re: We're not in Kansas anymore

[smithjb@sas.upenn.edu (Joshua Smith)]

znb35@TTACS.TTU.EDU wrote:
> From owner-dinosaur@usc.edu  Thu Aug 19 09:58:51 1999
> 
> ...so once again science wishes to turn a blind eye to creationist
> propaganda? I understand people not wanting the lsit clooged with the
> usual creationist ve scientist arguments that we've all heard ad nauseum.
> However, this is a verry different issue. If we as scientists continue to
> ignore the transgressions of creationist fanatics into the realms of
> policy, then we have no right to complain when we lose the ability to
> teach evolution and are forced to use psuedo-scientific texts in the
> classroom. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and we all know creationists
> squeak with the best of them. Closing our eyes and concluding that reason
> will win out in the end is a nice fantasy, but it's not the world we live
> in. Ignore the problem, and it won't go away: next week/month the problem
> may come to your state. I suggest we all start squeaking loud and clear;
> otherwise don't start crying when your schoolboard administrator announces
> you/your children will now be using "The Panda's Thumb" text to explore
> "alternatives to evolution- after all, it's just a theory".
>       Alan Coulson
> 

        I have to agree pretty strongly with Alan.  This is not a problem 
that is going to go away.  Recent surveys have proclaimed that something 
like 58-62% of the American public think the planet is less than 10,000 
years old, and many of these people are teaching the next generation 
this (indeed, the percentage of those polled that were high school 
teachers was large).  I have been keeping a pretty close eye on these 
developments and I don't mind telling you that I am concerned--and it is 
in large part because of the sort of attitude that Alan is talking about.
We (the paleo community--please bear with the "we" and "they" terminology 
here, they are gross generalizations, but take up much less space) tend to 
sit around in our posh little offices, playing with our little bones, 
thinking that we are doing front-line research that is relevent to 
everyones lives, and ignoring such "threats" as nothing more than a 
bunch of fruitcakes with off the wall ideas that anyone with any rational 
basis of thought will obviously see right though and laugh at.  However, 
the people making these "threats" are generally much more in the public 
forum than "we" are, are often much better public speakers, and CARE very 
much about making sure the public is swayed to the way that "they" see 
the world.  This is a larger issue than the Creation/Evolution Debate, 
which is little more than a symptom of a view of parts of the public towards 
science and "reason" as a whole.  And where "we" offer a worldview that 
puts people in as just an interesting byproduct of evolution (that might not 
be there if we "rewound the tape of life") and not all that important in 
the general scheme of things (let's face it, we all think dinosaurs are 
nifty, but vertebrates in general are pretty unimportant parts of an 
ecosystem, relatively speaking), "they" offer a humancentered world view, 
with us as the logical apex of the life pyramid.  And where "we" offer a 
questioning or even "bleak" view of an afterlife (i.e, there might not BE 
one), "they" offer an eternity of bliss to a chosen group.  AND often 
strengthen the argument by offering an eternity of pain to anyone not 
in that group. Gee, I cannot imagine why they attract people to their side.
What do we really have to offer to a single mom who works 700 hours a week,
has a marginal at best education, has been dragged to church since 
she was a todler, and is tired and afraid of pretty 
much everything all the time? Not to mention how we deal with mass 
suffering verses how they do.  This earthquake in Turkey is a great 
example.  How many people really want to hear that those ca.3800 people 
died simply because they happened to live at the wrong place at the wrong 
time and that there is no other reason for their suffering beyond that?   
I can understand the reluctance of the list to entertain Cretationist 
viewpoints in a forum that is supposed to be discussing science, but I 
think rather strongly that this is an issue that science, and 
particularly people who deal with geologic time on a daily basis, should 
not be ignoring or downplaying the importance of.  And it is a much 
larger view than just Cretationism expounded upon by far more than just 
the Creationsts.  In fact, I think that the privalege of us being allowed 
to spend society's resources on such important questions as how a 75 
million year dead dinosaur walked imparts upon us a rather large 
responsibility to give something back.  

  

-- 
__________________________
Josh Smith
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Earth and Environmental Science
471 Hayden Hall
240 South 33rd Street
Philadelphia, PA  19104-6316
(215) 898-5630 (Office)
(215) 898-0964 (FAX)
smithjb@sas.upenn.edu