CREATION vs EVOLUTION

							What is your
favorite topic to
study in science?
          ‘20s Themes
• Forces acting against each
  other




                  1920s




• The ‘20s is in the middle
    •Darwin
 •The Dust Bowl
•Manhattan Project
There’s no answer more
  sought after than
    the answer to:
Who are we?
   Remember, we are
studying an age in which
the physical and social
sciences are exploding.
To some, this threatens
  their whole belief
        system.
Whose values will win out
 to shape the future of
   American culture?
 Modern and traditional forces                           Genesis 1




                                                                         1920s
                                                        1  In the beginning God created the
 acting against each other                              heaven and the earth.
                                                        2 And the earth was without form,

                                                        and void; and darkness was upon
FUNDAMENTALISM: Protestant movement to restore          the face of the deep. And the Spirit
                                                        of God moved upon the face of the
the basis of American life on literal Bible teachings   waters.
because America had lost its way                        3 And God said, Let there be light:

                                                        and there was light.

  CREATION
Christian belief that humanity, life, the
Earth, and the universe were created
by God.
  EVOLUTION

Scientific theory by which all species
develop from earlier forms of life
    Dayton, TN
• A small, rural,
  traditional
  Tennessee
  town

• TN passed
  anti-evolution
  law in 1925
• ACLU              promises to defend
        (American Civil Liberties Union)


  Scopes if he teaches evolution. He does.
  Goes to trial.
• John T. Scopes
  •   Biology teacher

• William Jennings Bryan
  •   Chief prosecutor; self-proclaimed
      expert on the Bible


• Clarence Darrow
  •   Nationally-known defense attorney
                  Combatants




Clarence Darrow          William Jennings Bryan
• ACLU               promises to defend
       (American Civil Liberties Union)


  Scopes if he teaches evolution. He does.
  Goes to trial.
• Town is crazy
• Darrow orders sign be taken down
• Bryan attacks Darwin
• Zoologist called to stand
• Darrow held in contempt
• Darrow calls Bryan to stand
• Scopes is found guilty, sentence is a $100 fine
• A win for science
• Bryan dies days after trial
Since Scopes, the conflict between science
   and fundamentalism has continued.
1925 –   Scopes trial
1967 –   Tennessee repeals the Butler Act
1973 –   Tennessee passes a law requiring equal emphasis of creationism alongside other
         theories and a disclaimer that evolution is, “just a theory.”
1975 –   Federal court declares the law unconstitutional
1982 –   District court strikes down an Arkansas law requiring “balanced treatment”.
1987 –   Supreme court rules that a Louisiana law requiring balanced treatment is
         unconstitutional.
1989 –   Intelligent Design is brought to the public eye in a textbook intended for use in biology
         classrooms. Intelligent Design seeks to redefine science by invoking supernatural
         explanations to explain the, “irreducible complexity,” of life.
1999 –   Kansas’ State Board of Education removes many references to evolution from state
         standards and begins to incorporate Intelligent Design ideas into the curriculum.

2005 –   A District court ruled that the Dover Area School District integration of Intelligent
         Design into the curriculum is unconstitutional in that it, “cannot uncouple itself from
         its creationist, and thus religious antecedents.”
2006 –   The Discovery Institute shifts its focus to, “Teach the Controversy.”
Is Intelligent Design a new idea, or just
            Creationism 2.0?
                  The Discovery Institute
Recognizing the need for support, the institute affirms its
Christian, evangelistic orientation: "Alongside a focus on
influential opinion-makers, we also seek to build up a
popular base of support among our natural constituency,
namely, Christians. We will do this primarily through
apologetics seminars. We intend these to encourage and
equip believers with new scientific evidences that
support the faith, as well as to 'popularize' our ideas in
the broader culture.“

Discovery Institute. Media Backgrounder: Intelligent Design Article Sparks Controversy; September 7,
2004.
                     The Discovery Institute
“The proposition that human beings are created in the image of God is one of the bedrock principles on which
Western civilization was built. Its influence can be detected in most, if not all, of the West's greatest
achievements, including representative democracy, human rights, free enterprise, and progress in the arts and
sciences.

Yet a little over a century ago, this cardinal idea came under wholesale attack by intellectuals drawing on the
discoveries of modern science. Debunking the traditional conceptions of both God and man, thinkers such as
Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud portrayed humans not as moral and spiritual beings, but as
animals or machines who inhabited a universe ruled by purely impersonal forces and whose behavior and very
thoughts were dictated by the unbending forces of biology, chemistry, and environment. This materialistic
conception of reality eventually infected virtually every area of our culture, from politics and economics to
literature and art.

The cultural consequences of this triumph of materialism were devastating. Materialists denied the existence
of objective moral standards, claiming that environment dictates our behavior and beliefs. Such moral
relativism was uncritically adopted by much of the social sciences, and it still undergirds much of modern
economics, political science, psychology and sociology.”

“Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture seeks nothing less than the overthrow of
materialism and its cultural legacies.”

“Governing Goals:
* To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural and political legacies.
* To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are
created by God.”

The Wedge document: http://libcom.org/library/wedge-document-intelligent-design-exposed
 MASD Science Department’s position
       on Intelligent Design
     “The science department does not include Intelligent Design within our
  science curricula. Currently, this idea is not a scientific theory, as it is does
     not provide testable hypotheses and therefore is not verifiable. We do,
however, discuss the history of life on Earth and offer natural selection as the
      most likely explanation for the fossil record, as well as the presence of
  biochemical homologies within related species. Despite popular criticism of
   the merits of Darwin’s theory as well as the new synthesis of evolutionary
theory with molecular genetics, there exists considerable evidence to support
   it. Evolutionary theory and religion are not mutually exclusive and it is our
  hope that students will make their own decision regarding the evolution of
life on Earth only after being fully exposed to evidence from both sides of the
      debate. While we feel very comfortable with the teaching of scientific
    theories, it is not our intention or our place to sway a student’s views on
                                      religion.”
But isn’t Evolution, “just a theory”?
In practice a body of descriptions of knowledge is
usually only called a theory once it has a minimum
empirical basis, according to certain criteria:
  – It is consistent with pre-existing theory, to the extent
    the pre-existing theory was experimentally verified,
    though it will often show pre-existing theory to be
    wrong in an exact sense.
  – It is supported by many strands of evidence, rather
    than a single foundation, ensuring it is probably a
    good approximation, if not totally correct.
      So is a theory true, or not???
Let’s ask Stephen Hawking-

• "A theory is a good theory if it satisfies two requirements: It must
  accurately describe a large class of observations on the basis of a
  model that contains only a few arbitrary elements, and it must
  make definite predictions about the results of future observations."
• He goes on to state, "Any physical theory is always provisional, in
  the sense that it is only a hypothesis; you can never prove it. No
  matter how many times the results of experiments agree with
  some theory, you can never be sure that the next time the result
  will not contradict the theory.
• On the other hand, you can disprove a theory by finding even a
  single observation that disagrees with the predictions of the
  theory." The "un-provable but falsifiable" nature of theories is a
  necessary consequence of using inductive logic.
 Why must evolution be taught to our
        nation’s students?
Evolution is the major unifying theory that
underlies all of the life sciences; it has formed the
basis of productive and active research for over 140
years.
   – The paradigm (prevailing idea) is that evolution has
     produced adaptive systems and structures.
   – "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of
     evolution" (Dobzhansky, 1973).
   – Biochemists, molecular biologists, geneticists,
     ecologists and immunologists (as well as medical
     researchers, in general) use evolutionary theory as a
     basis for making and testing new hypothesis.
 Why must evolution be taught to the
        nation’s students?
Evolutionary theory is the most widely accepted
and influential theory in Biology, and perhaps all
of science. If we exclude it, why not exclude…
  –   Cell theory
  –   Germ theory of disease
  –   Plate tectonics
  –   Big bang
  –   Climate change
 Why must evolution be taught to the
        nation’s students?
Without these theories, we are left with
Supernatural explanations for natural
phenomenon.
  – Science is based on empirical proof; this means, to
    prove it, you must find evidence that is observable
    with you senses – faith is not a mode of science.
  – Quite simply, if we allow supernatural explanations to
    supplant empirical proof, we discount the scientific
    method and allow for a, “your guess is as good as
    mine,” approach to problem solving.
 Where has the fundamentalist attack
        on Evolution left us?
• According to the survey, 70 percent of Democrats
  believe global warming is human-caused, but only 47
  percent of Independents and 31 percent of
  Republicans feel the same way. Forty-two percent of
  Independents and 56 percent of Republicans believe
  global warming is naturally caused.
• The survey found that 67 percent of Democrats trust
  scientists as a source of information about
  environmental issues. Only 49 percent of Independents
  and 42 percent of Republicans trust scientists on such
  matters.
       Why is Climate change a “good”
                  theory?
Physical evidence for and examples of climatic change
   –   Temperature measurements and proxies
   –   Historical and archaeological evidence
   –   Recession of glaciers
   –   Arctic sea ice loss
   –   Change in growth of vegetation
   –   Pollen analysis
   –   Changes in precipitation
   –   Dendroclimatology
   –   Ice cores
   –   Effects on animals
   –   Sea level change
     What do our nations top scientists
                  say?
“Science has made enormous inroads in understanding climate change and its causes,
and is beginning to help develop a strong understanding of current and potential
impacts that will affect people today and in coming decades. This understanding is
crucial because it allows decision makers to place climate change in the context of
other large challenges facing the nation and the world.

There are still some uncertainties, and there always will be in understanding a
complex system like Earth’s climate. Nevertheless, there is a strong, credible body of
evidence, based on multiple lines of research, documenting that climate is changing
and that these changes are in large part caused by human activities.

While much remains to be learned, the core phenomenon, scientific questions, and
hypotheses have been examined thoroughly and have stood firm in the face of serious
scientific debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations.”

— United States National Research Council, Advancing the Science of Climate Change
     How else could we apply theistic
                science?
• Intelligent Falling – Gravity is unsubstantiated since
  general relativity is incompatible with quantum
  mechanics; so, an intelligent force must be responsible
  for pushing objects towards the Earth.
• Pastafarianism proposes that a global reduction in the
  number of, and attitude towards pirates has resulted
  in the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s wrathful increase in
  atmospheric temperature.

Should we give equal treatment to
these ideas in science class as well?
Pirates and Global warming