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February 11, 2006
Why Give Him This Much Copy?
The Los Angeles Times has an article, starting on the front page no less, by Stephanie Simon about the silliness of the Evangelist Ken Ham. Yes, Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis fame. I have mostly negative feelings about this article. Is seems to be an accurate portrayal of Ham's evangelistic mission to wipe out the last two hundred years of science in a half a dozen different disciplines. And it says the right things about science,
The vast majority of scientists find no credible evidence to dispute this account [evolution] and a tremendous amount to support it. They've identified thousands of transitional fossils, such as a whale that lumbered on land; a bird with reptilian features; and "Lucy," a remote cousin of modern man who walked on two legs but swung from trees like a chimp.
and
Ham and his fellow evangelists "do a lot to promote a climate of ignorance, skepticism and hostility with respect to evolution," said Branch, deputy director of the nonprofit National Center for Science Education.Evolution has scored a few high-profile victories. A federal judge ruled in December that the school board in Dover, Pa., could not require teachers to discuss intelligent design (the concept that some life is so complex, it could not have evolved by random chance). And in Cobb County, Ga., a federal judge ruled that disclaimers pasted onto science textbooks were illegal. (The stickers, removed last year, called evolution "a theory, not a fact.")
But it says them too infrequently and too late. The first quotation above is over one third of the way into the article and the second is near the end. One has the impression that Simon is trying to be "fair and balanced" by giving a nod to evolution. Long before we hear what those who actually look at the evidence think of Ham's nonsense, we hear how Ham teaches children to disrupt their classroom and in so doing we learn how we, if we are so inclined, can teach our own children to do it too. Long before we hear that "Ham and his fellow evangelists 'do a lot to promote a climate of ignorance, skepticism and hostility with respect to evolution,'" we hear that the Bible teaches all the geology and biology we need to know.
My real problem with this article is that it gives just too much credibility and print to a person and institution that seeks to intimidate teachers and turn students into propagandists for a religious dogma. In most other contexts, this behavior would be seen as evil but I'm not sure that Simon or many of her readers will see it this way. The LA Times would not have given this much press to Charles Johnson the once famous flat earth proponent and they should not give this much press to his near intellectual relative.
Posted by DuaneSmith at February 11, 2006 10:10 AM | Read more on Evolution |
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