Losing the battle for truth
Tonight I watched James Carville debate Ralph Reed on the topic of teaching creationism in schools. Despite the fact that Carville had all the facts on his side, he ended up looking stupid. And this, from a man who is considered a master of the political mudfight.
It is time for this to stop, and the only way for it to stop is for pro-science people to stop being so bloody earnest, and to admit there is an element of verbal gamesmanship to the process. The creationists figured this out long ago, and they had to, because they don't have anything else on their side, such as facts. Defenders of science have let the creationists frame the debate, and on those terms, truth usually gets whomped.
The ironic thing is that we don't have to abandon truth to win the contest of verbal gymnastics. We just need to be more clever, and more aggressive, in re-framing the debate. For example: Reed repeatedly looked into the camera with his earnest expression and said "Jim, it's only about academic freedom! Why can't we hear people with other views and then make up our minds?" Carville responded, predicably, by ranting about how we "have to teach hard, cold science", and how "all scientists agree about evolution". In doing so, he appeared to validate Reed's view that scientists are dogmatic, and that science is a closed club with no room for dissent. This is exactly how the religious zealots want people to see us!
What if, instead, Carville had replied thus: "Ralph, we believe in academic freedom. Academic freedom only works when it is linked to intellectual honesty. The day a creationist comes to us with an argument that is intellectually honest, we will welcome them into the classroom. Until then, what you are advocating is faith, not science."
Or thus: "Ralph, I am glad you raise the topic of academic freedom. Because that is what Christians like Charles Darwin did not have when they first began looking for evidence of God's grand design. When Darwin was forced by the facts to admit that God might be working through something like evolution, he risked his life in the process. And people like you have never stopped trying to drown out the message. So don't lecture us about academic freedom."
If our spokesmen were to stop being so defensive, and take the zealots on with their own hatchets, the zealots would not be winning. Unfortunately, this is not a matter of taste. It is a matter of our national future. Countries like India and China are poised to run us over in the most brutal fashion, and they are using education to do it. How are we going to compete if we can't convince our own kids that investigation, questioning and thought are legitimate ways to get answers about the world?
Instead, in America, science has been painted as religious dogma. How ironic, since it was once the deconstructionists on the Left who claimed that the scientific method was all an artifact of peoples' prejudices and social conditioning, and that there are no facts. The Right used to hate that kind of thinking. Yet, here they are today, using clever turns of phrase to portray scientific consensus as a totally arbitrary choice, subject to social prejudice and up for a vote. The difference is that the deconstructionists never influenced anyone outside their own weird little echo chamber, while the religious zealots are undermining a key foundation of our nation's strength. We owe it to our children to do a better job of defending their future.
It is time for this to stop, and the only way for it to stop is for pro-science people to stop being so bloody earnest, and to admit there is an element of verbal gamesmanship to the process. The creationists figured this out long ago, and they had to, because they don't have anything else on their side, such as facts. Defenders of science have let the creationists frame the debate, and on those terms, truth usually gets whomped.
The ironic thing is that we don't have to abandon truth to win the contest of verbal gymnastics. We just need to be more clever, and more aggressive, in re-framing the debate. For example: Reed repeatedly looked into the camera with his earnest expression and said "Jim, it's only about academic freedom! Why can't we hear people with other views and then make up our minds?" Carville responded, predicably, by ranting about how we "have to teach hard, cold science", and how "all scientists agree about evolution". In doing so, he appeared to validate Reed's view that scientists are dogmatic, and that science is a closed club with no room for dissent. This is exactly how the religious zealots want people to see us!
What if, instead, Carville had replied thus: "Ralph, we believe in academic freedom. Academic freedom only works when it is linked to intellectual honesty. The day a creationist comes to us with an argument that is intellectually honest, we will welcome them into the classroom. Until then, what you are advocating is faith, not science."
Or thus: "Ralph, I am glad you raise the topic of academic freedom. Because that is what Christians like Charles Darwin did not have when they first began looking for evidence of God's grand design. When Darwin was forced by the facts to admit that God might be working through something like evolution, he risked his life in the process. And people like you have never stopped trying to drown out the message. So don't lecture us about academic freedom."
If our spokesmen were to stop being so defensive, and take the zealots on with their own hatchets, the zealots would not be winning. Unfortunately, this is not a matter of taste. It is a matter of our national future. Countries like India and China are poised to run us over in the most brutal fashion, and they are using education to do it. How are we going to compete if we can't convince our own kids that investigation, questioning and thought are legitimate ways to get answers about the world?
Instead, in America, science has been painted as religious dogma. How ironic, since it was once the deconstructionists on the Left who claimed that the scientific method was all an artifact of peoples' prejudices and social conditioning, and that there are no facts. The Right used to hate that kind of thinking. Yet, here they are today, using clever turns of phrase to portray scientific consensus as a totally arbitrary choice, subject to social prejudice and up for a vote. The difference is that the deconstructionists never influenced anyone outside their own weird little echo chamber, while the religious zealots are undermining a key foundation of our nation's strength. We owe it to our children to do a better job of defending their future.
posted by Carlos Zapato at 9:53 PM
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