Science as Political Opinion

Reading this Paul Krugman essay reminded me of an interview I listed to with the fundamentalist minister who runs the popular Coral Ridge Ministry down in Florida, one Dr. D. James Kennedy.

His line of the day was that Communism and Nazism both shared a belief in Darwinism which explained the mass atrocities in both instances. The implication was that we were not long for the gulag or death camps in the U.S. if we didn’t reject Darwinism. For a good time, check out the ministry website.

I wonder who he’s voting for? ;)

BTW, this is a long ways, certainly in tone, from what the famous Nebraska politician William Jennings Bryan argued in the Scopes trial. Bryan was more concerned about local control of education (including what kids were taught) and about the consequences of Social Darwinism not evolution as a science per se. He admitted he didn’t have much scientific knowledge and that it might be very well true. (Which didn’t go down well among his fundamentalist supporters. )

An interesting link on that issue from another religious persuasion. Learn Torah With…Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin - Parashat Bereshit


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Design for Confusion - Paul Krugman (NY Times)


“Creationists failed when they pretended to be engaged in science, not religious indoctrination: ”creation science“ was too crude to fool anyone. But intelligent design, which spreads doubt about evolution without being too overtly religious, may succeed where creation science failed.

The important thing to remember is that like supply-side economics or global-warming skepticism, intelligent design doesn’t have to attract significant support from actual researchers to be effective. All it has to do is create confusion, to make it seem as if there really is a controversy about the validity of evolutionary theory. That, together with the political muscle of the religious right, may be enough to start a process that ends with banishing Darwin from the classroom.”

Science as Political Opinion

Reading this Paul Krugman essay reminded me of an interview I listed to with the fundamentalist minister who runs the popular Coral Ridge Ministry down in Florida, one Dr. D. James Kennedy.

His line of the day was that Communism and Nazism both shared a belief in Darwinism which explained the mass atrocities in both instances. The implication was that we were not long for the gulag or death camps in the U.S. if we didn’t reject Darwinism. For a good time, check out the ministry website.

I wonder who he’s voting for? ;)

BTW, this is a long ways, certainly in tone, from what the famous Nebraska politician William Jennings Bryan argued in the Scopes trial. Bryan was more concerned about local control of education (including what kids were taught) and about the consequences of Social Darwinism not evolution as a science per se. He admitted he didn’t have much scientific knowledge and that it might be very well true. (Which didn’t go down well among his fundamentalist supporters. )

An interesting link on that issue from another religious persuasion. Learn Torah With…Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin - Parashat Bereshit


----

Design for Confusion - Paul Krugman (NY Times)


“Creationists failed when they pretended to be engaged in science, not religious indoctrination: ”creation science“ was too crude to fool anyone. But intelligent design, which spreads doubt about evolution without being too overtly religious, may succeed where creation science failed.

The important thing to remember is that like supply-side economics or global-warming skepticism, intelligent design doesn’t have to attract significant support from actual researchers to be effective. All it has to do is create confusion, to make it seem as if there really is a controversy about the validity of evolutionary theory. That, together with the political muscle of the religious right, may be enough to start a process that ends with banishing Darwin from the classroom.”