The Fallacy of the Day comes from Sam Brownback. You may remember him — in a recent debate, he was one of three Republicans who didn’t ‘believe in evolution’. This means he’s too stupid to run for president of the USA, and America being what it is, that’s exactly what he wants to do.
Now he’s written this piece: What I Think About Evolution.
Just a note here: It matters not a jot what Mr Brownback or I or anyone else ‘thinks’ or ‘believes’ about evolution. Evolution is happening all the same, though we may need to update the theory from time to time as evidence warrants. Actually, I don’t believe in evolution either; I accept it as a more or less correct theory. But let’s put semantics and pedantics aside.
Here’s the heart of his argument:
The question of evolution goes to the heart of this issue. If belief in evolution means simply assenting to microevolution, small changes over time within a species, I am happy to say, as I have in the past, that I believe it to be true. If, on the other hand, it means assenting to an exclusively materialistic, deterministic vision of the world that holds no place for a guiding intelligence, then I reject it.
…
The most passionate advocates of evolutionary theory offer a vision of man as a kind of historical accident. That being the case, many believers — myself included — reject arguments for evolution that dismiss the possibility of divine causality.
The fallacy committed here is that of wishful thinking. Mr Brownback doesn’t like the idea that humans might have arisen through random, unguided chance, so he’s agin’ it.
Let’s inform the scientists. Everyone: the Republican from Kansas doesn’t like it. It must not be true.
1 June 2007 at 8:06 pm
reject arguments for evolution that dismiss the possibility of divine causality
I’ve never heard an argument for evolution that dismisses the possibilitiy of divine causality. Why would a scientist waste time on an unverifiable theory. Just the facts please.
I could just as easily say that I don’t beleive in gravity because it dismisses the possibility that it is god’s will that all masses be attracted to each other in the same way.
2 June 2007 at 5:34 am
Unrelated:
http://rateyourstudents.blogspot.com/
2 June 2007 at 2:02 pm
Jeff: Exactly what I was thinking. Certainly it’s an strong implication of evolution, but it’s sort of tangential.
That said, Darwinian evolution makes belief in a god optional. I don’t know of a theory pre Darwin that explained how all this complexity got to be here. Liberal believers try to accommodate evolution because it’s well-supported and they’re intelligent, honest people, but they go wrong because they try to pretend there’s no conflict between evolution and faith when in fact there is. Religious fundamentalists hate evolution because they correctly understand that here is the theory that sweeps theism off the map. This is why they fight it so hard. The see the writing on the wall.
4 June 2007 at 2:41 pm
Ohh, now you’ve done it. Insulting me by saying that religious fundamentalists see the truth more clearly than me is not going to go unnoticed. Liberal non-beleivers try to accommodate the unknown, allowing for change as new evidence is found because they are not so arrogant as to think that just because thier current view is well supported in fact, a larger view may still be possible.
5 June 2007 at 1:50 am
What can I say, except you’re right about liberal non-believers. But I’m sticking to mah guns — every once in a while the fundies get it right by pure accident, and this is one of those times. Evolution is a threat to their blinkered understanding of the universe. You have to admit, they are good at knowing when their views are threatened, mostly because they always think they’re being threatened.
What; you don’t think evolution puts theism to bed? All right: a god might be proven tomorrow, and if so, I’ll follow the evidence. But you know as well as I that the evidence as it stands today is poor.
15 June 2007 at 10:51 am
Sam Brownback is evidence against evolution. I can just imagine him walking down the street…hunching over more and more, fists dragging along the ground..
16 June 2007 at 1:02 am
Actually, I think this might be evidence for evolution. Brownback’s trogloditic stance adapts him perfectly to the community of knuckle-draggers who vote for him.