No pandering to silly beliefs

Great quote from the Economist this week:

HALF of all Americans either don't know or don't believe that living creatures evolved. And now a Pennsylvania school board is trying to keep its pupils ignorant. It is the kind of story about America that makes secular Europeans chortle smugly before turning to the horoscope page.

I am reminded of Michael Shermer’s recent comment that most people think “skepticism is fine as long as it is someone else’s codswallop under the microscope”. Of course, there’s about as much evidence for Intelligent Design as there is for Astrology. That is to say, no evidence.

The rest of the article is pretty good on the current legal challenge in Dover, and does not report equally on “both sides” for “balance”.

Comments

[pvandck]

Lying as usual seems to be pretty high up on the agendas of fanatically religious folks, as the following extract implies.
"In the Dover case, intelligent design appears to have found unusually clueless champions. If the plaintiffs' testimony is accurate, members of the school board made no effort until recently to hide their religious agenda. For years, they expressed pious horror at the idea of apes evolving into men and tried to make science teachers teach old-fashioned creationism. (The board members in question deny, or claim not to remember, having made remarks along these lines at public meetings.)"

[BronzeDog]

I remember an article somewhere discussing the dismal state of science textbooks, where school boards never bothered to even read them. And pretty soon, they may be replacing them with fairy tales and the scientific method with journalistic "balance".

[beajerry]

good article!

[latibulum]

I enjoy horoscopes,I am amazed that the authors, can come up, day after day, with new things to say. The ones in "Onion", as especial favourites.

[Mr Shouty Pants]

The following site helps to refine our understanding of ID, and deals with the major objections (wink) :

http://www.mr-shouty-trousers.com/Less-Intelligent-Design