Why Darwin Matters_ The Case Against Intelligent Design - Michael Shermer [76]
Intelligent Design Creationists, who believe that the order, purpose, and design found in the world are proof of an Intelligent Designer.
Evolutionary Creationists, who believe that God used evolution to bring about life according to his foreordained plan from the beginning.
Theistic Evolutionists, who believe that God used evolution to bring about life, but intervenes at critical intervals during the history of life.
Note that the Intelligent Design creationists are but one of many competing for space in the curriculum; if the government were to force teachers to grant equal time for them, then why not these others? And this short list does not include the creation theories of other cultures, such as:
No Creation Story from India, where the world has always existed as it is now, unchanging from eternity.
The Slain Monster Creation Story from Sumeria-Babylonia, in which the world was created from the parts of a slain monster.
The Primordial Parents Creation Stories from the Zuñi Indians, Cook Islanders, and Egyptians, in which the world was created by the interaction of primordial parents.
The Cosmic Egg Creation Stories from Japan, Samoa, Persia, and China, in which the world was generated from an egg.
The Spoken Edict Creation Stories from the Mayans, the Egyptians, and the Hebrews, in which the world sprang into being at the command of a god (this is the belief of creationists and Intelligent Design theorists).
The Sea Creation Stories from the Burmese, Choctaw Indians, and Icelanders, in which the world was created from out of the sea.
If equal time were given to all of these positions, along with the many other creation myths from diverse cultures around the world, when would students have time for science?
* For a fuller explication, visit their Web site at http://www.natcenscied.org/.
NOTES
Prologue: Why Evolution Matters
1. We were accompanied on this expedition by botanist Phil Pack, snail specialist Robert Smith, explorer Daniel Bennett, and medical engineer Chuck Lemme.
2. Sulloway’s historical reconstruction of the development of Darwin’s evolutionary thinking can be found in a number of his papers: Frank Sulloway, “Darwin and His Finches: The Evolution of a Legend,” Journal of the History of Biology 15 (1982), pp. 1–53; “Darwin’s Conversion: The Beagle Voyage and Its Aftermath,” Journal of the History of Biology 15 (1982), pp. 325–96; “The Legend of Darwin’s Finches,” Nature 303 (1983), p. 372; “Darwin and the Galapagos,” Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 21 (1984), pp. 29–59.
3. Letter to Joseph Hooker dated January 14, 1844, quoted in Janet Browne, Voyaging: Charles Darwin. A Biography (New York: Knopf, 1995), p. 452.
4. Darwin would have waited even longer had he not rushed into print for priority’s sake because the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace had sent Darwin his own theory of evolution the year before. For a detailed account of the “priority dispute” between Darwin and Wallace, see Michael Shermer, In Darwin’s Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
5. Ernst Mayr, Growth of Biological Thought (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982), p. 495.
6. All quotes on the reaction to Darwin’s theory are from K. Korey, The Essential Darwin: Selections and Commentary (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, 1984).
7. Interestingly, a sizable 41 percent believe that parents, rather than scientists (28 percent) or school boards (21 percent), should be responsible for teaching children about the origin and evolution of life. Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey data available online at http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=254.
8. Elisabeth Bumiller, “Bush Remarks Roil Debate on Teaching of Evolution,” New York Times, August 3, 2005.
9. I have written about this at length in my book How