Mon, 06/23/2008 - 4:10pm — lambert
In the long-running culture war between evolution and creationism, Philadelphia is firing the latest shot.
Nine academic, scientific and cultural institutions around the city are holding a Year of Evolution, a series of exhibitions, seminars and lectures to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin next February, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, “The Origin of Species.”
And if the Christianists are offended....
So fucking what?
NOTE That would include the Joshua Generation, by the way. Just sayin.
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Yay, Philly!
Well done, indeed.
Science and knowledge, these are good things.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
Interesting how the Times
frames this as Philadelphia's salvo in the "culture war," a frame readily accepted by Ken Ham at the Creation Museum, but specifically rejected by William Brown of the Academy of Natural Sciences. By perpetuating this frame, the Times perpetuates the delusion that this is a "war" of equal ideas.
Good on Philadelphia and its many august institutions (the University of Pennsylvania, the Franklin Institute, and the ANS, among others). Darwinian evolution is taught in all of those institutions not because of faith, but because of the 150 years of scientific research that has borne out the basics of Darwin's theory. They shouldn't feel embattled, because all of the credible research is on their side. Conceiving of this as a "war" only serves the interests of the wrong-headed minority of credentialed professionals and their uncredentialed followers.