I really don't think many scientists do themselves any favours in the way they talk about science to the public. This constant emphasising of the point that this latest discovery shows that our common ancestor with chimps was not a chimp itself just causes confuses confusion. People who understand the basic point that it has been thought that our common ancestor with chimps might have been quite like a modern chimp know what they mean. But for people who have very little understanding of science (as is the case for many creationists) this just causes a hopeless mess, distorting their already muddled thinking on the topic and leading to greater problems.
We now have creationists saying stuff like "evolutionists used to say we evolved from apes, now they are saying apes evolved from us."
Of course our common ancestor with chimps was not a chimp!!!
Yes it might have been a useful model for scientists to work with to consider it as something like a modern chimp, but when explaining this to the public they need to be much more concise.
Agreed. Most palaeoanthropologists that I know are quite surprised to find that there are people out there who don't understand what they are getting at or don't accept it.
I really don't think many scientists do themselves any favours in the way they talk about science to the public. This constant emphasising of the point that this latest discovery shows that our common ancestor with chimps was not a chimp itself just causes confuses confusion. People who understand the basic point that it has been thought that our common ancestor with chimps might have been quite like a modern chimp know what they mean. But for people who have very little understanding of science (as is the case for many creationists) this just causes a hopeless mess, distorting their already muddled thinking on the topic and leading to greater problems.
ReplyDeleteWe now have creationists saying stuff like "evolutionists used to say we evolved from apes, now they are saying apes evolved from us."
Of course our common ancestor with chimps was not a chimp!!!
Yes it might have been a useful model for scientists to work with to consider it as something like a modern chimp, but when explaining this to the public they need to be much more concise.
Agreed. Most palaeoanthropologists that I know are quite surprised to find that there are people out there who don't understand what they are getting at or don't accept it.
ReplyDelete