Quote of the
month:
"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."
--Aristotle
Further
readings:
The Complete Idiot's Guide(R) to Evolution, by
Leslie Alan Horvitz. You can't start any more simply that this…
Tower of Babel, by Robert T. Pennock. An excellent
treatment of the evolution-creation controversy, with particular
reference to the so-called intelligent design theory.
Web
links:
The National
Center for Science Education, the premier organization to learn
about evolution and creationism and help fight the good fight (if
you're not sure which one that is, visit this page!).
Darwin Day
International, the international coordination center for D-Day
events.
Darwin Day
- Tennessee, where it all started!
Massimo's Tales of the Rational: Essays About Nature and Science
Visit
Massimo's Skeptic & Humanist Web
Visit
Massimo's Philosophy Page
|
In 1859 the world got a piece
of shocking news: it seems that not only is the earth not the center
of the universe, as Copernicus and Galilei had amply demonstrated,
but that human beings are not the pinnacle of creation after all.
This devastating blow to our self-esteem-the second in three
centuries-was dealt by Charles Darwin, a quiet Englishman who had
made his lifelong activity the understanding of the natural
variation of living organisms. As is well known, the publication of
his On the Origin of Species caused quite a stir in academic circles
and among the general public. The first kind of controversy (the
scientific one) lasted only a few decades: by the turn of the 20th
century the theory of descent with modification (as Darwin called
it), or evolution (as we now refer to it), was as solidly
established as general relativity or the theory of gases.
Not so for the second sort of controversy: while the general
public in most European countries does not consider the notion that
we are closely related to chimps and monkeys particularly outrageous
anymore, a vocal minority in the United States refuses the very idea
on ideological grounds: it's not in the Bible, so it can't be. How
can this bizarre state of affairs persist into the 21st century? To
a scientist, this seems as incredible as somebody seriously
defending the theory that the earth is flat (which a few people
belonging to the Flat Earth Society in California actually do!).
Scientists are not in the business of questioning people's religious
beliefs, but they are also paid to teach the best of what we have
good reasons to think we know, leaving individuals to make decisions
on how to reconcile the discoveries of science with their own
religious views.
It is this disconnect-between what scientists accept as
established beyond reasonable doubt and what a sizable portion of
the American public believes-that has prompted the annual
celebration of "Darwin Day," which just occurred on February 12
(that is, on Darwin's-as well as Lincoln's-birthday). Darwin Day is
an international effort, mostly focused on the United States with a
few outlets in Canada and Europe, to encourage the public to learn
about evolutionary biology and to prompt scientists to get out of
their ivory towers for at least a few hours and talk to the people
who, after all, pay their salaries and research grants. Surely this
sort of communication between experts and lay people can't be a bad
idea.
Darwin Day was actually started in 1996 at the University of
Tennessee as the result of a reaction to the silliness of a bill
then being considered by the state legislature and which would have
curtailed the teaching of evolution in Tennessee's public schools. A
group of students and faculty of the then recently created
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology was discussing the
situation over a beer (at a several-times-since-defunct brewery on
Gay Street in Knoxville, TN) and decided to create a group whose
mission would be to dispel the so many myths and misunderstandings
about evolution and Darwinism that periodically fuel such misguided
legislative attempts as the 1996 Tennessee Senate bill n. 3229. (The
bill fortunately died in committee, although it generated enough
negative publicity that the BBC did a special show on the
controversy). So was born the Tennessee Darwin Coalition.
Just in case you'd like to start your own Darwin Day for 2003,
let me tell you what we did in Tennessee this year. The events
started on February 11 with a workshop for local junior and high
school teachers on how to use evolution as an example of critical
thinking. Imagine! The idea is that it would be much better for
students to learn about the process of science and how certain
conclusions (e.g., that we did evolve from a common ancestor shared
with currently living chimps) are actually reached instead of just
learning facts that they have to take on faith. On February 12 there
was a whole array of events, starting with an all-day information
booth at the student union where faculty and graduate students will
answer questions about evolution, and continuing with a documentary
festival in which videos were followed by a discussion of the main
ideas presented. Darwin Day 2002 in Tennessee concluded with a
special lecture by philosopher Elliott Sober (of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison), who nicely showed why intelligent design theory
is actually no theory at all. Now, you don't have to do all this to
have a Darwin Day next year, but make sure to borrow a biologist or
a philosopher from your local college and the fun is guaranteed.
While it is astounding to see that the state of science education
in this country is so poor that people proudly "reject" well
established scientific theories simply because they don't fit with
their preconceptions, there is a bright side to almost everything,
and the evolution-creation controversy is no exception. After my
rude awakening to the realities of creationism when I moved to
Tennessee, I started to study the problem and its roots. In so doing
I learned quite a bit about why people believe what they believe,
and what shortcomings of science education are contributing to cause
the problem. The result has been a better awareness of the situation
and a renewed willingness to do something about it (and a new idea
or two to try out). The feeling is spreading throughout the nation:
the Society for the Study of Evolution (the premiere professional
society of evolutionary biologists) now has a permanent committee
dealing with creationism and many of its members are starting to
wake up from the torpor of their shielded academic lives to get back
into the classrooms and in the public arena.
The reason this is excellent news for everybody, creationists
included, is because it goes far beyond the scope of this particular
controversy. It means that scientists-shaken by attacks on their
discipline from as varied sources as the religious right and the
academic left-may be finally starting to realize that they have a
moral obligation to come to the public and explain what they are
doing, why and how. This, as the final words of Casablanca famously
went, may be the beginning of a splendid friendship. The result
could be a better informed and critically thinking public, the true
guarantors of a democracy. |