Steven_R
Tommy Vercetti Fan Club
- Jul 17, 2013
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I just finished It's Only A Theory by Dr. Ken Miller. You might recognize the name from being one of the plaintiff's witnesses in Kitzmiller v. Dover (4 days until the tenth anniversary by the way!) plus he debates the creationist crowd and is on shows like NOVA when he isn't teaching biology at Brown University.
Basically, this book examines Intelligent Design both from a scientific standpoint and from a methodological position. But there is more to the book than just that. He also brings up the American culture that allows ID to not only exist, but flourish, especially when we reap the benefits of science on a daily basis.
As far as ID goes, he tries to give it a fair shake and examine it's scientific validity, but since it has none Dr. Miller can't go far. He can however take each and every one of its argument and destroys them scientifically and most importantly, in the language of normal people. I'm not a biologist nor am I a specialist in information theory as described by the ID crown, but Dr. Miller explains in simple terms just what is going on in biology, evolution, genetics, information theory, or what have you. In the process the ID arguments are just taken apart one at a time and so far as I can tell, it is all of the arguments the ID crowd uses. He even goes to show how information is gained at the genetic level, both in simulations of evolution, in the lab, and in the real world. As I am not a biologist, I am unsure how to respond to some of those arguments from IDers, but Dr. Miller hits them all.
As far as why Americans are giving ID any credibility, it comes down to three things: 1) We're not scientifically literate. we see science in our every day lives, we think it's neat, but it's a hard subject that is technically challenging and we just don't learn enough about it to be able to tell the difference between real science and pseudoscience wen pseudoscience uses scientifically sounding words.
2) Our sense of fair play. We're a fair-minded people. We want to give everyone a chance to make their case, and the ID crowd uses that against us. They get their debates, get their hearing, get their time in front of the masses and sound like they know what they're talking about and because the science is complicated, scientists are really left with just saying, "no, the ID crowd is wrong, trust us" because it is too complicated and time consuming to explain why the ID crowd is wrong.
3) Religion. That one goes without saying. Too many Americans are indoctrinated from a religious standpoint and too many are afraid of the hard questions that they will face if forced to figure out how to mesh their religious ideas with the cold, hard facts of science.
See if your library has a copy to check out. It's a fairly short book and you can probably get through it in a day or two.
Basically, this book examines Intelligent Design both from a scientific standpoint and from a methodological position. But there is more to the book than just that. He also brings up the American culture that allows ID to not only exist, but flourish, especially when we reap the benefits of science on a daily basis.
As far as ID goes, he tries to give it a fair shake and examine it's scientific validity, but since it has none Dr. Miller can't go far. He can however take each and every one of its argument and destroys them scientifically and most importantly, in the language of normal people. I'm not a biologist nor am I a specialist in information theory as described by the ID crown, but Dr. Miller explains in simple terms just what is going on in biology, evolution, genetics, information theory, or what have you. In the process the ID arguments are just taken apart one at a time and so far as I can tell, it is all of the arguments the ID crowd uses. He even goes to show how information is gained at the genetic level, both in simulations of evolution, in the lab, and in the real world. As I am not a biologist, I am unsure how to respond to some of those arguments from IDers, but Dr. Miller hits them all.
As far as why Americans are giving ID any credibility, it comes down to three things: 1) We're not scientifically literate. we see science in our every day lives, we think it's neat, but it's a hard subject that is technically challenging and we just don't learn enough about it to be able to tell the difference between real science and pseudoscience wen pseudoscience uses scientifically sounding words.
2) Our sense of fair play. We're a fair-minded people. We want to give everyone a chance to make their case, and the ID crowd uses that against us. They get their debates, get their hearing, get their time in front of the masses and sound like they know what they're talking about and because the science is complicated, scientists are really left with just saying, "no, the ID crowd is wrong, trust us" because it is too complicated and time consuming to explain why the ID crowd is wrong.
3) Religion. That one goes without saying. Too many Americans are indoctrinated from a religious standpoint and too many are afraid of the hard questions that they will face if forced to figure out how to mesh their religious ideas with the cold, hard facts of science.
See if your library has a copy to check out. It's a fairly short book and you can probably get through it in a day or two.
