Belated Darwin Day post
It was Charles Darwin’s birthday on the 12th. Somehow that snuck under my radar this time, but nevertheless, a few things in honor of the man who altered the course of knowledge in a very substantial way.
First up, check out Duelity, a digital animation project from the Vancouver Film school. It’s a visually stunning project that shows the story of evolution and the creation myth side by side, with the language reversed (if it sounds confusing, watch it and you’ll see what I mean). I’m not sure if the intent of the filmmakers was to imply some sort of equivalence between the two ideas (if so, how incredibly wrong they are) or if they were just being creative. Nevertheless, it’s a treat for the eyes. As PZ said, “Very pretty, but fundamentally wrong.”
Speaking of PZ Myers over at Pharyngula (my new favorite blog), he has a fantastic smackdown of the producers of Nixon blowhard and gameshow host Ben Stein’s new movie about Intelligent Design, called “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”. Myers’ post really is a class A exhibit about how the ID movement fails to grasp logic, reasoning, debate, and even the core tenets of science. Myers clearly illustrates why “You don’t even have to be a biologist to be embarrassed by these wankers.”
It’s odd how they constantly claim that there is growing scientific evidence for their theory of ID, but they never present any. I guess that’s what they mean by calling ID an optimistic theory: they have hope that someday they’ll actually have something constructive to propose…
Science, even little-s science, only mandates that there be an empirical foundation and open inquiry into what we’re going to call science. Bad ideas that presume their conclusion and insist that evidence is not required for their proposals is not suitable for science classrooms. Show us what new evidence and ideas you’re going to introduce and we’ll think about it; whining about conspiracy theories and protesting that you have support but will not show it is not the answer.
Enjoy, and Happy Thursday.
