These are important distinctions, often glossed over, even by those
advocating for science.  Thanks Scott.
Rick McGirr

-----Original Message-----
From: Parkinson's Information Exchange Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott E Antes
Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 10:01 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Darwin Film "Creation" Controversial

Hi Ray (and All)!  Please accept my apologies for sounding like I'm in the
classroom.  The last thing I want to do is insult anyone's intelligence.  So
many people don't recognize what for me is a very major difference in
thinking, though, that I feel compelled to bring it up.

I make a great effort to help my students understand this: Belief requires
no facts, just faith.  As a scientist--like anyone who simply examines the
evidence, I need not *believe* in biological evolution; I *accept* it and I
*know* it, from the overwhelming facts that exist.  We have fossil evidence
of it, DNA evidence of it, archaeological evidence of it, and now we can
*watch it occur*--something we couldn't do very well a few decades ago.
Most of us who teach university-level courses no longer use the term
"evolutionary theory" because it's confusing or misleading.  (A theory is an
explanation, but no more than that until it is supported by factual
evidence.)  We teach evolutionary science.  Nothing we teach in science is a
matter of opinion, it's a matter of facts.  Again, belief doesn't enter the
picture.

As far as the statistic of only 39 percent of Americans "believing" in
evolution, that figure certainly is not representative of the hundreds of
students I've had over the past decade and a half.  Per my experience, the
number of university students (again, those in my classes) who accept
evolutionary science as fact is closer to 80 percent.--maybe higher  That
figure might be lower on the first day of a freshman class, but by the last
day they've examined the facts for themselves and drawn their own
conclusions, favoring knowledge.  A minority, however, always will believe
what they've been told to believe, regardless of solid evidence to the
contrary.

Belief is an amazingly powerful phenomenon, but we don't need it in terms of
biological evolution.  Human evolution has favored us with the ability for
abstract thought, thus the ability to believe in that which we cannot
perceive with our senses.  Belief was a powerful survival tool for our
ancestors.  What they couldn't know, they had to believe.  Today belief
still is useful to us, of course, but we have supplanted it in many respects
with knowledge: scientific knowledge, historical knowledge, the knowledge
that comes from a wider range of personal experiences than our ancestors
had.  Our *scale of observation* is hundreds of thousands of times wider
than that of our ancestors.  Yet, many people today continue to believe what
our ancestors believed.  They will believe beliefs that have been passed on
through millennia, even those the facts dispute them.  Pretty amazing, when
one thinks about it.

Bottom line: Please let's not *believe* in biological evolution.  That's
like believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy.  In other words, if we
must believe in something, believe those things for which we have no
evidence.  Otherwise, let's either accept the facts, or not.  

Be well.  Scott
   
Scott E. Antes
Northern Arizona University
Department of Anthropology
PO Box 15200
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
________________________________________
From: Parkinson's Information Exchange Network
[[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of rayilynlee [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 1:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Darwin Film "Creation" Controversial

only 39% of Americans believe in evolution; many people are hostile to the
scientific method which is self correcting and this has negative
consequences for those of us unlucky enough to have incurable diseases.

Rayilyn Brown
Director AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation
[log in to unmask]


From: Diane Wyshak
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 1:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask] ; ray ; don C. Reed ; chew Nee Kong
Subject: Is Darwin Film "Creation" Too Controversial for American Audiences?
< MrGreen.Biz



http://mrgreenbiz.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/is-darwin-film-creation-too-contr
oversial-for-american-audiences/

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