Intelligent Design Proponent Says God Must Be Stupid

Our friends over at the "Discovery Institute" (a misnomer if ever there was one) have in essence told us that God is just plain stupid. What's even funnier is that their boneheaded leader, Dr. Cornelius Hunter, doesn't even seem to realize what a gaffe he just pulled.

We do not know evolution to be an obvious, compelling explanation of the data—beyond any shadow of a doubt. Yet this is precisely what evolutionists claim. ... Here, for example, is what one professor recently wrote to me:

"An omnipotent god could do anything (we guess), but one who is omnipotent, serious, and thoughtful (at least as serious and thoughtful as an exemplary human) would not route wiring from giraffe’s larynx around its aorta."

How does the professor know that an omnipotent, serious, and thoughtful god would not route wiring from the giraffe’s larynx around its aorta? What does the professor know about omnipotent, serious, and thoughtful gods? And what does the professor know about creating giraffes? Precious little, I’m afraid, in both cases."

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

OK, Dr. Hunter, let me explain it in plain simple terms.

Creationists are "Surprised" That Convergent Evolution Works

I try to avoid commenting on anything from the "Discovery Institute" because any response lends legitimacy to their creationist drivel. But their latest attack on science is a subtle trick that once again relies on the ignorance of their readership.

Recently, scientists Christin, Weinreich (Brown University) and Besnard (Imperial College) discovered a fascinating side effect of evolution. Scientists have long known about something called convergent evolution, where species that evolve independently in different parts of the world end up looking remarkably similar. The tasmanian wolf (or thylacine, right) is a classic textbook case: it has remarkable similarities to North American and Eurasian wolves, yet it's actually a marsupial, related to the kangaroos.

The cause of convergent evolution is simple: a solution that works in one part of the world works everywhere. The traits that make wolves a successful predator in America also work for the thylacine in Australia.

Did you ever wonder why horses, cattle and antelopes and sparrows have eyes on the sides of their heads, while dogs, cats, owls and humans have eyes in the front? Simple: dogs, cats, owls and humans are predators, and they hunt horses, cattle, antelopes and sparrows. The prey animals need to have a 360-degree view because danger can be anywhere, while the predators need to see only the prey, and see it well. The stereoscopic front-facing eyes of predators converged (came about independently), as did the widely-spaced, 360-degree-view eyes of prey species.

Convergent evolution is a remarkable but well-understood part of the Theory of Evolution. But Christin et al reported on a remarkable evolutionary parallel that happens at the molecular level: in many cases the phenotype's convergent evolution (the eyes, teeth, organs or metabolic features that we can see) are accompanied by genetic convergent evolution. That is, the very same genes and gene sequences that control something in one species are found to control the same thing in another species!

That was quite surprising ... scientists had always assumed that when traits evolved separately and in complete isolation, there would be no genetic similarity. Yet there it was.

And that's where the trouble began. The Discovery Institute creationists seized on the word "surprising" in the scientists' article and started waving it around,

Intelligent Design

I saw this flounder picture and I just couldn't resist. That may be the dumbest looking animal in "all of creation." If God is an intelligent designer, then he sure has a weird sense of humor!

Truth is, the flounder's life cycle is a fascinating illustration of why evolution makes sense and creationism doesn't.

More Bad News in Louisiana: Intelligent Design in the Classrooms

As if hurricanes and BP oil spills aren't enough, now there's another new calamity headed for Louisiana. The School Board of Livingston Parish wants to include "intelligent design" into their science curriculum.

So Louisiana's biggest city is destroyed by a hurricane, their coastline is fouled by the largest oil spill in U.S. history, and now they want to foul the minds of their children by crippling their educations.

If this measure passes, two things will happen. First, the future scientist children of this parish, the ones who might really have something to contribute to humanity's welfare, will be seriously handicapped when they try to go to college. They'll either be relegated to second-class colleges, or they'll have to do a lot of catch-up work to be on par with other students who learned real science.

Second, this is certain to spark a lawsuit, since it is in fact unconstitutional to teach Intelligent Design in public schools.

What a waste. The school board could be spending its money educating its children in real science, but no. They want to teach two-thousand-year-old mythology wrapped up in pseudo science, and to spend their money fighting the inevitable high-cost lawsuit that will come from parents who feel that their children deserve a real education.

The Livingston Parish school board ought to respect the United States Constitution.

Dr. Cornelius G. Hunter, Biochemist and Fool

I just discovered Dr. Cornelius G. Hunter, the "scientist" attack dog from the Discovery Institute who is wasting his life defending creationism. I probably should ignore the guy. He's such a sad waste of talent. But like so many of the leaders of the creationist movement, he actually manages to fool a lot of people, and that's not something you can ignore.

Hunter has a PhD in biophysics and computational biology, which gives credibility to his sham science. For every article he's written, you can easily find ten from reputable scientists that resoundingly refute his crazy "proofs." Real scientists spend their time discovering new things and improving our lives. Hunter seems to spend all of his time trying to destroy the work of others. That alone shows his dishonesty – if creationism (aka "intelligent design") was a real branch of science, Hunter could find gainful employment making new discoveries of his own.

I'll leave it to the biochemists to refute his complex, convoluted arguments about DNA. But even an amateur like me can find this guy's mistakes. Hunter wrote a paper with holes so big that even a freshman science or philosophy student could drive a truck through them.

Creationism is a Form of Insanity?

Why is it that when talking about religion, a person can make claims that in any other topic would be considered literally insane?

Consider these three people...

"The army says my husband was killed in Iraq, but that would be awful so I know it's not true."

"Our company spent all its money, but that can't be right because we'd go out of business, so let's keep spending."

"The doctor says my baby died, but I don't believe it because I love her too much."

Sad and absurd, right? Anyone who said these things would be headed for psychiatric help. So consider this article by Joe Sobran, who is trying to "prove" that Darwin's theory of evolution is wrong. Sobran starts by lambasting Dan Brown for the historical errors in his book, The Davinci Code, and then morphs that argument into an anti-Darwinism rant. And here's the heart of his logic:

"Children must be taught that nature has no purpose, beyond 'survival of the fittest' – though even survival is, strictly speaking, an accident rather than a purpose. We owe our existence, our humanity itself, not to anything intelligent, but to the chance mutations of stupid matter. This is the dogma of Darwinism, which passes for 'religious neutrality'..."

Mr. Sobran makes it clear that this unpleasant fact, all by itself, makes Darwinism unacceptable. How can it be that there is no purpose to life, no reason for our existence?

In other words, Mr. Sobran refuses to believe in evolution because it is unpleasant.

If Joe Sobran was a lone philosopher, it would be no big deal.

How to Shut Up Pesky Creationists

This talk by Dr. Ken Miller is really amazing both in how clearly it refutes creationism / intelligent design, and also because it illustrates the uphill battle that science faces against religion.

Science is hard. This is highly technical stuff, and it is beyond the grasp of the average American. It's a complex, technical argument, but worse, it takes five minutes of paying attention. How can Dr. Miller convince a nation that thrives on sound bites and watered-down science to pay attention?

Happily, my audience has a longer attention span. Enjoy, it's great stuff!

Christian Whiner: JPL Scientist Punished for Proselytizing at Work

I respect honest Christian proselytizers, but I'm disgusted by whiners. If you read this story, you'd think David Coppedge is a poor innocent Christian who happens to believe in "Intelligent Design," and was demoted by NASA's JPL laboratory merely for being a Christian. You'd think that those JPL scientists were intolerant, disdainful and contemptuous of anyone who didn't share their atheist science. You might even get the idea that JPL is an exclusive atheism club, that they were trying to drive a competent scientist from their midst merely because he didn't kowtow to the atheist intelligentsia who run the place.

The truth appears to be much simpler and less sinister. According to this story and other reports, David Coppedge just plain broke his employer's rules, repeatedly. He violated the JPL personnel guidelines by discussing religion at work and passing out DVDs of the ID proponents' pseudo-science (which has already been ruled to be religion, not science, by courts).

Discussing religion at work is strictly against the JPL rules (and every employer I've ever worked for), and Coppedge knew it was against the rules because he was warned several times by his supervisors. He persisted, and finally was demoted for violating the rules and for ignoring his supervisor's explicit orders.

Let's make this clear: he was not demoted for espousing Christian ideas. He was demoted for violating policy and then ignoring his boss when ordered to stop. His Christianity was irrelevant.

I hate that sort of Christian revisionism.

Creationist Film Premier Cancelled, Won't be at Smithsonian

Well, good news, I think. Last week I blogged about a religion film advocating intelligent design that was going to premier at the California Science Center (CSC), a Smithsonian affiliate. Well, apparently I wasn't the only one to criticize the CSC, there was a virtual firestorm of protest, and now the screening has been cancelled.

The ID proponents are, of course, screaming "Censorship!" But the word "censorship" itself shows a gross misunderstanding of constitutional law and the American way: Only the government can be accused of censorship. The rest of us are simply exercising our rights to not listen to silly theories, and more importantly, to not lend scientific credibility to a theory that has no scientific merit by letting it play in a respected venue.

Ironically, I'm somewhat disappointed. I was seriously considering going to the screening, partly for the entertainment value and for the "know thine enemy" aspect of the film. But mostly, I'd started preparing some questions for the Q&A time afer the show, illustrating that this silly "theory" of evolution fails even the most basic tests of a scientific theory. So while I'm glad this drivel isn't being screened by a reputable scientific organization, I was sort of looking forward to the Q&A period after the movie.

The details of the cancellation are murky. The CSC claims it was purely a contractual issue. The ID proponents are screaming about censorship. The mainstream newspapers couldn't seem to make heads or tails of it. But it's my guess that, like most contracts, there were flaws that could have been ignored if both parties were willing participants, but the Smithsonian's embarrassment was too much and they found a convenient loophole.

Maybe I'll follow the news and figure out where the new venue will be...

"Intelligent Design" Film to be Screened at Smithsonian?

This is disturbing news. The religious pseudo-documentary, Darwin's Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record, will be screened at the Smithsonian Institute.

I know the Smithsonian is devoted to enquiry, and encourages honest scientific debate. But there is no debate, no "mystery," about the Cambrian explosion. The Smithsonian should be scolded for letting this pseudo-scientific religious propaganda into their theater.

[Update: See Marc's comment in the comments below. Apparently the Smithsonian is not sponsoring this event. Thanks, Marc, for pointing this out.]

This is yet another example of intelligent-design proponents callously and knowingly relying on the ignorance of their own audience. They find an area of science where there is either controversy, or (as in this case) where a thorough understanding requires considerable study. Then they shout, "Mystery!" "Scientists are baffled!" "They can't explain it!" They bring up arguments from a hundred years ago, quote scientists out of context, and baffle their audience with scientific sleight-of-hand moves.

And finally, when they've built up the "impossibility" of the Cambrian Explosion, they cry, "It must be God," without adding the qualifier, "... because you're too stupid to understand the real science!"

In this case, there is no mystery. The Cambrian Explosion was baffling to Darwin, but that's because he studied its fossils over 150 years ago. Surely we've made some progress since then! In fact, the mystery has been explained, many times. But the intelligent-design proponents who created this piece of religious propaganda are relying on the fact that their audience won't take the time to find the real facts. They're counting on ignorance.

It's a sad testament to their lack of faith in their God that they stoop to such low tricks. If their faith was strong, and their religion was true, it would stand up to scrutiny, wouldn't it?

Evolution in Texas: Survival of the Fittest Creationists

In another example of religious evolution in action, Texas and other conservative states continue to be an embarrassment to America, as the ultra-conservative faction of their religious citizens push their long, destructive campaigns to inject religion into our school systems. The good news is that this time, Texas stood up to the creationists more than in the past, by rejecting the strong anti-science language that creationists were trying to put into textbooks.

Many atheists, and also many members of mainstream religions, know what a bad idea it is to mix religion and government, especially government-run schools, and have a hard time understanding the incredible tenacity of these creationist zealots. But it's not really much of a mystery.

When you look at religion from an evolutionary point of view using memetics (the evolution of culture and ideas), this sort of behavior is both expected and predictable. Evolution shows that traits that work are the ones that survive. Truth is not very relevant. And the sad fact is that churches and religions that fight education and knowledge are the ones that last longer.

The "science" and "history" of the Bible has been in large part shown to be wrong, yet it is still the foundation of Christianity and Judaism. If the biblical-literalism faction opens the door even a crack to this fact, it can only lose credibility. The only way to sustain these religious beliefs is to flat-out deny, even in the face of irrefutable and overwhelming evidence proving, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the Bible is wrong.

So back to the State of Texas: Using an evolutionary, memetic view of creationists, it's easy to see what's happening. The churches that cling to the inerrancy of the Bible are survivors. They are the ones that have the most appealing story. The prey on the ignorance of their converts, and fight knowledge at every turn. And it works: They gain membership, and the more liberal churches that accept that the Bible is metaphorical, not scientific, lose members.

If you view this all using cultural evolution and a "survival of the fittest" approach, it's obvious why Texas is still fighting creationism. Creationism is the "survivor" meme in the survival-of-the-fittest battle of the churches.

Sarah Palin: McCain is Going Down!

I applaud McCain's VP choice, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, as his choice for vice president, because she is going guarantee McCain's defeat! Nice work, Senator McCain!

Sarah Palin is the worst vice president candidate in recent memory. We can ignore her utter lack of relevant experience – that's like shooting fish in a barrel. No, the real issues are her opposition to virtually every ethical advance we've made as a society over the last few decades. She opposes gay/lesbian rights, opposes abortion rights, and in spite of heart-wrenching stories last week of starving polar bears swimming 25 miles in the open ocean looking desperately for food, she opposes adding them to the endangered-species list, and instead wants to drill, drill, drill for more of Alaska's oil, so we can melt more polar ice and kill the rest of the bears.

As if that's not enough, Gov. Palin has advocated teaching creationism alongside evolution! George Bush ... well, his IQ is somewhere in the modest double digits, so maybe a basic understanding of obvious scientific facts is just too much for the poor man. But Sarah Palin appears to be an otherwise intelligent woman, in spite of her conservative agenda.

One can only hope that Sarah Palin at least believes in woman's rights and equality for all races. Given the rest of her neocon views, one has to wonder...

(Shameless commercial: It's another example of just how highly evolved and infectious the religion virus is. Only now, after years of research and thought, do I finally understand how intelligent people get infected with these ideas, and why the ideas are so hard to kill.)

As far as I can tell, Sarah Palin is a typical victim of religion's Anti-Rationalism Meme, one of religion's best tricks. The Anti-Rationalism Meme convinces "the faithful" that faith, not logic, is the road to truth. If logic and rational thought lead to a conclusion that disagrees with the Bible, then faith wins.

Anyone with an open, rational mind who visits Alaska can't help but marvel at the raw power of nature, and the overwhelming evidence against creationism. Glacial valleys that took millions of years to form, stately mountains that have stood guard for tens of millions of years, volcanos that laid down layer after layer after layer, recording history in their lava ... the evidence is all there, laid out in its raw beauty. How anyone can live in such magnificence, and still think the Earth was created just 6,000 years ago, staggers the mind.

No, sorry Senator McCain, your "surprise" choice of Sarah Palin, which you hoped would make you look progressive, is going to backfire. Sarah Palin's views on women's reproductive choice, gay/lesbian issues, and the environment, all inspired by her infection with religion virus memes, will be your downfalling.

You'd almost think the Democrats had picked McCain's running mate for him!

Intelligent Design Raises its Ugly Head in Louisiana

One of the key themes in The Religion Virus is that beliefs we learn in childhood, no matter how illogical or wrong, become entrenched in our brains. It is very hard for us to unlearn the fundamental beliefs that we learn as children. The chapter, Billy the Racist, which helps to illustrate this point, is the story of a man I met during the three years I lived in New Orleans. Although my time there was brief, I still have a special place in my heart for that wonderful, wild city, and all the friends I made while living there.

I was saddened, but not surprised, to read this morning that the Louisiana State Legislature has once again introduced religion, under the guise of "Intelligent Design," into their school curriculum. (The New Scientist has good coverage of this story.) In writing The Religion Virus, I got a very deep understanding of just why religious people are so determined to infect their children with the virus at an early age. Louisiana is, in many ways, more "third world" than many third-world countries, and the religious attitudes there are almost medieval.

So I can't say I was surprised that these same people have hijacked the legislature of State of Louisiana to help ensure that all the children get thoroughly infected with religion memes. Not surprised, but saddened. It seems like for every two steps forward, there's one step backward, and the Louisiana State Legislature took a big step backwards yesterday.