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Let’s Get "Science-Savvy"!

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Stephanie Keep, editor of Reports of the National Center for Science Education for the organization of the same name, is all atwitter about what she calls “science denialism.” Phrases like “science denial” and “evolution denial” are well known to regular readers here at ENV. It is the pejorative label of choice the NCSE likes to apply to anyone who dares question Darwinian biology or the materialist view of science. I should note they also use “climate change denial” on anyone who dares question or doubt their view of climate change. But since that is not an issue we tackle at Discovery Institute, I’ll leave it be. Just know that it’s of a piece with the larger “denialist” charge.

Writing at the NCSE’s Science League of America blog, Ms. Keep frets over how to combat all this “denialism and overall resistance to certain scientific messages.” She writes:

As you might imagine, we talk about denialism a lot around NCSE — it’s quite literally our raison d’�tre. NCSE was founded in the midst of calculated efforts by evolution-deniers to alter how science was taught in public schools. Educators, parents, community members, and others needed help getting organized to counter attempts to teach creationism. NCSE became — and remains — the #1 go-to place for advice, support, and action when science denial comes knocking on the doors of our schools. The metaphor we use around the office is that where there is a fire, NCSE will show up to hand out fire extinguishers.

It’s no surprise the NCSE fancies itself as one of the main defenders of Darwinism in the public schools — Darwinism as dogma, that is, not as a normal scientific idea subject to question and debate. More interesting is Stephanie Keep’s point that the NCSE’s “raison d’�tre” is to combat “denialism.”

The NCSE, of course, throws us into the “denialist” camp. Given all this angst over “denial,” one may well wonder what exactly it is that’s being denied that has the NCSE staff so exercised? Ms. Keep helpfully explains:

We won in Dover — but most students still aren’t adequately learning about evolution. There is an overwhelming consensus about the anthropogenic causes of climate change — but most people still think it’s unsettled. But I don’t think it’s because most people are science denialists — rather, I think that it’s because active efforts to sow confusion and doubt, combined with a relatively low comfort level with science in the general population, have created an epic cloud of confusion around these topics.

Denialism, we learn, refers to “active efforts to sow confusion and doubt” that have “created an epic cloud of confusion” among students and the general population. Oh, for shame! How dare anyone question the pronouncements of the Darwinian priesthood! We’re just sowing the seeds of doubt in impressionable minds!

Rest assured, though, Ms. Keep and NCSE’s President Ann Reid have a solution:

We see our mission as getting teachers, kids, and everyone else to GET IT. As part of that goal, we want to help kids learn the science in a way that shores them up against denial in the present and future. We want to help train teachers to root out and address common and festering misconceptions head-on. In short: We want to do everything we can so that kids — who are growing up in a world where science is often misrepresented — won’t be confused by denialists or turn into denialists.

They even came up with a description for this bold and daring mission: “Here’s our thought: Support the development of a ‘science-savvy’ citizenry — people who have a clear-eyed view of how science works.”

“Science-savvy”…see how clever that is? If you have the slightest doubt about evolutionary theory or question whether it adequately explains what it purports to explain, then you’re no longer just a “science denier” — worse than that, you’re not even “savvy”! And who doesn’t want to be savvy? Never mind that the “clear-eyed view of how science works,” promoted by the NCSE, is nothing short of full-blown philosophical materialism masquerading as science.

We haven’t heard the last about being “science-savvy” from Ms. Keep or the NCSE either. She warns us:

You’ll be hearing a lot more from us in the coming months about our new initiatives to support science savviness. We will continue doing what we’ve always done, too. In fact, we will most likely be doing a lot more of it because the new programs we will be rolling out will lead to the identification of a far greater number of problems in science classrooms — far more fires that will need effective fire extinguishers. But maybe, in a not-too-distant future, there won’t be such a demand for our talents, because a country of science savvy citizens won’t need help defending the integrity of science education because there won’t be viable threats. Fingers crossed for an early retirement!

Perhaps she or one of her colleagues would care to explain how asking whether there is a Darwinian explanation for the origin of biological information observed in the Cambrian explosion amounts to “evolution denial”? Or whether there is an evolutionary explanation for irreducibly complex biological systems?

Calling us “deniers” implies that there is something to deny. Since there is no evolutionary explanation on offer for some important biological features observed in nature, precisely what is being “denied”? Reporting accurately on the state of affairs in evolutionary biology, or sharing with students that mainstream science itself questions key planks of evolutionary theory, is hardly “denial.” It’s the very opposite: recognizing and acknowledging reality. In fact, if I may borrow the phrase from Stephanie Keep, it’s downright “science-savvy.”

Image: � olly / Dollar Photo Club.

Donald McLaughlin

Donald McLaughlin joined Discovery Institute in August 2013 as a Development Officer and Regional Representative in the upper Midwest and Northeast regions. Donald is currently on staff with Ratio Christi as Senior Director of Advancement as well as Chapter Director for Indiana University – South Bend. 

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