From Tom Bethell in Darwin’s House of Cards: A Journalist’s Odyssey Through the Darwin Debates:
“The scientific evidence for evolution is not only weaker than is generally supposed, but as new discoveries have been made since 1959, the reasons for accepting the theory have diminished rather than increased.” (Page 45)
“Darwinian evolution can be seen as a way of looking at the history of life through the distorting lens of Progress. Given enough time, society in general, including human beings, would be transformed into something superior and perhaps unrecognizably different.” (Page 248)
Reading over Bethell’s book last night, I was struck by the fact that most intellectuals today do not believe in progress. They do believe that we are living in a post-fact world. Narrative and spin are the new fact and evidence. How that affects Darwinism is becoming clearer from recent events:
1. Fact becomes narrative: Suppressing discussion is a good goal because there are no facts, just narratives, and it might as well be their narrative. That’s probably what prevented the recent Royal Society rethinking evolution conference from being the intellectual watershed it should have been. The new attitude will also inhibit science progress—but then not so many thinkers believe in progress anymore.
2. Spin Science becomes a political cause, like any other. It has its political friends and foes, and the aim of the planned marches is to force funding and legislation in order to benefit scientists as an identity group. Which, to listen to them, is mainly what the marchers want.
At least they have chosen a goal they are reasonably certain of achieving.
See also: Here, alas, is a throng of women in science who will NOT be the next Lynn Margulis. (Tom Bethell) Because they just want to be “women in science,” upholding the narrative.
Follow UD News at Twitter!