MODERN TIMES
Art Hobson
ahobson@uark.edu
NWA Times 25 Oct 2008
The science of
evolution and the myth of creationism
Creationists
have thrown monkey wrenches at good science education throughout the past
century and they're still at it.
Like true-believing fundamentalists worldwide, they have cherry-picked
the evidence, jumped from one irrational argument to another, and lied
outright.
For
example, it's a creationist mantra that there is a crisis of confidence over
evolution among scientists. This
notion is so obviously wrong that it must be called a lie. It would be difficult to find a
scientific fact or theory that is as universally supported by knowledgeable
scientists as evolution. For over
a century, it's been the foundation for all of biology.
Fundamentalist
propaganda has helped make Americans victims of all sorts of nonsense so long
as it's served up with religious or patriotic fervor. For example, fifty percent of the U.S. population believe,
literally, in the Genesis story of creation. I have often wondered what these folks think they would have
seen if they had been there when God created Adam. Would Adam appear out of thin air? How long would the process take? An hour? A
millionth of a second? And there's
the old question: Did Adam have a
belly button? Dr. Gary Parker,
author of Answers in Genesis and former
head of the Science Department at Clearwater Christian College, replies with
all seriousness: "No--Adam
didn't. Neither did Eve." These are the kind of people who are
trying to tell school boards how to teach science.
There
are many good books elucidating evolution and patiently explaining, for those
who might be misled by the Gary Parkers of the world, what's wrong with
creationism. But Ardea Skybreak,
author of The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism," is not so patient. She's outraged at the fundamentalist lies and distortions
that have derailed serious biology education for so long, and she's quick to
say so. For rational people,
Skybreak's book is a breath of fresh air in our superstition-shrouded
society.
You
can get a feel for the book from some of the section titles: "Anti-evolution creationism: an
assault on science, in the name of God," "Snake oil salesmen and
charlatans at court," and "A guide to the creationist zoo."
Skybreak
is a good scientist with a solid understanding of evolutionary biology. She presents mountains of evidence of
evolution in action today and throughout the past 3.8 billion years since the
beginning of life on Earth: moths,
fruit flies, the Grand Canyon, the sickle cell gene, HIV, so-called
"gaps" in the fossil record, the evolution of new species in the
laboratory in real time, embryo development, remnant features, the independent
evolution of similar features in different species, nature's many imperfections
demonstrating that any Grand Designer is prone to serious mistakes, the
geographic proximity of similar species, the "nested" hierarchy of
living organisms demonstrating evolutionary relatedness, and most impressively
the immense fossil and genetic record showing the six-million-year evolution
from the first upright apes to Homo sapiens.
The book is directed at non-scientists, but
scientists can learn plenty from it.
Earlier chapters review common knowledge about evolution and
creationism. One highlight is a
list of one-paragraph descriptions of 15 of the more common creation myths,
including the Hebrew and Christian myth (Genesis).
Later
chapters go into much more detail about both evolution and creationism. We learn that a "species" is
a reproductively isolated group of organisms, in other words a group whose
members can reproduce only with individuals within the same group. We learn the various ways reproductive
isolation can come about--the ways that new species can begin.
And
we learn fascinating details of the evolution of human beings. Two major changes occurred on the road
to becoming Homo sapiens: the
emergence some 6 million years ago of an upright posture on two feet, and the
emergence some 2 million years ago of a larger brain. The upright posture was facilitated by mutations that
shifted the position at which the head is attached to the spine, enabling early
humans to stand upright and look forward without having to hunch over as apes
do. The larger brain was
facilitated by mutations that changed the timing of the birth process and
caused human babies to be born at an earlier "premature" stage of
development, when their heads are smaller and can thus pass through the
pelvis. The brain then continued
developing, and growing, after birth.
Before this change in timing evolved, the brain grew to full size before
birth and so big-brained humans could not pass through the pelvis. Is that fascinating or what? And it's so much more interesting than
simply "God did it."
Skybreak
explains the many varieties of creationism, from Young Earth Creationism to the
latest mutation known as Intelligent Design. And we learn all about intelligent design's misguided
"hypothesis" (it's charitable to call this non-scientific fantasy a
hypothesis) concerning "irreducible complexity," along with the
evidence that disproves this hypothesis.
This
book has its flaws. Skybreak is so
angry with the creationists that she tends to go on and on about it. The result is wordiness and lots of
repetition. The book could have
benefited, and been 50 pages shorter, from a sharp editing pencil. But this is a relatively small problem; the book is well worth reading.
I've
always made a point of reading not only the major books about evolution, but
also books such as Icons of Evolution, Pandas and People, The Collapse of
Evolution, and Creation Science, from the creationist community. Will creationists read this book?