Real Controversies About Evolution

[catsittingstill]

I have been exposed, rather more than I would like, to the arguments of the anti-evolution people who try to work up political and social controversies and blur them with scientific controversies to which they don't apply, trying to make them sound as if there were real doubt about the theory of evolution.

These always struck me as being like a rube watching two mechanics sitting on the front porch, listening to someone trying to start a car behind the building.  Mechanic 1 says "It's a Ford F 150, made in 1997.  Hear that slight metallic edge as the starter disengages at the end?"  The other one says "No, it's a Ford F 150, but it was made in 1998; the pitch of the engine has that slightly higher note that they got when they switched to aluminum cladding on the outside of the carburetor."

The rube says "See? They can't even agree on what kind of car it is.   I told you all along; it's a horse."

Now John Timmer at Nobel Intent has put up an excellent post analyzing the real scientific controversies in the field of Evolutionary Biology, and comparing them to the "controversies" manufactured by the Creationism/Intelligent Design/Discovery institute crowd.

It's an excellent article; if you have time I recommend it to your attention.

Comments

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

? 13.7? I thought it was 10, or 10.5, I forget. Where does the figure come from? I'm not challenging it; I'm just curious.

Yes, I wrote _Word of God_. I'm glad you like it. I'm an atheist too, actually, I was just taking the viewpoint of "supposing there were a god, what could we rationally examine that would be god's work and no one else's?"

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Google "age of universe" :) You'll see plenty of articles. They're actually down to 13.73 billion +/- 120 million, though I have trouble believing such precision at a gut level. Don't know where 10.5 came from, though Neil Gaiman picked "ten billion years" for use in Sandman; of course it would have been silly to have Lucifer griping about overseeing Hell for 10-20 billion years.

Bonus on the song is that I was a geology student for a while. How many songs have synclines and anticlines in them? Heh.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Wow, okay, thanks. I don't know where I heard the 10 billion figure, come to think of it. Obviously the Earth has to be in at least the 2nd wave of stars, since we're made of stuff heavier than helium...

I'm glad you like the syn and anticlines. I knew from very early in writing that verse that I wanted that in there :-)