
of historical processes. The role of contingency (an S.J. Gould
favorite) baffles many people. Last week a caller to Talk of
the Nation's Science Friday dragged out the old fake conundrum of
evolution's supposed violation of the second law of thermodynamics.
Many people cannot seem to push teleology out of their minds. It
goes on and on. Very little of all this is about science per
se.
Christianity (and Islam and Judaism) distort history out of all
recognizability. There is no distinction between fable and
history. None. There is complete and utter
anthropocentricity, sometimes focused on a particular tribe, rather
than something as broad as a whole species, that completely obfuscates
any possibility of constructing a true history (of the Earth, of life
or of the species).
In other words, I don't think it is so much our failure to teach
science well that is getting in the way of the understanding and
acceptance of evolution. It is the abject failure of the
secondary schools to teach history in a sophisticated manner.
The teaching of history has gone from a boring litany of dates and
events to an absurd litany of injustices and condemnations. From
bad to weird, in other words.
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving,
Bill
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William P. Chaisson
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627