Evolution Not 'Just A Theory,' And Yes, Huckabee, It Does Matter

[Hissyspit]

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/evolution-is-no.html

Evolution Not 'Just a Theory', and Yes, Huckabee It Does Matter

By Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides January 08, 2008 | 9:10:47 AMCategories: Evolution, Politics

In science, being a "theory" is not a step below a "law." The "Theory of Relativity" by Albert Einstein is not waiting for its day in court when it graduates to "fact."

Evolution is the central organizing principle of modern biology. Just ask the National Academy of Sciences -- the group that the United States Congress empowers to uphold science in America. They issued a report last week titled Science, Evolution and Creationism (Wired Science covered it here). Their conclusion? "Nonscientific approaches do not belong in science classrooms."

Huckabee took Republican center stage after the Iowa caucuses, but his clever sidesteps of scientific questions are a warning sign. "Do you believe in evolution?" The short answer? No, he doesn't. People are charmed by him, asking why anyone should care since " not planning on writing the curriculum for an eighth-grade science book," and "if anybody wants to believe they're the descendants of a primate, they're welcome to do it." But the real problem is, he will be signing scientific research budgets into law, appointing judges that will be deciding evolution vs. creationism education cases at the state level, and setting a moral precedent that it is O.K. to dis science.

YouTube has a video of Bill Maher asking Huckabee about the evolution debate question. It goes a little further than the debate and shows how the mainstream-sounding "I just can't believe creation is an accident" line reveals more disturbing underpinnings under scrutiny. Huckabee's main defense is "Why should it matter? It's not a question appropriate to a presidential debate" to which Maher says (1:38 into the clip):

"If someone believes that the earth is 6,000 years old and every scientist in the world is saying that it is billions of years old, why shouldn't I take that into account when I am assessing the rationality of someone I am going to put into the highest office in the land?"

Good point Bill.

Huckabee, we are actually not asking you if there is a creator behind the cosmos. We are clear that you think there is. We are asking if you would weigh rational scientific evidence that has been peer reviewed and is reproducible in your most critical decisions about medical research, terrorist weapons threats, the environment, and education. My concern is that your answer to Bill Maher, "We just don't know " is an indication that you don't include science on your reference shelf. If you did, you would know that we do know the age of the earth. It's 4.5 billion years old.

Given Huckabee's lead position coming out of the Iowa Caucus, it is an important time to take a closer look.

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[sjdnb]

1. One of my pet peeves ... idiots trying to sell 'ID' as science

while our kids fall behind the rest of the world in math and science ... wanna know why? Diversion of funding from public education to special interest education as well as infiltrating science ed with all this mumbo jumbo mythological BS (aka Intelligent Design).

[Naturyl]

2. Thank you for this.

People should be making it clear that rejecting science is UNACCEPTABLE in any potential world leader. Only in America could someone who rejects evolution even be elected as dog-catcher, and it is a big part of what is making us a laughing stock in the rest of the world.

[AndyTiedye]

3. Kicked and Recommended

The Huckster is dangerous. He is a Fundie lunatic who would probably try to bring on the "Rapture". :nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

[RedCappedBandit]

4. K+R

Thanks for posting ..

[Greyskye]

5. K & R

[KaptBunnyPants]

6. I wouldn't even call evolution a theory so much as an observable phenomenon.

When you grow bacteria in the presence of anti-biotics, you end up with a population of bacteria that is more resistant to that anti-biotic so long as at least a few members of that population started out resistant. Since evolution is defined simply as the change in allelic proportion for a gene, that is a clear example of evolution in action. This example should be especially relevant in the age of the "super-bug" we are living in.

I know that creationists aren't interested in facts, but I don't know how their ideas are so popular in the modern era. We have people being executed based on DNA evidence. So people are willing to accept the molecular biology which is based on evolution, but they reject the underlying idea itself? If we can all agree that DNA really is the unique blueprint for the construction of a living being, and we've already experimentally observed all of the ways DNA can be changed to evolve new forms (i.e. transfection, exposure to mutagen, copying error), what the hell is left for people to reject?

[Johonny]

7. I think more important

This is a man that wants to change the basic way taxes will be collected and spent by the federal government. If he doesn't believe in the scientific method, how exactly does he "know" these tax ideas are good ones? The same can be said of all his policies. Faith is great if your talking about what happens to me after I'm dead in the magic far off neverland, but when you're talking about setting policy that effects the lives of 300 million people, I want that policy based on proven methods of scientific reason.

[kineneb]

8. Nah.The earth was created when Odin, Vili, and Vé killed the giant Ymir

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/creation.html

...hey, if it was good enough for my ancestors... then we should teach this creation myth too!

When Ymir fell, there issued from his wounds such a flood of blood, that all the frost ogres were drowned, except for the giant Bergelmir who escaped with his wife by climbing onto a lur . From them spring the families of frost ogres.

The sons of Bor then carried Ymir to the middle of Ginnungagap and made the world from him. From his blood they made the sea and the lakes; from his flesh the earth; from his hair the trees; and from his bones the mountains. They made rocks and pebbles from his teeth and jaws and those bones that were broken.

From Ymir's skull the sons of Bor made the sky and set it over the earth with its four sides. Under each corner they put a dwarf, whose names are East, West, North, and South.

The sons of Bor flung Ymir's brains into the air, and they became the clouds.

Then they took the sparks and burning embers that were flying about after they had been blown out of Muspell, and placed them in the midst of Ginnungagap to give light to heaven above and earth beneath. To the stars they gave appointed places and paths.

The earth was surrounded by a deep sea. The sons of Bor gave lands near the sea to the families of giants for their settlements.

...and so on...

[frogmarch]

9. Anyone know where the other repub candidates

stand with regards to evolution?

And how about our Democratic candidates? Any creationists/IDers there?