From David Klinghoffer at Evolution News & Views:
I keep circling back in my mind to the dramatic juxtaposition of atheist, theistic evolutionist (TE), and ID advocate in Saturday night’s debate at the University of Toronto. I won’t use names, since it was almost a clash of archetypes where the personal identities and personal circumstances hardly matter. That the TE persistently joined with the atheist in going after the ID’er speaks volumes.
An email correspondent, thinking along the same lines, offers the phrase “science signaling,” a play on “virtue signaling.” The latter refers to the habit of some in political and other debates to care more about signaling their own virtue than about winning the election or other contest against an opponent. The currency is feeling special and impressing strangers, not actually accomplishing anything.
In science signaling, the point is to signal that you’re on the prestige side of any controversy. The theistic evolutionist in Saturday’s event was true to type for many TE advocates. He seemed eager, pathetically so, to show the atheist that he “resonated” with him. While unctuously assuring the ID’er that they were on the same side spiritually (as “brothers in Christ”), even as the ID advocate talked science only and not religion, the TE’s focus appeared to be on sharing some of the reflected prestige of the atheist scientist. More.
It’s actually worse in private gatherings.
People who really know cows, turtles, or ponytail grass struggle to keep a good social face when confronted by pop Darwinblather marketed to and by, and then repeated by, people who have never lived or worked with any such entity, who know nothing about them.
But they do know some Darwinblather they can recite. Stuff it would never occur to them to think through.
= The most aggressive male gets the mate! That explains [insert blather here … ] !!
(Maybe. That is, if the most aggressive male doesn’t die first. If he gets into enough fights, infections or brain damage may fell him. Anyway, females generally don’t like the type, and will try to run off with a quieter male if they can … )
No matter. We all put on our social grins. But speaking of pseuds and impositions on public time and patience, see also: a classic example of virtue signalling: Think Green only if you’re seen?
For a clearer perspective on evolution, see What the fossils told us in their own words.
and
Can sex explain evolution?
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