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> proponents of ID and creationism tell a more resonant, appealing story than
> evolutionists do.  And Americans love a good story more than they love
> the truth.
>
> Nina Simon
> Experience Development Specialist 
> P] 202.654.0934
> C] 508.769.4469
> 
> International Spy Museum
> 800 F Street NW
> Washington, DC 20004
> spymuseum.org
> [log in to unmask]
> F] 202.393.7797

Nina:

Maybe it's too late, but I've noticed that we've been letting "Creation Science" proponents apply a label which fills their requirement for an ideological opponent. There is no such thing as an "evolutionist:" There are evolutionary biologists, and astronomers who study galactic evolution, and geomorphologists, and cosmologists, et cetera. "Creationist" can be a misleading label as well, but for many it's self-applied and worn with pride.

All apply the appropriate evolutionary theories in their fields as part of their discipline. But... we don't want to give the impression that evolution is just another thing people believe in, just another ideological flavor. It's part of the structure of science, the bones of the beast which allows the whole endeavor to walk, and run, and fly.

But like I said, it's probably too late.

hmmm... How about showing, not a somewhat misleading story of prokaryotes morphing into eukaryotes, into ediacarians, into creatures with complex senses, into articulated creatures with support structures and differentiated body parts... but instead showing the lines of evidence themselves coming together to create a theory, represented as structure or a creature of some kind? It would show that a theory is not just an "idea" but an edifice.

Of course, I can imagine a sendup of it put together by the Discovery Institute, showing the whole structure crashing down (like the "evolution is the trunk of an evil tree" illustration) but as the Roche sisters remind us, you have to build anyway.


Marc Taylor
Coordinator, Andrus Planetarium
Hudson River Museum
511 Warburton Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10701
914 963 4550 x223
Fax 963 8558
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