09.04.08
Pigliucci takes on Palin
Is Sarah Palin a Creationist?
By Massimo Pigliucci, Scientific Blogging posted: 01 September
There is something completely inadequate here in Pigliucci’s response on the question of Palin and the conservative take on education in evolution. I can understand the sense of alarm that arises from this religious/conservative assault on the shools. But before scientists so complacently address this issue with the cliches of Big Science, they might stop to consider that they can’t defend themselves against Darwin critics if their stance on Darwinism is wrong, poor science, and the tenacity with which it is defended a sign of the wrong education in science the religious right itself is protesting.
A kind of arrogance against religion is thus preposterous if scientists are involved in their own ‘Darwin superstition’.
In fairness, ‘teaching both sides’ isn’t likely to work: both sides are wrong, and are excluding multiple alternate viewpoints that might actually resolve the difficulties of evolutionary theory. The conservative/ID gambit has cleverly sold this idea of ‘two sides’, as they marginalize the real critics of Darwin, who have mostly been scientists.
In general the fight against religion cannot succeed with the perspective of reductionist science, it is simply inadequate on too many fronts.
The question of consciousness, the evolution of ethics, the paranormal, the evolution of religion and culture, and the latent social darwinism of the current paradigm, flunk the reigning orthodoxy on the spot.
That’s that. Creationists are religiously entangled, and the scientists are talking through their hat.
Not a recipe for clarity, or for winning the culture war on evolution against religionists.
Pigliucci is being disingenuous here: he has just returned this summer from a conference at Altenberg in Germany where the problems with Neo-Darwinism were laid out with some proposals for moving on.
To be untruthful about the status of the Darwin paradigm in arguing with critics is thus worse than bad tactics.