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Using Kuhn to bolster the "imminent" ID paradigm shift is, to me,
simultaneously laughable and infuriating (although I should have expected as
much from the Alan Keyes website).  This is bass-ackwards: isn't Darwin one
of the poster children for scientific revolutions?  From what I remember, he
[and Alfred Wegener of the plate tectonics "theory"] couldn't be more
Kuhnian.  Are we witnessing the birth of a new "structure of scientific
revolutions," involving all the insidious forces Amanda illuminated below,
instead of the scientific method?  How terrifying.

But so what?  Screw it.  Reading ID propaganda for the past month has given
me nothing but migraines.  Let's just let them have their pet theory, their
day in the sun.  Why not, if they're going to dispense with facts and truth,
if they're going to avoid the rules?  I'd take my colleague Martin Weiss's
advice and ignore them and their ignorance, I'd walk away... except for one
thing:

Pseudoscience is harmful.  Sagan and Dawkins are right.  Pseudoscience
ground down Galileo, it bolstered racism, it kept Victorians layered in a
"protective" layer of grime.  Pseudoscience can kill: Lysenko's misguided
experiments with wheat genetics in Stalin-era Russian* caused the deaths of
millions through starvation.  Behe and Dembski, et al, thankfully aren't in
any position to dictate agricultural policy, but what about the students who
grow up under their delusive paradigm?  They will not benefit from the doubt
sown in them by alternate "theories," nor can they learn about science by
studying the work of charlatans.  God forbid one of them grows up to be
President of the United States and gains the power to approve the censorship
of climate reports and stem cell research that can actually affect policy
and save lives.

I don't think we can afford to let the Intelligent Design mob dictate the
terms of the debate.  I believe that, as science educators, we have a
mandate: the evolution must be televised.  I only hope that the National
Science Foundation agrees.

Nik Charov
New York Hall of Science

* For more on Lysenko's blunder, there's a nice synopsis at
http://nocredentials.blogspot.com/2004/09/history-lesson.html



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Date:    Fri, 10 Jun 2005 06:13:13 -0400
From:    Amanda Chesworth <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: opinion piece on evo/cre

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This I find a disturbing, but all too common, opinion among creationists.
Its time to remind people, I think, that it is in fact creationism and IDers
who fight not with evidence but with all kinds of tactics that should have
little relevance on the teaching of science and on the question of "what is
science?" Tactics such as planting sympathizers into boards of education and
other powers where these decisions are ultimately made; using charisma and
all manner of persuasion to alter public opinion; taking advantage of the
public's lack of understanding in science; notoriously spreading
misinformation and taking soundbites out of context to advance their own
agenda; thinking that nitpicking at the "wrongs" or "errors" of science, the
gaps in our knowledge, and so on, constitutes evidence for their ideas -
completely misunderstanding the methodologies of science and how an
hypothesis is taken seriously; fabricating various publications, experts,
data to claim credibility, peer-review, and other aspects of the scientific
method... etc., etc., etc.

Amanda

---------------

The evolution establishment fights with power, not evidence
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/hutchison/050609

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