Friday, February 24, 2006

The scientific conspiracy

World Net Daily jumped all over this article, of course. One of the twelve Creationist Tactics is, "Interpret any uncertainty anywhere in science as total uncertainty everywhere in science." We have an unexpected result, therefore science has got it all wrong, especially about Evil-oooootion.

What's the fuss about?

The discovery of a furry, beaver-like animal that lived at the time of dinosaurs has overturned more than a century of scientific thinking about Jurassic mammals.

The find shows that the ecological role of mammals in the time of dinosaurs was far greater than previously thought, said Zhe-Xi Luo, curator of vertebrate paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.

I have questions about the details of this find, but they'll wait. For now, I have a comment.

Creationists of all stripes, from the Biblical Literalists to the ID/IOT movement, offer the charge that science has closed its collective mind – and closed ranks – against any data that might overturn the evolutionary paradigm, the only theory blessed by the materialist establishment.

Because of this conspiracy, any facts that might tend to overturn Holy Evolution are excluded from the journals and classrooms, and suppressed in any other way that may be needed.

Except – this report made it into the journals, and the AP, and the New York Times, and...

Some have argued that scientists force the data into interpretations that will support evolution. Indeed, some accuse scientists of committing fraud to bolster evolution. Problem is, here's something that has not been interpreted away, or reinterpreted so it's a better fit to what scientists think happened.

Here is an example (you listening, creationists and ID/IOTs?) of how real science works. Researchers have turned up a fossil that surprises everyone, because it doesn't fit the story they've all thought was true. If this fossil checks out, science will change the story, but keep the fossil – the exact opposite of what Creationism does.

No comments: