A Newspaper Editor Who Has Had Enough Creationist Duplicity
Greg Laden links to an editorial in a Minnesota that would seem to have been written by an editor who has had it with Creationist ignorance and deceit:
Creationists resort to deception in attacking evolutionI don't usually read editorials written in newspapers I've never heard of that are published for cities I've never been to, but this was a particularly excellent one and it's easy to sense , and to sympathize with, Mr. Helmberger's exasperation over Creationist antics.
By Marshall Helmberger
...While I inherently believe in the free exchange of ideas, the purpose of the editorial pages is to discuss ideas and viewpoints that can affect the world in which we live. To a large degree, the debate over evolution doesn’t meet that criteria— because what we all choose to believe on the subject has no bearing whatsoever on what is real.
It’s like arguing about the color of the sky. In the end, there’s nothing that can be done about it anyway.
Personally I don’t care if someone wants to believe that the world is 6,000 years old and that humans walked with dinosaurs.
Where I draw the line is when such individuals try to force their unscientific and insupportable beliefs into the science curriculum of our public schools...
What’s most sad, is that this campaign against evolution has been waged largely through deception and distortion. Indeed, the purveyors of creationism were criticized for their “disingenuous” tactics by Judge John Jones III, who ruled in the Dover, Pennsylvania, case. Jones, by the way, was a religious conservative, appointed by President Bush on the recommendation of fundamentalist former Senator Rick Santorum...
I could go on and on. The list of false arguments, missed points, and outright frauds perpetrated by creationists to attack evolution is long.
And while I am usually more than happy to facilitate free debate, I’m not interested in false debate, either on these pages or online...
I wrote a somewhat wordy response in support of Helmberger's editorial (you've no doubt noticed by now that I never say in a mere paragraph what could be said in a single sentence, I'm sure!). I won't include it here, though I will link to it if it gets published in The Timberjay.
