Creationism: God's Gift to the Ignorant

May 21, 2005

Creationism: God's gift to the ignorant
As the Religious Right tries to ban the teaching of evolution in Kansas, Richard Dawkins speaks up for scientific logic

Science feeds on mystery. As my colleague Matt Ridley has put it: “Most scientists are bored by what they have already discovered. It is ignorance that drives them on.” Science mines ignorance. Mystery — that which we don’t yet know; that which we don’t yet understand — is the mother lode that scientists seek out. Mystics exult in mystery and want it to stay mysterious. Scientists exult in mystery for a very different reason: it gives them something to do.

Admissions of ignorance and mystification are vital to good science. It is therefore galling, to say the least, when enemies of science turn those constructive admissions around and abuse them for political advantage. Worse, it threatens the enterprise of science itself. This is exactly the effect that creationism or “intelligent design theory” (ID) is having, especially because its propagandists are slick, superficially plausible and, above all, well financed. ID, by the way, is not a new form of creationism. It simply is creationism disguised, for political reasons, under a new name.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-196-1619264,00.html

thanks to http://www.3quarksdaily.com/ for the tipoff.

I think I have read just about every book Richard Dawkins has written, including "The Ancestor's Tale", which I highly recommend.

on this a long time ago. I may still happen. I should listen to it. Because as a Canadian I can see 'myths' inherent in America. I'm sure you see them too. I mean, I'm sure you see my own myths are a Canadian.

All of us who have feelings and histories believe in something that may not actually be there - at times.

So my problem with creationism is when someone wants to impose their story where it does not belong. Like is school - outside of religious & humanities class. I mean if you take the tax cuts that go to you as a religious group..do you get to then not call yourself a religion and call yourself an education? Or equate yourself to science. I think not.