17th January 2009, 09:47 pm
One of the chief criticisms that I hear levelled against members of the “intellectual dark ages” like myself (e.g. young-earth Creationist types) is that we’re so close-minded. In fact, a popular trend in anti-Creationism writing these days seems to be to argue that Creationism can’t be science because it can’t change. Any idea that is “fixed” and closed for discussion is non-scientific, it is argued, because science never closes the book on anything. If science doesn’t prove hypothesis, but merely fails to falsify them, we need to be open to the idea that our pet theory might have to be changed somewhere down the road.
Now, one might argue that these same people effectively try to “close the book” on evolution, but that’s an argument for another blog entry. My question in this post is this:
Where do people get the idea that creationism isn’t open to change?
Continue reading ‘Creationism - open for change?’ »
17th January 2009, 09:15 pm
Every few weeks, it seems, some state, county, or other unit of government in the States tables a new piece of legislation to appease the “far-right Creationist / Intelligent Design” camp. The new trend seems to be towards “academic freedom” legislation - shouldn’t we allow our teachers the freedom to teach competing ideas? Shouldn’t we be open-minded? One can hardly imagine such legislation getting any play at all in Canada, but it seems to be quite a common occurrence in the US.
For me, the debate is a bit tiring. Now, oddly, I’m one of those pesky young-Earth Creationists (I don’t even waste my time couching it in “Intelligent Design” language, although I don’t mind it if you want to yourself), so you’d think I’d really enjoy this sort of thing, perhaps cheering quietly in front of my computer when the news article hits one of my favourite news sites.
Continue reading ‘Creationism in Schools - Science?’ »