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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 thisä
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
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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 beautiful friendship. The result could be a better
informed and critically thinking public, the true guarantors of a democracy. |
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