Is Ignorance Winning?

The hydra that is Intelligent Design Creationism has sprouted almost too many new heads to count in the recent spate of 'Academic Freedom' legislations that have sprung up throughout the land guided by hands at the Discovery institute. It seems that most of what they discover are new ways to set back objective thought in an effort to prop up bronze age mysticism, but marketing and logos aren't required to be factual. If they were, we would have stormed the gates the first time a bottle left the factory labeled Coke Classic. If these guys applied the same vigor to something useful they might make a difference in the world other than to dim the lights. But they won’t. I find it very depressing that so much of the 21st century seems to be devoted to gleefully promulgating ignorance.

I'm not going to take mine or anyone else's time trying to debate the merits of Descent with Modification. To be honest, I’m hoping to never do that again. If, at some time in the future, a well articulated and scientifically plausible theory disputing the facts of evolution should appear, then I will be interested but until that dubious day arrives, I'm done. Intelligent Design ain’t it. Put all the lipstick you want on that pig. It is nothing more than crap marketing and it’s high time we just started dismissing this pseudoscience for what it is. Philip Johnson, science isn’t the law. It isn’t an arena where theatrics means more than evidence. Dembski, making up an equation and filling it with hand picked variables is not mathematics. Behe, irreducible complexity is just your word for not being clever or honest enough to find the real mechanisms - which were out there when you republished your book of rubbish. The scientific results are in, have been for some time, and are more than compelling. Debate is not what magical thinkers want anyway. From now on, I plan to refer scientific dissenters to a reading list of selections that I have found useful on topics not directly associated with my primary expertise. I hope to add a favorite reading list on selected topics to my blog soon. If they aren't willing to read the material they are a lost cause anyway. Evolutionary theory is an amazing and elegant discovery that explains a lot about why we are what we are. More compelling and far more beautiful to me than any magic. My kids will be brought up understanding and appreciating it for what it is without having to dumb it down or sugar coat some aspects of it to avoid offending somebody’s beliefs. A knowledge of science and mathematics should put them in great demand in the future idiocracy this nation seems determined to become.

As for academic freedom that does not nor should it ever be an excuse to replace intellectual rigor with lazy ignorance. Every view point is not equal in science. Yes, you are free to write whatever answers you want to any test question presented; and your instructors are free to fail you for being ignorant. That is academic freedom.

Why, the vehemence? For two reasons mostly that I am working to correct. I've fallen victim to a weakness in my character and to the siren's call of the Internet. Neither is helping my blood pressure. This coming year is going to be a wild ride so I need some zen in my life.

I’ve been thinking about this particular character flaw (I should say, one of many...). It’s a fear of being unfair. I guess the real question has been whether I'm concerned with being fair or being perceived as fair. As it turns out, it makes a huge difference. Having an open mind vs worrying about if anyone else agrees with that assessment. I think it's an important distinction because if you really only care about fairness, as opposed to perception, then things like the Discovery wedge strategy can't work - i.e., they can't force us to engage in senseless defense of that which needs none. They keep the perception of controversy alive in large part because we rise constantly to the bait. As Bertrand Russell so eloquently phrased, "we need to be open minded but not so open minded that your brain falls out." We respond to everyone of their idiot claims as if it warrants an answer other than to stop wasting my time or our kids time. Our champions (for the most part other than the most rabid) try to be polite and respectful of their opponents in the mistaken belief that polite discourse is convincing to the undecided but it may just be confusing to those who are simply ignorant of the facts. Instead let's concentrate on questions without answers instead of rehashing the known. My response from now on is going to be 'stop your bitching until you can come up with a valid solution that doesn't require magic'. I think that will work for a whole lot of topics in politics as well. I hate to be polarizing but enough is enough and the purposefully ignorant won't be carried by facts anyway. They just retreat further into the gaps until the next set of discoveries roots them out. The simply ignorant need to be made aware that there is no controversy at all, or at least it is one of degrees or relative contributions rather than deep substance.

A epiphany of sorts came a few weeks ago when I was talking to a colleague of mine who, prior to that day, I'd greatly respected. How we ended up arguing evolutionary theory escapes me, but we did. I was blown away by his complete ignorance of any of the science. And this guy is a graduate level professional in a scientifically based field. He sounded like he'd been programmed by the Discovery Institute and kept referring to fairness and controversy. Except he couldn’t come up with any actual controversies. Listening to him talk, I came to the conclusion that what wasn't fair, was that I had to be bothered by his clueless parroting. I ended the debate with a question to him; "Are you interested in facts or is this just stuff you picked up in church?" He said he was open to learning so we sat down at Amazon and I pointed him to a list of excellent references on modern evolutionary theory and the wedge strategy which I had found very useful and enlightening. We'll see.

Some might push back and say that to not debate on these topics will allow things like the wedge strategy to work, but I'm not sure that ignorance can be defeated in a nation that seems to have an inexhaustible capacity to create new nonsense in which to believe and on which to spend money (Scientology, anyone?). How can we hope to overcome established belief structures when we can't even keep new ones from arising right under our noses? I wonder sometimes if my little rants don't contribute to the problem in a small way - at least the ones outside of my area of expertise. Unfortunately, The Internet didn't make me smarter just allowed me to add to the static surrounding objective truth. And I worry if it isn’t true that all these voices don’t end up adding to the confusion. Hard to know. That’s one of the problems with having an open mind; we always calibrate it against outside perspectives. But on the Web there’s a hell of a lot of chaff for every grain of truth. I enjoy a lot of the insights I get from those of you I encounter frequently but I find that the overwhelming amount of flarge on the Web is depressing as hell. At some point you just have to decide that you have an open mind, in the sense of being open to rational arguments, and leave it at that.

So, if I continue with this little indulgence, it will mostly be on topics in which I have some true expertise, or just to share an occasional lark that amuses me at least. And maybe some more recipes...