In “Psychology Today: There’s No Controversy over Evolution and Besides, We Shouldn’t Teach It in Science Classes” (Evolution News & Views, March 19, 2012) Casey Luskin reports,
Though at first blush Henriques’s position might sound fair, there’s hardly anything praiseworthy about it. When a Darwin lobbyist says “Teach the controversy, but only in social studies or political science class,” that’s usually just a polite academic way of saying ‘the only people with fundamental objections to evolution are anti-science religious fanatics, and we must warn students about the sociology underlying these wacky beliefs.’ Yes, Henriques’s article is more respectful than the usual anti-ID material, but its arguments are little better: Despite how Henriques frames his position, the article holds that there is no real scientific controversy over evolution, and we shouldn’t be teaching it. …
The article improves as it goes along, at least temporarily.
Respectfulness isn’t a bad thing in principle; the problem is that respect for the wrong things is mere patronage, and desperately insulting.
The ID guys are calling BS on the cargo of the SS Darwin (garbage scow). It’s long past time all that trash was taken out. No one should need or deserve respect just for saying so.
From an intellectual perspective, it is better when ID theorists and supporters are losing their jobs for saying so than when they are merely referred to the Department of Nice, Useless Thoughts.
It. Is. Not. A. Nice. Thought. It won’t be Useless either, if the ID community has anything to say about it.
From Luskin,
Ultimately, Henriques acknowledges that “the completeness of natural selection for explaining evolution is more debated” and “there currently are a number of different elements that are emerging that are causing biologists to question the completeness of the modern synthesis, with some arguing that major, foundational revisions are in order.”
Uh, yeah. When a person arrives as late to the meeting as Henriques did, it’s amazing that he thinks he should be emitting policy.
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