Listen to this discussion on evolution between biologist Dr. Curt Stager and Elder Hans Hollis of the Jehovah's Witnesses church in Saranac Lake at NCPR. It takes place in a classroom at Paul Smiths College.
A number of points:
1. Elder Hollis believes the earth is 7000 years old. That should end the discussion right there.
2. Elder Hollis displays his lack of knowledge by dragging out the old creationist interpretation of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics argument that supposedly disproves evolution. Even pro-creationist websites believe this argument should not be used in an attempt to disprove evolution. Primarily because it doesn't disprove evolution if you really understand the Law.
3. Elder Hollis then drags out the ol complexity of the eyeball story. Way too complex to have evolved on its own. Russell Fernald disagrees in a recent Science article.
4. Elder Hollis admits small changes in species can occur over time but apparently doesn't believe larger changes can occur over even longer time periods. So he believes in microevolution but not macroevolution.
Only 40% of the USA population believes in evolution. We don't need to cast more doubt on evolution in the science classroom. Leave the discussion to a religion or philosophy class.
Have questions about evolution? Get answers here.
Evidence for macroevolution here.
The earth is old, not young.
1 comment:
I think discussion in the science classroom - especially at the college level - can be acceptable. I don't think creationism or intelligence design belong in the classroom as a main part of a science course - they just don't fit the bill of science.
A professor I had in school taught his 100 level students with the standard biology textbook and also included a hokum book by an ID'er (Jonathen Wells, I think) and found that allowing the students to process the evidence on their own caused students to overwhelmigly change their beliefs in favor of evolution.
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