I. Why creationism and intelligent design are actively anti-scientific. |
Editorial: The new creationism and its threat to science literacy and education. |
| The question posed by most attacks on the biological theories of evolution is not how to rebut them, but why are they made in the first place. |
That evolutionarily
processes have shaped all life can be inferred
from many independent observations, ranging from the changing patterns
of
fossils in rocks of different
ages, to the patterns of evolutionary lineage that have been captured
in the genetic material, the DNA, of modern organisms. |
 a
legged whale |
The fact of evolution has practical confirmation on a day to day basis. Bacterial cells can easily be engineered to make human, potato, frog or HIV proteins because these systems share a common genetic code and a common molecular machinery for accessing this information -- the processes known as transcription and translation. They share this molecular machinery not because it is the most efficient mechanism imaginable, but because they inherited it from their ancestors. They can even change aspects of over time -- further evidence that it is not 'immutable' but evolved. The common ancestor of bacteria and humans lived approximately 3,000,000,000 (3 x 109) years ago and it possessed the basic transcriptional and translational machinery found in all living organisms. The evolutionary processes that formed us, and all other species, have practical implications as well.We were adapted by by evolutionary processes that may no longer exist. Our ability to store fats, while beneficial in times of alternating famine and plenty, can lead to a plethora of diseases when food is abundant. |
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The theory of evolution is complex, it is actually a number of related theories that deal with the various processes involved in generating the various forms of life that exist today, and that have lived on the earth. It includes the original theory of evolution by natural selection proposed by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace, as well as Darwin's theory of sexual selection, Hamilton's ideas on kin selection, and the recognition of the role of non-selective mechanisms, such as the founder effect, population bottlenecks, genetic drift, and catastrophic natural events. Altogether, the theories of evolution explain both the diversity of modern life and its underlying molecular unity. It is the foundation upon which modern biomedical research is based. |
| Yet there is a constant clamor that the theory of evolution is 'just a theory' and that 'creation science' or some 'theory of intelligent design' provides a logically equivalent (and religiously compatible) alternative. Are scientists just bigots or are there valid reasons to dismiss discussion of creation/intelligent design not only as scientifically inadequate, but as actively anti-scientific? |
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