Bush to scientists: piss off
In other news, god damn it. This is a terrible article; Ron Hutcheson (the author) writes,
2. 400 signatories is nothing. Contrast the DI list with the NCSE's Project Steve. Project Steve has a meaningful statement: "Evolution is a vital, well-supported, unifying principle of the biological sciences, and the scientific evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the idea that all living things share a common ancestry. Although there are legitimate debates about the patterns and processes of evolution, there is no serious scientific doubt that evolution occurred or that natural selection is a major mechanism in its occurrence. It is scientifically inappropriate and pedagogically irresponsible for creationist pseudoscience, including but not limited to "intelligent design," to be introduced into the science curricula of our nation's public schools." And it has more signatories (577 as of the beginning of the month), all named Steve. Since Steves represent about 1% of the scientific community (assuming name distribution is the same among scientists and the larger population), that means about 57,000 scientists support evolution. And don't forget that almost two-thirds of the Steves are biologists, compared to the ~1/6 on the DI's list.
3. After all is said and done, the scientific enterprise is not a democratic one. All the DI's list demonstrates is that there are ~400 people who shouldn't be talking about biology, since they clearly don't understand it.
But advocates of intelligent design also claim support from scientists. The Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank in Seattle that's the leading proponent for intelligent design, said it has compiled a list of more than 400 scientists, including 70 biologists, who are skeptical about evolution.1. The DI's list is meaningless. The statement, in its entirety, reads: "We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged." I've seen stronger proclamations on the back of a cereal box. Any paracticing scientist could sign this statement, regardless of their commitment to evolution. I can't think of anyone working in the field of evolutionary biology today who doubts that there's more to the story than mutation and selection (lateral gene transfer, sexual selection, neutral drift, and endosymbiosis, for example).
2. 400 signatories is nothing. Contrast the DI list with the NCSE's Project Steve. Project Steve has a meaningful statement: "Evolution is a vital, well-supported, unifying principle of the biological sciences, and the scientific evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the idea that all living things share a common ancestry. Although there are legitimate debates about the patterns and processes of evolution, there is no serious scientific doubt that evolution occurred or that natural selection is a major mechanism in its occurrence. It is scientifically inappropriate and pedagogically irresponsible for creationist pseudoscience, including but not limited to "intelligent design," to be introduced into the science curricula of our nation's public schools." And it has more signatories (577 as of the beginning of the month), all named Steve. Since Steves represent about 1% of the scientific community (assuming name distribution is the same among scientists and the larger population), that means about 57,000 scientists support evolution. And don't forget that almost two-thirds of the Steves are biologists, compared to the ~1/6 on the DI's list.
3. After all is said and done, the scientific enterprise is not a democratic one. All the DI's list demonstrates is that there are ~400 people who shouldn't be talking about biology, since they clearly don't understand it.
posted by Dan @ 12:27 AM
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