Vielä on toivoa

Expelled!-elokuvan sanoma akateemisesta vapaudesta on hautautunut Darwin-Hitler propagandan alle. Vihjailut siitä, että Darwin keksi rasismin, antisemitismin, eugeniikan ja kansanmurhat ovat tietenkin [sensuroitu]un tyhmää läppää. Nyt olemme saaneet uskomattoman vahvaa todistusaineistoa ja logiikkaa noiden vihjailujen kumoamiseksi.

Aivan yllättäen tämä argumentaatio esitetään Uncommon Descentissä. Vielä järkyttävämpää on se, että sen esittää itse DaveScot. Siksi haluan tallentaa nämä legendaariset tekstit myös jälkipolville. UD:llä kun on perinteitä jotka tekevät historian tallentamisen vaikeaksi.

Ensin vakiokommentoija kirjoittaa:

If you do any serious searching, you will find that Darwin’s principles of evolution were foundational to both Nazis

Johon DaveScot jyrähtää näin:

Ridiculous. Darwin didn’t discover what could be accomplished through artificial selection. That’s been common knowledge for thousands of years. Darwin first asserted that selection takes place in nature (natural selection) and works the same way as does in artificial breeding of animals. He then extrapolated selection as something that explained not just variation between individuals of the same species but also explained the origin of new species. Attributing more than that to Darwin is either mistaken, uninformed, or dishonest.

Tämä on aiheuttanut spekulaatioita siitä, että joku on haksoroinut Daven tilin UD:ssä. Myöhemmin Dave jatkaa erikoista käytöstään:

There is no possibility that even if Expelled did nothing but document the road to the holocaust it would be anywhere near comprehensive. In the other place where I mentioned Godwin’s Law one of the other participants wrote a 700 page book attempting to connect Darwin to Holocaust and it remains unconvincing to many. Moreover it doesn’t even bother to mention that the eugenics movement in Germany was preceded by the eugenics movement in the United States. That’s a pretty big omission given the subject and detracts considerably from the integrity of the rest of the tome.

Bringing the holocaust into Expelled was nothing but gratuitous. It has no bearing at all on academic persecution of those who believe the universe has purpose and design. It all but destroys that message. Comparing the wholesale slaughter of many millions of people to perhaps hundreds of people losing their jobs trivializes the former in a lame to attempt to elevate the latter. People find that disgusting and virtually every review not authored by ID sympathizers focuses on it. Some reviews start off good to glowing but in the end wind up with an overall rating of “disgusting” because of the holocaust connection. To add insult to injury Expelled, by omission, conflates Social Darwinism with Biological Darwinism. The general public doesn’t know the difference. All they hear is Darwinism.

Kun toinen kommentoija vetelee yhtäläisyysmerkkejä Darwinin ja käsityksiin eriarvoisten rotujen välille, on DaveScot taas kuin toisesta ulottuvuudesta:

You mean like the anti-miscegenation laws in the United States dating back to colonial times that prohibited the marriage of blacks and whites? Perhaps the colonists were prescient and anticipated Darwinian theory 200 years before Darwin was born.

Kaikki tämä on aiheuttanut pyörtymisiä ja panikointia After the Bar Closes-foorumilla. Maailmanlopulla ei voi olla selkeämpiä merkkejä, mutta jotain vielä mysteerisempää on tulossa. Kun kolmas kommentoija StehpenB on lainannut valikoivasti Charles Darwinin Descent of Man-kirjaa, niin DaveScot sivaltaa aivan kuin pahin nettievolutionisti:

Now let’s not leave off the rest of what Darwin wrote immediately following the passage you quoted. I wonder, did you leave it out because of being misinformed, ignorant, or dishonet? I’ll accept your pleading guilty to any one of those. I prefer to think you’re merely uninformed though.

Ja Dave esittää olennaisen osan Darwinin tekstistä, jota StephenB ei esittänyt. Kyseessä on melkein sama kuin se kuuluisa lainaus Lajien synnystä, jossa Darwin kirjoiti silmän kehityksestä.

Itse William Dembski ilmestyy ihmettelemään menoa:

Dear Dave,

Was it a mistake for EXPELLED to address the connection between Nazism and Darwin? If I had done the film, I probably would have used that time to outline more clearly what ID is as a scientific and intellectual project. But the movie we have is the one we have. And in my view the connection between Darwinism and Nazism is stark. I realize that scholarship differs here. But if EXPELLED was going to wade into these waters, I’d say they did as good a job as could be done in 8 minutes. It’s a moot point whether 8 minutes was enough.

Johon DaveScot vastasi:

Bill,

Stuffing the positive evidence for ID into a 90-minute documentary is impractical too and the audience wouldn’t have understood much of it. I’ve been studying it for perhaps thousands of hours and I’m still learning more every day. That said, I’d have done a little more explantory work with the inner cell animation. People intuitively grasp the complexity of a machine and instinctively know that they don’t assemble themselves out of thin air, lightning bolts, and dirt. The problem here is it’s not in my nature to withhold criticism. 90% of Expelled is great. 10% of it is rubbish.

I’m not sure if positive evidence of ID was really necessary though. The theme is academic freedom of inquiry and the underhanded tactics being used to repress unpopular ideas. It’s a freedom of speech issue. If the shoe were on the other foot and creationists were the majority in academia like they are in the general public, and the creationists were the ones using the dirty tactics, I’d be out defending PZ Myers’ and Richard Dawkins’ right to a fair and open hearing to whoever chose to listen to them. Even though I vehemently disagree with them and consider them intellectual degenerates with IQs hardly greater than a turnip they still deserve the right to make their stupid case on a level playing field.

Nyt minun täytyy mennä nukkumaan ja pohtimaan olenko ollut unessa vai valveilla. Toivottavasti valveilla, ja toivottavasti DaveScot jatkaa valitsemallaan tyylillä. Loppuun vielä Daven aloittama ketju, jossa hän selittää enemmän tuosta Darwin-lainauksesta.