Spring Break
The Discovery Institute: harming us with pseudoscience
Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: Opinion
There is nothing wrong with holding religious beliefs and believing in science - I know many Christians that do so and have stronger faith for it. You can not bring your religious beliefs into science, however, because as soon as you do you have corrupted the scientific method and are no longer talking about rationality and logic - you are talking about faith and emotion.
Carl Sagan once said that science is like a candle in the dark. It helps us to illuminate our world with the advances and progress it brings. He also warned that science could be used for ill when it is in the wrong hands - mainly by people who hold narrow-minded and pseudoscientific world views. With the amount of turmoil in our world today, it shocks me that people could still be fighting an institution (science) that has progressed humanity further than any economic, political or religious system ever has.
Unlike any other force in our world, science has the power to save or destroy humanity. The Discovery Institute is an institution that fights and corrupts this power by confusing the scientific process and preaches pseudoscience to a generally unaware audience.
For those that fear science and see it as a negative influence in society (i.e. the Discovery Institute) I have just one more comment to make. Carl Sagan once marveled at the furthest photo of Earth ever taken by Voyager I on Feb. 14, 1990 making a very poignant philosophical statement.
"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.
It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." This is what science if used properly can bring, hope to humanity.
The Discovery Institute can believe in a deity - it is their right. The Discovery Institute can not pass off that belief as science. When they try to they only show their own inability to come to terms with our existence on this little pale blue dot. Believe in God, believe in humanity, believe what you will, but please realize that well practiced science is the best thing we as a species have to fight tyranny, environmental degradation, illness and suffering.
About the writer:
Ben Wells is a junior anthropology major. He can be reached a bwells@smu.edu.
Carl Sagan once said that science is like a candle in the dark. It helps us to illuminate our world with the advances and progress it brings. He also warned that science could be used for ill when it is in the wrong hands - mainly by people who hold narrow-minded and pseudoscientific world views. With the amount of turmoil in our world today, it shocks me that people could still be fighting an institution (science) that has progressed humanity further than any economic, political or religious system ever has.
Unlike any other force in our world, science has the power to save or destroy humanity. The Discovery Institute is an institution that fights and corrupts this power by confusing the scientific process and preaches pseudoscience to a generally unaware audience.
For those that fear science and see it as a negative influence in society (i.e. the Discovery Institute) I have just one more comment to make. Carl Sagan once marveled at the furthest photo of Earth ever taken by Voyager I on Feb. 14, 1990 making a very poignant philosophical statement.
"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.
It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." This is what science if used properly can bring, hope to humanity.
The Discovery Institute can believe in a deity - it is their right. The Discovery Institute can not pass off that belief as science. When they try to they only show their own inability to come to terms with our existence on this little pale blue dot. Believe in God, believe in humanity, believe what you will, but please realize that well practiced science is the best thing we as a species have to fight tyranny, environmental degradation, illness and suffering.
About the writer:
Ben Wells is a junior anthropology major. He can be reached a bwells@smu.edu.
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 18
Enezio E. de Almeida Filho
posted 4/14/07 @ 6:03 AM CST
I was astonished reading this post: Ben Wells needs to know that Darwin was more liberal than him. Darwin said that there are points in his theory that are debatable, and need to be fairly considered. (Continued…)
Scott Beach
posted 4/14/07 @ 3:13 PM CST
The proponents of intelligent design frequently state that ID is the "best" explanation for "certain features of the universe". They state that opinion of ID but they never present ID in the form of a scientific hypothesis. (Continued…)
Paul Burnett
posted 4/14/07 @ 8:24 PM CST
Unfortunately, the Disco Institute has already issued a response to Ben's story - at http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/04/ignorance_is_bliss_when_it_com. (Continued…)
Floyd Lee
posted 4/15/07 @ 3:08 PM CST
Just a small but important reminder from (non-creationist) philosopher of science Larry Laudan:
"If we could stand up on the side of reason, we ought to drop terms like 'pseudo-science. (Continued…)
Ben Wells
posted 4/15/07 @ 5:11 PM CST
I would just like to state a few clarifications that came up in a few of the Discovery Institutes biased blogs.
First of they obviously did not read my article with an unbiased eye - my ONLY point was that the Discovery Institute begs the question that a deity (they don't refer to it of course as such because then they cant pretend to be a non-religious scientific institution) and that because they do such a thing they can not base their claims in science. (Continued…)
bryan dunn
posted 4/15/07 @ 9:29 PM CST
Good critique of the Disovery Institute and exposing of their tactics.
We have to be aware that science can be hijacked by shysters and need to be vigilant against pseudoscience. (Continued…)
Tim
posted 4/15/07 @ 10:18 PM CST
Enezio needs to remember that the Theory of Evolution is no longer 'Darwin's Theory' -- it has been tested, modified and expanded enormously since Darwin's time. (Continued…)
The Goldstein Gang
posted 4/16/07 @ 6:23 AM CST
And what about groups actually pushing an atheist agenda and using science as a front?
He have a "science" group in Kansas, in the heart of the controversy, that pretends to be about science but is dominated by board memebers with an anti religious agenda and devoted, by their own admission, to making the religious appear in the harshest light possible. (Continued…)
Ben (the other one)
posted 4/16/07 @ 10:00 AM CST
I congratulate you on outing the quackery of Intelligent Design. I don't believe scientific inquiry at American universities are at all threatened by the ID political agenda, but the American public is another story. (Continued…)
David Hardy
posted 4/16/07 @ 9:24 PM CST
Interesting editorial, even though you never saw the science presented by the ID folks, which is obvious, you never offered any science of your own. That is mainly because none exist, especially those that the SMU Prof's proposed in the Dallas Morning News editorial last week which have also never been proved and have been dispelled thousands of times but yet claim to be solid science. (Continued…)
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