Friday, June 20, 2008

Open Letter from the Louisiana Coalition for Science

The Louisiana Coalition for Science has written an open letter to Governor Bobby Jindal about SB 733. They write:

Since you hold a biology degree from Brown University, one of the nation’s most prestigious schools, you certainly appreciate Theodosius Dobzhansky’s famous insight, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” You also surely understand that there is no scientific controversy over the fact of evolution. The current controversy is a political one, manufactured nationally by the Discovery Institute and here in Louisiana by the LA Family Forum, which does not represent the majority of Louisiana’s citizens but would impose its agenda on our entire state, even our children.

This is the crux of the letter. It is the same thing those of us that are familiar with the fossil record have been saying for some time: "Surely you must see that there is nothing to this creation science and ID. Surely, it must be obvious." The problem is that it is not obvious to most people outside the discipline of biology. The additional problem is that this is preyed upon by people who take advantage of this lack of biological knowledge on the part of the general public. Expelled! is a classic example of this.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:03 PM

    I just posted: The Video - Louisiana Coalition for Science - is afraid of!

    I've created a link to your site under blogscan

    ReplyDelete
  2. I clicked on the link and the video is no longer available. Is there another link?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:38 PM

    Should be working ... must of just been the World Wide Wait.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Greetings James,
    As a fellow lover of a our God and this world, I am interested in your 'about me' section. You use many words which people assume to know the meaning of, however I was wondering if you would unpack your thoughts on what you mean by 'Christian', 'palaeonthropologist' and 'evolutionary'? This will give me enough to think about and respond to.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Greetings, Dan. Unpack my thoughts...Let's see. I have been a Christian (or tried to be) for about 35 years, with attendant peaks and valleys. I was saved in the tail end of junior high school, along with a friend of mine who lives out in San Jose and runs his own blog. My theology hews more toward the Reformed Presbyterian mold, although I have attended everything from Lutheran to Pentecostal churches in the past. I also hold a Ph.D. in anthropology with a emphasis in human palaeontology, which is the field in which I have (irregularly) published. My study of biology, the fossil record, ecology and palaeontology has led me to conclude that the synthetic theory of evolution, devised in the 1930s and 1940s by Dobzhansky, Mayr, Simpson, Haldane, Pearson, Goldschmidt, Wright and some others and then augmented by Eldredge, Gould, Van Valen and others, best explains the diversity of present and prehistoric life and can be used to model current populations predict what one will find in the fossil record. How's that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. sorry. Should be "and predict what one will find in the fossil record.

    ReplyDelete