re: #262 Spar Kling

Scientists expect to be skeptical and involved in controversy. So should the students learning science. Students would be better served if the various questions and controversies about the theory of evolution are taught, rather than a dogmatic teaching and rote acceptance, which is very dull indeed.

Creationism does not belong in science classes. But I would suggest that Von Helmont’s, Redi’s, and Pasteur’s experiments regarding the spontaneous generation controversy, Lamarckian evolution, and other historical controversies should most certainly be taught. Certainly the controversies concerning global warming, genetic engineering, cloning, and stem cell research cannot be ignored either.

-sk

From “Why Evolution Is True”, by Jerry A, Coyne (Viking, 2009):

“Now, when we say that “evolution is true”, what we mean is that the major tenets of Darwinism have been verified. Organisms evolved, they did so gradually, lineages split into different species from common ancestors, and natural selection is the major engine of adaptation. No serious biologist doubts these propositions. But this doesn’t mean that Darwinism is scientifically exhausted, with nothing left to understand. Far from it. Evolutionary biology is teeming with questions and controversies.”

“Critics of evolution seize upon these controversies, arguing that they show that something is wrong with the theory of evolution itself. But this is specious. There is no dissent among serious biologists about the major claims of evolutionary theory - only about the dtails of how evolution occurred, and about the relative roles of various evolutionary mechanisms. Far from discrediting evolution, the “controversies” are in fact the sign of a vibrant, thriving field. What moves science forward is ignorance, debate, and the testing of alternative theories with observation and experiments. A science without controversy is a science without progress.”

“Naturalism is the view that the only way to understand our universe is through the scientific method. Materialism is the idea that the only reality is the physical matter of the universe, and that everything else, including thoughts, will, and emotions, comes from physical laws acting on that matter. The mssage of evolution, and all of science, is one of naturalistic materialism. Darwinism tells us that, like all species, human beings arose from the working of blind, purposeless forces over eons of time. As far as we can determine, the same forces that gave rise to ferns, mushrooms, lizards, and squirrels also produced us. Now, science cannot completely exclude the possibility of supernatural explanation. It is possible - though very unlikely - that our whole world is controlled by elves. But supernatural explanations like these are simply never neded; we manage to understand the natural world just fine using reason and materialism. Furthermore, supernatural explantions always mean the end of inquiry; that’s the way God wants it, end of story. Science, on the other hand, is never satisfied; our studies of the universe will continue until humans go extinct.”

“We are the one creature to whom natural selection has bequesthed a brain complex enough to comprehend the laws that govern the universe. And we should be proud that we are the only species that has figured out how we came to be.”