Evolution: There's just no substitute

For more from Fraser Sherman, visit his Destin Log blog at http://frasersmind.freedomblogging.com/

I don’t think there’s any point to passing laws that give teachers permission to do the impossible.
Several recent letters to the Daily News assert that Florida’s “Evolution Academic Freedom Act” is good because it allows teachers to “objectively present scientific information” against evolution. This makes as much sense as saying teachers should be allowed to present geographic proof the world is flat or scientific proof the Earth doesn’t move around the sun — they can’t present something that doesn’t exist.
Despite the delusion among many conservative Christians that evolution is a debunked theory that only survives because a vast, anti-Christian conspiracy has contrived to bury the truth, evolution is the only theory of the history of life that hasn’t been disproved.
That doesn’t mean some amazing visionary couldn’t come up with a better idea someday, it means that all other alternatives to date — creationism, intelligent design, catastrophism, lysenkoism and lamarckianism — have been conclusively proven wrong. And the letter writers defending the Legislature’s inane bill are just as full of error as the theory they champion:
•“Wouldn’t a true scientific investigation consider all possibilities?” They have. Creation and ID have been considered, disproved and rejected.
•“This is the whole premise of evolutionary theory — there is no God and we’re all here by chance.” “There is no God” is not a premise of evolutionary theory, which is why millions of Christians have no trouble believing it. Evolution doesn’t disprove Christianity, it only disproves a literal reading of Genesis.
And unless the letter writer was genetically engineered in a secret lab, he’s here by chance — the chance union of one egg and one sperm — just like the rest of us. If God exists (and I think he does), he obviously has no trouble working in a world where life is created by chance; evolution is the same thing on a million-year scale.
•“Intelligent design has nothing whatsoever to do with religion.” The ID-supporters of the Discovery Institute have admitted ID is a “wedge” for putting “Christ-centered” science into schools. And one religious publisher put out an ID textbook, “Pandas and People,” by reprinting a creationist text with “ID” where “creationism” used to go.
•“Creation science is science.” No more than “flat earth geography” would be geography. You can put lipstick on a pig, but ...
•”Darwin’s theory of evolution remains a theory with no scientific conclusions on the origin of life.” Which is why he called his book “The Origin of Species,” not “of Life.” Evolution is about how life changes, not how it started — and the proof that life has been evolving for millennia is overwhelming. The origin of life is a separate question, as witness that even some devout creationists have conceded evolution does work at least sometimes (it explains why bacteria become immune to antibiotics, for instance) without changing their views on Genesis.
•“The issue is not whether intelligent design is a religious theory.” Yes, it is. Because teaching a religious belief as science is contrary to the First Amendment.
If ID isn’t about religion, why is it that its champions never suggest looking at any other theory, like the once-respectable scientific doctrine of Lamarckianism? Or the belief of one Hindu institute that humanity was created three trillion years ago? Creationists claim they’re open-minded, but their minds close off as soon as you get one step away from Genesis.
•“This aspect of science is an ongoing debate.” Sorry, the debate is settled. Creationists just can’t accept that their side lost.
•“Darwin’s theory of evolution is just that — speculation. Honestly, where’s the fossil or skeletal proof?”
No, Darwin’s theory (overlooking the fact that in 150 years the theory has gone far beyond Darwin’s ideas) has been solidly backed up by genetics, fossils (intermediates between mammal and reptile, land mammal and whale and many more) and field observations (evolution happens, even in the present day). Nothing to date has disproved it.
Creationists and IDers, on the other hand, don’t even try to find proof: They’ve devoted themselves to lobbying and media wars rather than scientific research. Which is smart, really, because if they fought on scientific grounds, they’d lose — and I’m sure many of them know that.
My personal faith in God isn’t shaken by the fact the writers of Genesis didn’t grasp a theory that wouldn’t be conceived for more than 2,000 years. I know some people see it differently, but that doesn’t change the scientific facts.
Evolution works. ID is nonsense. And so is this bill.
Fraser Sherman is a Log reporter and can be contacted at (850) 654-8442 and Fraser_Sherman@link.freedom.com