Re: In the News: New Survey Supports Evolution, But Critics Disagree

On Jan 9, 9:21 am, jspace...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
From the article:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Penny Starr
Senior Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) - A new study of 1,000 likely U.S. voters apparently
confirms that the majority of Americans support evolution, its role in
science, and the importance of teaching evolution in schools,
according to the Federation of American Societies for Experimental
Biology (FASEB), which published the study this month in The FASEB
Journal.

I imagine the results are determined to a large degree by how the
questions are phrased.


"The bottom line is that the world is round, humans evolved from an
extinct species, and Elvis is dead," said Gerald Weissman, editor-in-
chief of The FASEB Journal, in describing the survey in a press
release earlier this month. The survey was conducted by the Coalition
of Scientific Societies.

Yes. Well. These would be true whatever the results of a survey.


"In an age when people have benefited so greatly from science and
reason, it is ironic that some still reject the tools that have
afforded them the privilege to reject them," said Weissman.

Too many dots for them to connect.


The report says that the introduction of "non-science," such as
creationism and intelligent design into science education, "will
undermine the fundamentals of science education, including use of the
scientific method, understanding how to reach scientific consensus and
distinguishing between scientific and nonscientific explanations of
natural phenomena."

But reactions to the report by some who reject the idea that evolution
is irrefutable say the survey reveals more than statistics.

Hugh Owen, director of the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, a
conservative group, told Cybercast News Service that the survey is
another attempt by evolutionists to defy any opposition to their
claims, even within the scientific community.

The US constitution is what it is, despite any survey results.


As an example, Owen recounted the story of Dr. Dean Kenyon, professor
emeritus of Biology at San Francisco State University and a world-
renowned evolutionary biologist. In the early 1980s, when Kenyon began
to express doubts about his own theories, he was criticized by
students and disciplined by administrators and waged a long battle to
retain his tenure and continue teaching.

Did he begin to have doubts about evolutionary theory based on
evidence, on on a change of religious beliefs?


Owen said Kenyon and others in the scientific community who have been
"viciously persecuted" for their doubts about Darwinian evolution will
be the subject of a Ben Stein film, "Expelled," opening in theaters in
February.

I don't know of any scientists who have rejected evolutionary science
except for religious reasons. Are there any Raelian biologists?


Moreover, Owen told Cybercast News Service that forbidding students to
hear all sides of the evolution debate is destructive to scientific
research.

<sigh>

Is he advocating presenting alchemy or astrology as the other sides of
other debates? How can ID be the "other side" of a scientific debate
when there is no ID theory? Nor research?


He cited the long-held belief by evolutionists that some human organs
may still exist but have been made insignificant by evolutionary
changes, including the appendix.

Strawman. We've known for decades that this vestigial organ has been
co-opted by the immune system. That doesn't mean it's not vestigial.


"They said the appendix was useless, which blocked scientific progress
by medical researchers to actually find out what its function is,"
Owen said. "Now it's generally recognized that the appendix is part of
our immune system.

Yes. And it used to serve another purpose. It still does in cows. Our
inner ear bones served another purpose once, as did our coccyx. And my
ear muscles, for that matter. I can wiggle them. Most people can't,
because they don't practice it. And why don't they? Because it doesn't
help our hearing, as it does in dogs.


"In fact, it can be shown that evolution has slowed scientific
advances," he added.

It can be asserted. It can't be shown.

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Read it athttp://www.crosswalk.com/news/11564360/

J. Spaceman

Thanx, Jason

.

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