Saturday, June 20, 2009

Cheating at Hopscotch

The study of Evolution is now so vast and in-depth (itself a refutation of any mythology) it's opponents are now able to hopscotch their way through, picking an ambiguity here, a disputed detail there and a freely mis-quoted extract or two just to liven up the mix.

Presenting such generalities as facts to a mostly untrained audience makes their con game easy. Since they are generalities they must be refuted in detail, requiring an expertise most people don't have. And whose eyes tend to glaze over when presented with a 1040 tax form.

There is a vast difference between the innocent uneducated and the willfully ignorant. Such people as Jonathan Wells trade on this ruthlessly, with self-serving questionnaires like 10 Questions Every Student Should Ask Their Biology Teacher. Many teachers who teach biology are teaching it as a secondary class. Asking them to be fully conversant on prehistoric atmospheric oxygen levels, a highly specialized piece of knowledge, clearly shows this is a test designed to fail most biology teachers. (And how the hell is this even relevant to a junior Biology class? This is a matter of biogenesis, taught at the college level.)

Even if these "10 Questions" were true--which they are not--Evolution would still exist. Darwin's theory could be disproved and Evolution would not vanish like a soap bubble. We would be left with a phenomenon in nature with species adapting through a process of mutation, with some mutations severe enough to give rise to a new species. This will not and can not go away. The stasis of the Bible is shattered with every fresh observation of evolution in Nature.

No comments: