Evolution

Let me just take a detour from the Egyptian vacation to discuss a topic that, sadly, is far more controversial than it should be in this day and age: evolution

I am currently rereading one of my favourite science books, The Ancestor's Tale by Prof. Richard Dawkins. Professor Dawkins is one of the most famous evolutionary biologists in the world but lately he is in the public eye more for his work critically analysing religion, such as his book The God Delusion and his documentary The Root of All Evil. Even if you are a deeply religious person in staunch disagreement with his views on religion (which I also take to mean that you have actually watched/read the aforementioned documentary/book so that you know what his arguments are), you should not dismiss his books on biology and evolutionary theory. They are great reading for the layman and allow evolution and current discoveries in biology to be understood by us non-biologists.

The more scientists reveal about biology, geology, physics, chemistry, astronomy (etc.), the more fascinating a place the universe becomes. Measuring the movement of continents, the finding of planets around other stars, the interactions of subatomic particles; the more science discovers the more we realize that there is yet more to discover. And in doing so our knowledge grows, and the amount of knowledge we now have about biology is staggering. When creationists say that evolution is "only a theory" they try to paint it as a mere possibility that scientists aren't entirely sure about. The creationists are wrong. They are trying to downplay the vast amount of evidence supporting evolution and trying to sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of people not well-versed in science. Evolution is a fact. I will let Professor Dawkins do the talking about evidence in biology. From The Ancestor's Tale (emphasis in original):


"If every fossil were magicked away, the comparative study of modern organisms, of how their patterns of resemblances, especially of their genetic sequences, are distributed among species, and of how species are distributed among continents and islands, would still demonstrate, beyond all sane doubt, that our history is evolutionary, and that all living creatures are cousins. Fossils are a bonus. A welcome bonus, to be sure, but not an essential one. It is worth remembering this when creationists go on about 'gaps' in the fossil record. The fossil record could be one big gap, and the evidence for evolution would still be overwhelmingly strong. At the same time, if we had only fossils and no other evidence, the fact of evolution would again be overwhelmingly supported. As things stand, we are blessed with both."


Unfortunately many people with strong religious views oppose evolution (not just fundamentalist Christians, members of other religions as well), because they believe it disagrees with their interpretation of religious scripture. They are very vocal, especially in the United States, and have been trying all sorts of ways to push their religious views on the population as a whole. A current method in the US is the "intelligent design" movement, which posits that life may have been created by an "intelligent designer" and that this should also be taught in biology classes. They argue that it is not religion because the intelligent designer is not necessarily God. To no one's surprise though all of the proponents of this view are anti-evolution Christians. They attempted recently to get intelligent design taught in a US school district, the resulting court case was very revealing. Here is the summary:

-- "intelligent design" is nothing more than renamed creationism
-- the "intelligent designer" is clearly implied to be the God of the Bible
-- "intelligent design" makes no scientifically testable predictions
-- it is not science and cannot be taught in science class.

The judge's summation is quite damning of the creationists, and the judge (a Lutheran appointed to the post by then President Bush) was shocked at how many of the Christian defendants were obfuscating, contradicting, and in some cases outright lying in their testimony. I recommend everyone read his summation here.

"Intelligent design" is nothing more than creationism renamed to try to hide its religiousness.

It is unfortunate that rather than embracing knowledge there are still many out there who prefer to ignore or suppress any discoveries that do not fit with their own pre-determined view of the universe. We saw the consequences of this in Europe during the Middle Ages. The Islamic world has also seen the consequences of this. From about the 8th to the 15th centuries AD the Islamic world was one of the most advanced in terms of science and mathematics, its centres of learning in places like Damascus rivalling anything in Europe. But strife, invasions, and the rise of religious fundamentalism changed that, allowing Europeans, who by the 15th century had little more than Latin translations of Arabic works (of which many of those were Arabic translations of original Greek and Roman works), to build upon the discoveries of thinkers in the Islamic world* and quickly surpass them in terms of science and technology. And here we are in the 21st century yet there are is still a significant number of people in the West who attempt to suppress discoveries and knowledge purely for religious reasons. It is a shame.

Here are a few websites where you can find all sorts of information about biology and evolution. Please take some time to surf through them.

Talk Origins
Pharyngula, one of the best biology blogs
Panda's Thumb blog
and, once again, The Dover Trial
and there's a million other links to good biology and palentology resources here

*I keep using the term "Islamic world" instead of terms like "Muslim" because some prominent thinkers of the Islamic world, such as Maimonides, were Jewish.