creationism & intelligent design

creationism

• religious belief that everything in the universe was created intentionally by thorough supernatural means

  • i.e, divine creation

• there are many different forms of creationism that have varying levels of acceptance of scientific facts, like evolution

• Remember that it is ok to have creationist beliefs so long as they are understood to be religious in nature

  • As we will discuss, the problem is when religious beliefs are treated as scientific

• Most common form of creationism is Young Earth Creationism

  • Belief that earth and everything on it was created in the last 10,000 years

  • Idea is based on using the Christian Bible as a factual document and working backward using “begats”

  • Often uses on Flood Geology for support

flood geology

• Pseudoscientific attempt to interpret geological features on earth, to the flood narrative in Genesis from the Bible

• Primarily used by Young Earth Creationists to support their ideology with “evidence”

the atlas of creation

• Series of books written by Adan Oktar under the penname Harun Yahya

• Thousands of copies of these books were mailed to universities and scholars all over the world from ~2007-2012

  • Unclear who funded this initiative, which must have cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars

• Book intentionally presents biological evolution as a lie using weird arguments and high-quality images

  • Many of the images in the book were used without permission of the original authors

  • In addition to its lack of scholarly nature, the book is also full of errors

    • Species are mislabeled, misnamed, etc.

intelligent design

• Form of creationism that describes itself as scientific, but is not empirical

  • Thus, making it pseudoscience

• Championed by the Discovery Institute

  • Nonprofit advocacy group created to support ID and the teaching of creationism in public schools

• Argument for the existence of God, presented as “an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins”

• Basis of intelligent design is:

• “certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection”

• Goal of ID is to present creationism as a scientific concept and to use it to invalidate scientific arguments for evolution

  • Proponents intentionally avoid using arguments invoking God in order to avoid undermining their pseudoscientific argument

    • i.e., They intentionally mislead audiences with their arguments for ID

• Two main arguments:

  • Irreducible Complexity

  • Specified Complexity

    • Both are similar to each other and intend to mislead audiences as to the nature of evolution

      • They are intentionally confusing, logical fallacies

• Irreducible Complexity

  • Certain biological systems require multiple interacting parts and would not function if one were to be removed

    • Tries to invalidate the idea of natural section based on the idea that current systems are perfect and could not have evolved over time with small modifications

• Specified Complexity

  • Features could not have formed through undirected evolution

    • Meaning there must be some force directing evolutionary change

    • “A single letter of the alphabet is specified without being complex. A long sentence of random letters is complex without being specified. A Shakespearean sonnet is both complex and specified”

legal challenges

• The goal of ID is to have it taught in schools alongside science and evolution

• Proponents argued that science teachers needed to “Teach the Controversy” and give ID the same attention as natural selection and evolution

  • This led to a trial in PA where ID was being taught in public school science classes

• Kitzmiller V. Dover Area School District

  • Plaintiffs argued ID was a form of creationism and teaching it in school violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution

  • “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”

• In 2005 Judge Jones ruled in favor of the plaintiffs

  • Dover mandate to teach ID is unconstitutional as it reflects establishing a religion

  • This barred ID from being taught in PA public school classrooms

anti-evolution legislation

• A number of bills have been proposed that would undermine science education in the USA

• Most of these argue for “academic freedom” saying teachers should be able to present creationist ideas as an equal counterpoint to evolution and that teachers need to be defended for their religious beliefs

• These bills typically fail to become enacted into law

• However, the Louisiana Science Education Act was passed in 2008 which allows creationism to be taught in science classrooms

  • Basis is “critical thinking and creationism”

• We should not be surprised if similar bills become passed in FL or NC in the coming years

why care about teaching ID?

• It is a nonempirical idea being presented as an empirical

  • Only seeks confirmations in the natural world

• Misuses critical thinking in order to support its existence

  • This leads to a breakdown in critical/analytical thinking

    • Results in poor decision-making