A. Nother Observation Organization: evolv-o-tron, inc. From: Deaddog Message-ID: Newsgroups: talk.origins Ya know, the recent brouhaha with s.r.c.b-s has made me realize a scary factoid. People don't actually believe us. I take evolutionary fact and theory for granted; it's part of my working life. And I guess I tacitly assumed that any thinking individual would agree with the basic outlines of what I consider to be true. Oh, there would be fundies and weirdos that would delude themselves, but by and large the majority would understand and accept reality. But that's not the case, is it? I mean, sure, the vast majority of posters on t.o. are "evilutionists." But think about the enormity of the evidence we can marshall in favor of this 'theory.' And now think about other issues of 'fact' that pervade the net: (1) Is the evidence for evolution at least as good as the evidence for the Holocaust (special note: there's mega-tons of evidence for the Holocaust! The Holocaust happened! I am not a revisionist nutter!)? Yes? Then why is Dan Gannon universally believed to be whacko, while Creationists are not similarly reviled as lunatics? (2) Is there as much evidence for evolution as there is against an "X-file" sort of scenario being true? Yes? Then why is John Winston universally believed to be whacko, while Creationists are not similarly reviled as lunatics? (3) Is there as much evidence for evolution as there is for Vedic astrology being a crock? Yes? Then why is Jai Maharaj universally believed to be a rather venal whacko, while Creationists are not similarly reviled as lunatics? I'm afraid this realization is somewhat depressing: you can hit the Creationists in the face with reality, and it doesn't make any difference. What makes it different from other ridiculous myths? And what can we do about it? Non-woof [Note extremely careful avoidance of x-Soviet Armenia.] [Next: Deaddog proposes jihad into alt.rush.limbaugh -- you'd be surprised what they believe.] ================================================================== No and there are two reasons I would put forth. The first is it's our own damn fault for cultivating an ivory tower aspect to being a scientist. "What me? we protest? Surely you don't mean me!" I do. Nearly universally. The second reason is we have individually failed to reach out and touch someone. I mean going to grammer schools and doing fancy demos with liquid N2 and then growing peas or whatever. If real scientists don't go out and spread the joy of observation and investigation then we can't complain. Think back on the various teachers you had and how they treated science. Now consider that you were probably one of the lucky ones!!! Think of the archtypical science teacher on "The Wonder Years" droning on in the most sombalistic monotone about volcanos of all things. The great violent spelendor of a volcanic erruption rendered boring. When was the last time you saw a science story reported in a local newspaper that had any combination of excitement and accuracy? The solution is us. In acedamia we must push communication skills onto scientists. Outside we must go into schools. Amen. --Wade ================================================================== Not to mention that students are rarely made to learn evolution properly because the school wants to avoid unpleasant reactions. Caricatures of evolution are to be expected to be taught in many religious schools. A fellow faculty member was asked to be a science fair judge for an evangelical church school. He told me that half of the projects "disproved" evolution. No doubt Lionel Tun(ce) would have awarded them all Grand Prize. Most science teaching in the USA is book learning by rote, and so many people have little contact with the observations that support evolution. Tracy Hamilton hamilton@titan1.chem.uab.edu