Faith in Evolution?

by Damon Gambuto     Department: Science & Society

'BC Tours' runs alternative tours of science museums and zoos for interested children and their parents.  A private company involved in science education?  Sounds so WIRED Science, right?  Wrong.  BC stands for "biblically correct" and their alternative is the denial of the evidence of evolution.  Why should we care what some creationists have to say about science?  A recent Gallup poll found that 66% of Americans believe Creationism is "probably or definitely true."  Sweet cheeses!  What century is this?

The two men who make up this charlatanic 'science tour' outfit are Bill Jack and Rusty Carter.  Recently, correspondent Brian Rooney profiled these men and their tour company for NIGHTLINE.

In the segment, we follow along as these two, umm, misguided tour guides try to blow apart evolution.  It's a little like watching the Big Bad Wolf huffing and puffing at the proverbial porcine brick house.  The fairy tale goofiness of it all notwithstanding, it's relevant to take a moment to discuss just how much hot air all of this creationism stuff is.  

Let's take a look at the state of (scientific understanding in) the nation.  The statistic I quoted above comes from a 2007 Gallup poll.

Earlier this year, Florida decided to include the word 'evolution' as a part of its state science standards. . . for the very first time!   Of course, in a twisted turn of misunderstanding, the word 'theory' must be used in front of it to give it less value.  Ugh!  A quick refresher folks: when scientists use the word 'theory,' it's a big deal.

What I am trying to point out is that a rational, scientific understanding of our world is still not the norm for most Americans.  The wages of this sin are manifold.  Among them is a less than perfect union that isn't keeping pace with the rest of the world.

Okay, back to the NIGHTLINE piece.  We meet Denver Museum of Nature and Science Chief Curator and paleontologist (the only actual scientist interviewed), Kirk Johnson, who is impressively serene considering his honest and hard work is being thoroughly worked over by a couple of hucksters.  Rooney goes on to do a creditable job of picking apart the ridiculousness of Jack and Carter's craven and bogus attacks on science.

When talking about fossils, one of the tour guides claims that the dating system used is a form of circular reasoning.  He then leads the group right past the radiometric dating exhibit.  Psst, buddy, it's not circular, it's perfectly reasonable.  Oh, and it's empirical and you just walked right past the explanation of how it's done.  Their response?  "We can't cover everything."  So you know about it and choose to omit it.  That is to say, your 'educational technique' is to knowingly lie to children.  Nice.

Later in the interview Jack says:

"I've chosen to believe the god of the bible.  Now, the evolutionist has chosen not to believe the god of the bible. So we've chosen to believe. They're both matters of faith."

No. They. Aren't.

Only one of them is.  I'll give you a hint.  It's not evolution.

This sort of sophistry is the only way that people who rely on faith to organize their worldview can feel like their position has equal value.  Evolution is a theory.  (Remember when I got all hot-under-the-collar about the misunderstanding of the word theory.  Read it again if you are unclear why that makes it a big deal.) 

Belief in scientific theories is not an exercise of faith.  They are testable, they are logical, and they are falsifiable.  They are beautiful expressions of the power of the human mind to understand and predict natural phenomena.  They are part of the light of science and reason that leads us out of the darkness of supernatural explanation and magical thinking.

Let there be light.

Tags: B.C. tours, Creationism, evolution, Nightline, science education

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