RE: paleonet Re: time for gloves to come off

["Park,Lisa E" <lepark@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: paleonet Re: time for gloves to come off

Well, it may be true that engineers and medical doctors have been known to support creationism; but, unfortunately, I think we need to start considering an attack on evolution as an attack on all of science.

 

Art Hobson, Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of Arkansas perhaps stated it best in a recent letter to The Journal of College Science Teaching, September, 2005 p. 7:

 

"Today, creationist pseudoscience is the largest threat to science in the United States.  Creationists are well organized, numerous, fervent, and energetic--and they are winning.  Creationism has grown ever since the 1925 Scopes trail, mainly because scientists have failed to teach evolution to all Americans, scientists and nonscientists alike.

 

Evolution is the fundamental principle of biology and touches on all other sciences.  Thus, every general science course at every level should touch on this topic.  In my field, physics, evolution arises in connection with radioactivity (radioactive dating, nonradioactive dating methods, the age of Earth, and the geological ages), the second law of thermodynamics (creationists make the bogus argument that evolution violates the second law), the general issue of the scientific process (in what sense is evolution a "theory" and in what sense is it an "observed fact"?), pseudoscience (creationism is America's leading pseudoscience), and even astronomy (what is the probability of life arising and intelligence evolving on other planets?).  Every general physics course should discuss at least some of these topics."

 

-Lisa

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From: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk on behalf of Bill Chaisson/Deirdre Cunningham
Sent: Mon 8/29/2005 2:59 PM
To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
Subject: RE: paleonet Re: time for gloves to come off

>I think it is pretty ironic that a science-and-technology based company
>would be supporting an organization that is attempting to undermine science
>education in the US.  If you would like to contact them about this, here is
>their URL:

Remember that a lot of the anti-evolution creationists of the 1980s
were engineers.  People with a science education that includes no
historical component generally don't understand evolution or the idea
of deep time.

It's a drag because most members of the lay public don't really
distinguish between the authority of various Ph.D.s.

Bill
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William P. Chaisson
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY  14627
607-387-3892