Thursday, February 19, 2009

"Defying Darwin"

In a long post for the Guardian, Stephen Moss asks why creationists are still "Defying Darwin." In it, he contrasts the creationism movement in the U.S. with the one in England with an example:

By contrast, Britain's creation museum, Genesis Expo, is housed in a former bank next to the bus station on the harbour front in Portsmouth. It does not appear to have any connection with Hollywood, and is an animatronic-free zone. The sign stretching across the front of the building is peeling, an elderly volunteer from a local church is manning the front desk, and the museum is only slowly converting its stock of creationist videos to DVD. The upside is that Genesis Expo is free to enter.

The bulk of the article is a history of creationism in England with a few anecdotes thrown in. It is a fascinating read:

"Most scientists believe in evolution because they believe that most scientists believe in evolution," says the evangelical preacher and author Brian Edwards. "We do believe in evolution, that things develop. But there's not a shred of evidence for macro evolution - the jump from one species to another. The fins of a fish can't become the wings of a bird or the arms of a man. All we know of genetics is that you can't have a half-formed eye; you can't have steps towards a fully formed eye. All that we know of the genome system supports creationism, not evolution. It's not just a matter of our faith; it's an intellectual issue. Darwin's had an easy ride. He's not the great hero."

Emphasis on the word "preacher." It is amazing how many stock evolution myths one can throw out in a single breath. These people don't have a clue what evolution actually posits. They take their talking points from organizations that do no scientific investigation and, for some reason, they think that is okay. Read the whole thing.

No comments:

Post a Comment