Thursday, May 1, 2008

Who Knew? Universities are the Enemy?

Glenn Beck (while admittedly a sad source for any reliable information) interviewed Ben Stein about his new movie, Expelled. While I have yet to see the film, I'm already hopelessly disappointed in a man that I thought had more brains than this. Its not that he follows intelligent design, I don't have anything against people choosing to believe what they believe. It's that he has the nerve to think that the scientific community in universities, professors, research scientists, educated minds (a group of men and women whom I see myself hopefully joining the ranks of in the coming years) are part of a larger conspiracy to keep intelligent design under wraps. That scientific journals keep papers on ID out on purpose. No, scientific journals keep papers that don't show sound scientific thought out on purpose. We have yet to prove the existence of G-d, therefore it can not be used as an axiom.

I could write a paper "water is really green, our eyes are mistaken, cause G-d said so." And quote some bible sources. And I WOULD NOT GET PUBLISHED. Not because water isn't really green, but because Genesis and Exodus (while amazing to read) are not scientific sources (yet).

If I could demonstrate some light abortion within the retina that displaces the spectrum and causes water to appear blue... ok, now we are getting somewhere. You need a hypothesis, not a quote. Even then, I highly doubt Nature or Science would publish me. Scientific journals are highly selective - so stop whining!

Of course, people who indoctrinate ID do not do the same thing? No, of course not... [sarcasm]

PS - If dinosaurs and mankind existed together, and the dinosaurs died out, why did G-d create them in the first place? They must have lasted what, a few hundred years? Pfft. Did G-d make a mistake? Or did dinosaurs exist as the most energy efficient creatures for millions of years until global catastrophe?

Anyways, before his interview Glenn Beck says, and I quote:

"Our kids in college aren't being taught. They're being force fed one liberal, socialist, anti-american point of view, one right after another..."

I'm sorry, but the professors I know are on the pursuit of greater knowledge. They teach what they know, based on the research and findings from professors and researchers before them. Based upon what they know as best as possible to be true. Theories and research get updated and changed all the time, and thus education evolves. But I don't remember a group of professors getting together and deciding "No, we will not allow this theory or that theory in any publication ever."

However, creationism, while often cited as a science, is not. It is an axiom for religion (well, multiple religions). And its our interpretation of an axiom, which means it may not even be correct. Humans suck at interpreting things, and we often get it wrong.

Now, don't go away too quickly from this. Just because creationism has holes, does not make Darwinism flawless. Darwin has some great ideas, but there are alternative theories to evolution as well (that are scientifically based) that are reasonable. Lamarckism for one. Doesn't mean they are all wrong, or all right. But ID just isn't scientifically based. It's belief based.

And I certainly believe in G-d. But I also see that its naive to think that we have figured everything out already and yes, G-d just made everything appear. I think it's a lot more complicated than that. Why can't "appear" mean "evolve" from starting ingredients? (See previous post)

It's also important to note, for those creationists out there, that I respect the fact that you believe G-d created the world and life in all its glory. (So do I). G-d created life does not answer the question, it displaces it. Now its, "where did G-d come from?" 

As a supporter of evolution and a believer in G-d, I get both :-).

Just a thought.

Afterthought: Darwin. Dawkins. Darwin. Dawkins.