Lecture 18: Modern Opponents of Evolution (PDF)

Lecture 18: Modern Opponents of Evolution Wallace lecture tour of USA 1886-1887 ● Starting tail end of Darwinism. Acceptance of Darwin Wallace theory in the scientific theory. ▪ Wrote a book called Darwinism (an excellent summary of The origin of species of theory of evolutions ● Wallace lecture tou...

Lecture 18: Modern Opponents of Evolution Wallace lecture tour of USA 1886-1887 ● Starting tail end of Darwinism. Acceptance of Darwin Wallace theory in the scientific theory. ▪ Wrote a book called Darwinism (an excellent summary of The origin of species of theory of evolutions ● Wallace lecture tour – everyone he went, he was hailed as great scientific discoverer. If he were doing this today, he would be hackled by people in America. But it did not happen in the 1880s. It is hard to understand if you do not understand history. Things have not always been the same. ● Modern Opponents of evolution is a more recent social movement Scopes ‘monkey trial’ 1925 ● Show trial 🡪 anti evolution (saying that teaching human evolution was teaching religion in schools, which is not allowed in America) ▪ High school teacher, John scopes volunteered to go into this trial to teach human evolution in the high school (crime) ● Big change came with the rise of the American fundamentalist movement at the beginning of the 19th century. ● Some of its leaders, have heard propaganda elsewhere. ● It was claimed by the early anti-evolutionist that Darwinism was responsible for the horrors of the first world war ▪ NOT TRUE ● First world war was also known as the great war, and was thought to be, or was, more brutal, nasty, horrible, and inhumane as previous war, but because we have the technology to drop bombs on people, to shot artillery to long distances, to launch poison gas attacks which were practically impossible to do so in previous wars. ● Some people claimed that all the horror that just happened was the fault of evolution theory, teaching people that they are apes or humanity was somehow low. ● One of the most famous events in the whole of Darwin’s evolution story– the scopes monkey trial in 1925 ● Textbooks will tell you that this trial is over a state law in America that forbade the teaching of certain parts of evolutionary theory, specifically that human beings were descended from earlier species. This was against the law to teach, in favour of the religious views of the people who prepared the law. But according to the America constitution, religious views of any kind, of any religion, are not allowed to be in the legislation because there is an official separation between church and state. ● So that’s why teaching of religion other than in religion class in state schools of America is not allowed. In here, the science was being modified in favour of one particular religious view. ● A group from America wants to challenge this law. This famous (and first) confrontation (there are still many of this happening) of creationist vs evolutionist was a setup, they asked a temporary teacher (a P.E. teacher) to teach a class on biology and talk about evolution so that he would break the law, and have the trial, and get their town on the map to get publicity. It worked tremendously well. This is the most famous trial in history. It was the first trial ever to be reported live by journalists on radio. You can follow it. 🡪 John scopes ● It was made into a movie called ‘Inherit the Wind’, which is based on the novel ‘to kill a mocking bird’ which is also about this trial. ● They brought in the big guns, so the big conservative gun was the man named William Jennings Bryan (the one on the top), who was four time failed US president candidate. But he was a brilliant speaker, widely loved and very conservative. He believed evolution theory was responsible for the first world war. He felt deeply and strongly that it should be kept out from American schools because it would make human beings bad. On the other side, was a famous American lawyer name Clarence Darrow (defend scope), who was also a very brilliant man. And they trial back and forth. A lot of the ways the people talked about this issue nowadays come from this event, the way it was presented in the popular media. This was huge. ● In Europe, people were scratching their heads: evolution? It’s controversial? What's the big deal? ● This kind of anti-evolutionist theory has been spreading around the world widely since these early days. ● At one point, Darrow even had his rival, Bryan to take a stand. He challenged him with various questions, for example, Darrow: you believed in the bible? Bryan said yes, Darrow: How long did it take for the Earth to be created? How old is the Earth? Bryan: 7 days. Darrow: literal 24 hour days? Or it takes somewhat longer? Bryan knew that geology show that the Earth is really old, so he kind of got flustered. A few of the other statements on first reading appear to contradict common things in modern science were thrown at Bryan to embarrass him and in the end, his testimony really hurt his case. ● Nevertheless, it was all just a show because John Scopes, who is this insignificant did break the law (Butler act in 1925). It was against the law to teach evolution and he did it and was found guilty. He was fined a dollar. It was just a sham. ● Butler act: "An act prohibiting the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, and all other public schools of Tennessee” ▪ It was many years before these anti science laws were struck down by the American of supreme court. And such things happened repeatedly. Evolution has been accepted scientific fact since the 1870s ● In 1970s, there was this new movement (religious Creationism), a new attempt to push evolution out of the state schools and get the views of this particular version of fundamentalist Christianity into the science classroom, because these people felt that the theory of evolution contradicted their views. They thought that it was unfair that their children, who should have their beliefs, were going to the state schools and being taught things that they violently disagreed with. They didn’t like it and didn’t think it was fair. ▪ That was crushed by the US supreme court because it was indeed an attempt to introduce religion into the science classroom in state schools, which is forbidden. But they tried it anyway. ● And it happened again in the 1980s, creation-science. There was another famous case and this time they change the tactics, by saying that it was not religion anymore, it was now called creation science, so it’s actually science. But there was no science at all, just religion trying to sneak into science. So, this trial was defeated. ● The most recent one in the 1990s, still reverberating around the internet, quite famous, was in the press. This one was the attempt to introduce intelligent design (instead of the word creation) into science classes in American schools. The word religion never appears at all in their materials. The non-scientists said: After all, evolution is just a theory, we have another theory and it is only fair to teach both theories in science classrooms. They have a sign that said teach the controversies, it is better for students. They should hear both sides and make up their own minds. The doctrine of intelligent design was identical to creation science. It was the same thing. In fact, the people who have prepared the books and pamphlets for creation science movement, have even been so sloppy as to do a global replace in their documents for the phrase creation science, and replaced it with the phrase intelligent design. This was actually shown during this trial, that they had done this. In fact, they made a silly word that made no sense to do a global replace to remove the phrase creation science and used intelligent design instead. This is still the current version that has been floating around nowadays– intelligent design. ▪ Lost ● The Creationists by Ronald L. Numbers, the evolution of scientific creationism (further reading on movements) Intelligent design and the design argument, again… ● Argument of design is always associated with Rev William Paley, and his book and his watch. ▪ Natural Theology, or evidence of the existence and attributes of the deity collected from the appearances of nature 1802 ▪ Since it look designed, it must be designed *God* ● But it was already unbelievably old fashioned, or considered to be, at the time Paley’s book was published. Paley was recycling a very old idea. ● Ray and Linnaeus and other renowned figures all believe that the appearance of design or craftsmanship in living things, the way they seem to fit what they do was evidence of divine design behind them. This was a really old idea, that doesn’t go back just to Paley ● It was being brought back again in the intelligent design movement ● To be perfectly fair in this issue, Intelligent design was not accepted in science by any recognised scientific body. It was promoted by American mostly, and conservative Christian pressure groups. It was not from the scientific community, not in the tens of thousands of scientific journals in the world. But they (Americans) tried really hard to make it sound like their doctrine is science. Irreducible complexity ● In Michael Behe’s book—Darwin’s black box, published in 1996, he made an argument which he called irreducible complexity. He argued that some structures in nature, living things, nature, are so complicated that they cannot have been evolved by a slow gradual process ● Irreducible complexity is just a fancy phrase I use to mean a single system which is composed of several interacting parts, and where the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to cease functioning. ▪ In other words, if you take a component away, it wouldn’t work, and therefore, such a structure couldn’t have come about in gradual steps like in a Darwinian way. So, it all came at once. ● He is a microbiologist, so his example is a flagellum on certain microscopic creatures. It is like a hair like structure, like a tail on a sperm cell that whips around to propel microscopic creatures. ▪ But he is WRONG, because other microbiologist have shown that parts of these cells exist on other bacteria as well ● The picture at the bottom left is a computer-generated diagram trying to describe the way the different components function for the flagellum to work. In fact, it kind of works like a machine, in a sense that it spins all the way round. ● So, his argument was about this couldn’t have come about naturally. Any graduate in philosophy who read his book will instantly demolish it because this is a logical fallacy. It is called the argument from ignorance. His statement, reinstating perfectly means that: I cannot see how all this could have come about by Darwinian means, therefore, it could not have. This was not a good argument, a bad argument. ● “It asserts that a proposition is true because it has not yet been proven false or a proposition is false because it has not yet been proven true. This represents a type of false dichotomy in that it excludes a third option, which is that there may have been an insufficient investigation, and therefore there is insufficient information to prove the proposition be either true or false.” ● He used an analogy of a mousetrap. A mouse trap would only work with all the components, if we take any one of the documents away, it will not function. He said that it is the same with flagellum and various other structures in nature. His case has been soundly refuted as in every view the lecturer had ever heard of by other microbiologists who have shown that every chunk of these structures which function in this particular way in this kind of cell exist in other kinds of cell in different things. So his argument that it could work without being a whole is refuted. They actually do in different kinds of things. ▪ His analogy on the mousetrap is also wrong because a mouse trap has also evolved. The modern mousetrap that we see now has evolved gradually. It used to be a spring loaded fishhook and very simple and it gradually evolved into a mouse trap. The appeal to consequences fallacy – by non-scientific opponents ● For example, claims such as: ● Belief in evolution leads to immoral behaviour ● If people are taught that they are animals, they will behave like animals Eugenics (Smear campaigns 🡪 bad consequences when people believe is evolution is true) 🡪 critics trying to dismiss it 🡪 logical fallacy ● Francis Galton coined the term in 1883. ▪ Prove the human race, by doing selected breeding ▪ 1) Selectively mating people with specific desirable hereditary traits ▪ 2) Sterilise people who were considered reproductively undesirable ● This is a different kind of social history after Darwin's death. ● It is the sort of thing that is attributed to the Nazi movement. The Nazis in Germany in the 1920s to 1930s believed that they were a superior race, and the other races were inferior. They think they should not be killed, only the Jews should be killed or got rid of to make room of the master races, which they thought of themselves. ● The views of those people were partly derived from the eugenics movement. (inspired, not a consequence) When the eugenics movement arose, a term coined by Francis Galton, was originally designed as a benign system to improve humanity, to decrease the percentage of people in the world with disease, deformities, and bad propensities, like the propensity to beat their children or to be alcoholics. They thought that by careful breeding, one could make humanity happier. ▪ Copied from the idea that you could improve, let’s say a race of pigeon breed or chicken breed through scientific methods. ● Eugenics movement is partly inspired by Darwinism. ● Osborn advocated for higher rates of sexual reproduction among people with desired traits (positive eugenics), or reduced rates of sexual reproduction and sterilisation of people with less-desired or undesired traits (negative eugenics). ● Those who want to portray Darwin or evolution theory in a negative way like to draw a straight line between Darwin and the Nazis or the Holocaust. The holocaust (second world war) & first world war ● Just like what critics said about the first world war: this happened because of Darwinian science. ● There are a few popular books on this that Darwin is responsible of the Holocaust. This is all very silly. ● This is not put forth by people who are interested historians, but by people who really hate Darwin and his evolutionary theory. ● Hitler never read Darwin’s book ● There is no connection of any direct kind at all, people are nasty to each another forever, you do not need Darwin to be nasty to one another. Creation museum (Kentucky, USA, 2007) - Young Earth creationism (modern). ● laughingstock of the earth with the conception of it being an ostrich, hiding its head in a hole ● dinosaurs disappeared 63 million years before humans were there o They proposed humans lived side by side with dinosaurs o They said dinosaurs with sharp tiny teeth was to open the coconuts ● they propose that the world is only 600 years old Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Did elves and hobbits have pointy ears? ● Elves have pointy ears? Where is the origin? ● Wherever the legend come from, the ironic thing, according to Darwin, we have lost our pointy ears. Our pointy ears are evidence of descent from apes. Is the world only 6000 years old? Know the age of the earth ● How to determine the age of the earth ● 1 & 2) Geology & Palaeontology used to determine the age of the Earth ● 3) Radiometric dating 🡪 know how old the rock is by the rate of radioactive decay ▪ Certain kind of rocks and mineral proceed to undergo radioactive decay at a known rate. Nothing can alter it. This is how we date rock accurately. ● Even some creatures alive today is older than 6000 years… ▪ Old Tjikko, a Norway Spruce in Sweden, is a tree on top of roots that have been carbon dated to 9,550 years old. The tree is part of a clonal colony that was established at the end of the last ice age. ▪ King Clone, a creosote bush in the Mojave Desert estimated at 11,700 years old. ● 4) Dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating ▪ “As of 2013, fully anchored chronologies in the northern hemisphere extend back 13,900 years.” ▪ When trees grow, they create a ring every year, width of the ring depends on moisture climate. ● Possible to construct an overlapping unbroken record of earth’s climate ▪ Stalactites and caves; Some are over 190,000 years old 🡪 They have rings too, structure of cave are 10,000 years old ▪ Coral reefs & atolls 🡪 5-8mm growth per year. ● Coral growing up, island sinking down ● Island sinking at a rate slower than the rate of coral can compensate ● Need 100 and thousands of years to grow ● 5) Ice core drilling ▪ 1.5 million years of unbroken records of the Earth’s weather ● 6) The speed of light. HE 1523-0901, is an estimated 13.2 billion years old, the oldest star discovered. ▪ Oldest star is 13.2 billion years ● Current estimates of the age of the universe: From cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the big bang measurements etc. c. 13 billion years… Some common objections ● 1) Is evolution just a theory? ▪ Misunderstanding that evolution is just a theory ▪ Colloquial speech (theory is conjecture/guess) versus science (theory is an explanation whose predictions have been verified by experiments or other evidence) – different ▪ “In colloquial speech a theory is a conjecture or guess, in science a theory is an explanation whose predictions have been verified by experiments or other evidence.” ▪ Evolution is a fact ▪ In science it means a bunch of evidence. ● 2) Misunderstanding – thought Darwin’s theory is implied random and by chance – No it is not random, you are faster, stronger, filtered, orderly process, chosen genes – sheep with short legs – filtering process ▪ Only random is mutations ▪ It is impossible that random chance could make the living world. ● 3) Evolution is a better order over time due to second law of thermodynamics that systems over time become more disordered 🡪 wrong ▪ Evolution runs counter to the second law of thermodynamics. No, the sun is giving us energy every day, so it is not a close system. ▪ Theory of gravity - Body of Theorical knowledge of gravity – gravity is a fact. Singapore ● There are also opponents to evolution in Singapore (eg: paper below & St Andrew cathedral) **When Darwin died, most people accept evolution alrdy