LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Orcinus goes into detail about the intelligent design versus evolutionary science in this article. Lots of interesting links in it. An excerpt:

Science and fundamentalism are natural enemies, because they represent diametrically opposite models for understanding the world.

Fundamentalism begins with articles of faith, gleaned from Scripture, for which it then goes in search of evidence as support -- ignoring, along the way, all contravening evidence.

Science begins with the gathering of evidence and data, which are then assembled into an explanatory model through a combintation of hypothesis and further testing. This model must take into account all available facts, including contradictory evidence.

They are, in other words, 180 degrees removed from each other in how they affect our understanding of the world. One is based in logic, the other in faith. As methodologies go, they are simply irreconcilable.

Moreover, it's clear that the fundamentalists who are rapidly gaining complete control of the American government's reins of power fully recognize this natural emnity -- and intend to use their rising power to curtail the influence of science on society: in government, in the schools, and in the media.

To do this, they are resorting to a combination of logical fallacies and propaganda techniques.

The key piece of illogic is one that has especially lodged itself in the media in recent years: The notion that a demonstrably true fact can be properly countered by a demonstrably false one -- and that the two, placed side by side, represent a kind of "balance" in the national discourse. This is the Foxcist model of Newspeak, in which "fair and balanced" comes to mean its exact opposite.

I like the fact that he said science and fundementalism rather than science and religion, because there are religious sects that get along quite well with scientific thought. Not all religious people are anti-science, and we must remember that as we continue to examine the Dominionist (here, called Reconstructionist) beliefs.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY minnesattva)

I know this evolution stuff has been done to death, but I found this article irresistable.

Not because of stuff like this: "Evolution is just a theory and there are other theories," Mummert explained, smiling through his beard. (Just a theory, indeed! This is what happens when the casual vernacular misappropriates a scientific term with a precise meaning. The common use of theory for what should really be hypothesis drives me crazy, because it's precisely that which allows people to say that evolution is "just" a theory. Theories are testable, they can be proven wrong, and they're only valid until they are. "Intelligent design" is no theory at all! Sorry, that's a rant that's not needed here; I'd be preaching to the choir. So to speak.)

Because of stuff like this: "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture," he said. Rarely have I so hoped a Christian extremist is telling the truth as I did when I read that sentence.