Tech Central Station's James Pinkerton looks at what happens when we deny the fact of evolution. It's an example of when political correctness runs up against the hard rocks of reality:
The first kind of political correctness to take a hit is, interestingly, a p.c. of the religious right: creationism. If some Christians wish to believe that dinosaurs and cavemen co-existed -- because after all, the Bible says that the world is just a few thousand years old -- that's not necessarily devastating. If Christian literalism chooses to deny evolution, that's arguably harmless. But the AIDS superbug, nevertheless, is evolving, and it's evolving according to the immutable principles of natural selection. That is, the killer virus is playing by the exact same rules that have refereed life over the last three-and-a-half billion years.
Creationists have finally given in to the fact that evolution happens. They call evolutionary change which absolutely can't be denied, "micro-evolution". Anything else, they dub "macro-evolution" and declare that level of change impossible. Dogs were always dogs, cats were always cats, and most of all, humans were always humans. Yet there is no "micro- and macro-" evolution. It's all evolution. If you believe there are barriers beyond which change won't happen, you're going to get a very nasty shock one of these days.
Scientists have now found two new kinds of retrovirus, and we've seen a couple of cases where patients have progressed from HIV-positive to full-blown AIDS in record time. These new strains exist, and they've evolved from existing viruses. And they're going to keep doing so, if we give them half a chance. Just as abuse of antibiotics encourages the spread of antibiotic resistant pathogens, the behavior that spreads AIDS encourages the spread of drug-resistant strains of HIV.
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