Agnostic Philosopher Caught in Conspiracy to Question Darwinism
The Kansas Board of Education is thinking about implementing science curricula that would teach the controversy over neo-Darwinism. The ultra-Darwinists insist that there is no scientific controversy, that opponents of Darwin's theory of common descent by natural selection are Christian fundamentalists conspiring to establish a global theocracy.
Piercing this smokescreen of ad hominem rhetoric comes the wry voice of Jewish agnostic David Berlinski. In today's Wichita Eagle he writes:
The suggestion that Darwin's theory of evolution is like theories in the serious sciences -- quantum electrodynamics, say -- is grotesque. Quantum electrodynamics is accurate to 13 unyielding decimal places. Darwin's theory makes no tight quantitative predictions at all.Perhaps Berlinski, a philospher and mathematician with a Ph.D. from Princeton, is part of another conspiracy--a plot to ask tough questions.
Will the ultra-Darwinists try to duck the hearings? Will inquiring minds wonder why so many Darwinists are unwilling to defend a theory they claim has overwhelming evidence in its favor? The plot thickens.
Update: The Wichita Eagle cut roughly 300 words from Berlinski's piece. The longer and better version is here.