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Defend Science, Darwin and the Biologists
Defend Science had an
exhibit table at
the SICB (Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology) conference
in early January (the SICB is one of the major professional
organization of biologists in the US. Approximately 1800 biologists
and students attended). We learned a great deal: About important new
organizations and efforts to popularize science; about the fierce
struggle biologists are waging against creationist attacks on
evolution, and in some cases just to teach evolution; and about what
scientists and others can do to fight for science now – especially
around Darwin Day and Darwin Year.
A few important things about
the
“landscape” in relation to science:
-Darwin Day and Darwin Year
are going
to be society-wide events this year; this is very important at this
time when the battle over evolution is sharpening up.
- There is an emerging
phenomenon of
“Science Festivals”, which aim to popularize science broadly.
There are five new Science Festivals in cities in North America in
2009 (up from zero, two years ago): Cambridge; New York; St.
Louis; San Diego; and Montreal. Two other cities where there are
active plans to bring a festival into being: San Francisco and
Philadelphia.
- COPUS (Coalition on the
Public
Understanding of Science) officially launched the “Year of Science
2009” (COPUS is a coalition which includes hundreds of scientific
and science-friendly organizations. It aims to reach out to the
public to raise the “understanding of science and its value to
society”.) At the SICB conference, COPUS was popularizing the new
“Understanding Science” website, which went on-line during the
conference. The website is aimed at teaching the scientific method in
schools, from kindergarten through high school.
- A number of activities are
going on
around Darwin Day and Darwin Year. Some of what we learned included:
National Geographic is coming out, in their February
issue,
with a major article on Darwin; there is a call in the blogosphere
for blogs to enact special Darwin Day posts; and NOVA is
coming out, in November, with three specials relevant to evolution,
including one on Darwin.
To give a basic picture of
the Defend
Science experience at the SICB conference: We spent the first full
day talking to a wide range of people and one thing we summed up is
that the biologists are the “canaries in the coal mine” of this
epistemological battle – the society wide fight over the basic
question of how to know and change the world. The biologists are, as
a whole, sharply engaged, especially in the South and Midwest, but
also countrywide, in a battle over the teaching of evolution, which
they see as a part of a much larger battle over critical thinking and
a scientific understanding of the world.
Predominantly, the people
who came to
our table were very open to our basic message that while there will
be some changes with Obama, in terms of science, there remains a big
fight over evolution; this fight has everything to do with science
and scientific thinking; and right now, things are getting worse,
not better around this – and we need to ACT!
A few stories should help
paint this
picture:
- One young man from a small
town in
Louisiana talked to us at some length. In his town they don’t even
bother with “Intelligent Design”, just the “young earth”
creationism is put forward. He and his mother have stood up to this
and have become public figures, of a sort; they’ve been politically
attacked.
- Two young biology grad
students came
up to us from St. Louis. They said they felt that many grad students
really wanted to take science to the people broadly, but they often
didn’t know how to do this. They said that in St. Louis there is an
organized program with “science buses” that go out to the masses
with science and that they are part of that activity, but they know
this doesn’t exist elsewhere.
- There were many people who
spoke of
plans they knew of around Darwin Day, but they were usually somewhat
confined to the science sections of the campuses – in some cases by
the orders of the administration – and while there were a few
professors who were reaching out to the local communities with these
programs, that was the exception. And, there were many places where
no programs were planned.
- There was a huge battle
over teaching
evolution in Florida last year, which ended with the state
legislature not passing a creationist bill for what seemed like
bureaucratic reasons. Some professors involved in that fight said
that they felt that this was going to come back, and that the bill
would likely pass.
- While most of the people
we talked to
believe that Obama brings a change for the better, few thought that
Obama was going to “go to bat” for evolution; they paid careful
attention to the Defend Science analysis of the way the fight over
evolution is sharpening up and that without people waging this fight
there exists a very dangerous trajectory.
- There was a great deal of
intense
thought and grappling – among the people who came from areas where
the Christian fundamentalists are strong – about how to
teach evolution. A few very openly said that they didn’t feel that
they could teach evolution. Nearly everyone had given a lot of
thought about how. Many agreed that they had to take a firm
stand, talk a lot about what is science, its method, studying
reality and testing those observations, and, on the basis of firmly
established results, then get into evolution. One professor said he
spent a full week in his evolution class on the scientific method
before going into evolution. Many, if not all,
agreed that the
concentration point of this is human evolution – one woman
admitted, with embarrassment, that she just did not feel she could
talk about human evolution in her evolution class, though she “did
everything else.” One man said that after trying various things he
felt he had to just start out with the scientific method and firmly,
right from the start, put it out that humans evolved; that was
science, deal with it, and, at least in the classroom, the students
then went along and didn’t give him any flack. Many talked about
how they’d analyzed the students and in some cases had even done
questionnaires before and after their classes – one described that
in his classes there are 25% who are friendly to evolution, 25% hard
core opposed, and 50% opposed, but more in “the middle”. He felt
that it was very hard to change the hard core, but he felt he had an
impact on “the middle”. There were only a few who felt, from
their experience, that they had any impact on the hard core
creationists; although a few talked about particular students who had
actually changed their view by going into this scientifically – we
heard of one 15 year old who said “I have to accept the evidence”
– and people like him now face how to deal with their families,
community, etc. Some described being attacked by the local churches.
Only a very few said that they had given up in the face of the
pressure – but most know that it is a reality that in many local
areas evolution is just not taught in public schools.
That was just some
of what we
encountered the first day!
We summed up this first day
experience
and concluded that we’d learned there were many positive things
going on, including a widespread desire to “fight for science”,
in a variety of ways. At the same time, we got a richer sense of the
relentless creationist attack on evolution. We saw the need to do
more to help people “fight for science”.
Off of this we developed a
three part,
practical program which we put out in the next few days. We called
for: 1) Scientists and students to write Darwin Day editorials, op-ed
pieces, and letters to the editor; 2) Where there were no Darwin Day
programs, people should organize them; and, 3) Where there were
Darwin Day events planned (which was true in a number of places), the
scientists and students should make a big deal out of them, spread
them into all parts of the campus and into the communities. We argued
that doing these activities would make a difference in relation to
the overall societal battle, that big things were at stake and
ultimately what was involved was: What kind of world do we want to
live in? We talked about Obama, why he is having creationist Rick
Warren play a role at the inauguration, what this means and why Obama
is not going to wage a fight for evolution. We argued why it is on
us, why we need to act. All parts of this, in varying ways, were
taken very seriously, and, for example, roughly 20 or so people are
now seriously thinking of (and promised to do) op-ed pieces, or
letters to the editor; i.e., people who were not thinking of it
before our conversation. A COPUS organizer thought that it would be
an excellent idea for COPUS to put out a call for this on their
network (though they are going to modify it to include Darwin Day as
a topic and also to emphasize doing this for the Year of Science,
more generally.) In the course of this, where it was necessary, we
talked with people about how we cannot cave in to the attacks on
evolution; there’s too much is at stake.
We were very concrete about
this call
for Darwin Day programs. We talked about this at times to students
who didn’t know how to organize a Darwin Day program. We suggested:
Get two or more professors to talk about their work in evolutionary
biology; have someone talk about Darwin and his significance; get a
campus facility; create a leaflet announcing this and distribute it
all over campus and into the community. We encouraged them to use the
Defend Science “Darwin Day Statement”, or parts of it. Some
people found this very helpful, just this basic, practical plan.
There were many discussions
that went
into a number of other questions – at the table and in all kinds of
informal discussions. We had science author Ardea Skybreak’s The
Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creation book on our table,
which is very unique in that it combines a thorough and readable
exposition of the principles of evolution with an analysis and
critique of the various forms of creationism; and we talked to people
about using this book in the classroom. We also talked about the
financial crisis and what it means for science. And, of course, we
talked about what Obama will bring – for science and not just for
science.
In this crowd, where
everyone more or
less assumes you are an atheist or agnostic, some raised that to
fight to defend evolution you must seek unity with religion and argue
essentially that there should be no conflict between religion and
evolution. When we got into this, we made clear that while some of us
are atheists, the Defend Science position is that Defend Science is
not about attacking religion, per se, but defending
science; however, there is a movement by the Christian
fundamentalists which is vehemently going after science
and we cannot and should not have any common ground with that! For
those of us who are atheists, it can be complicated to be discussing
things at different levels at the same time – to unite with
everyone who wants to defend evolution and to talk about our own
views at the same time; but this is something we have to master
because these challenges are not going to go away.
We learned from the
conference that
Defend Science has had a strong impact, and a number of people look
to Defend Science. One man from a college in the rural South, who is
very active in fighting for evolution, told us that he had wondered
if Defend Science was going to go on after the end of the Bush
regime; he was worried that we might “close shop” and was very
glad to hear that we were on-going. (He had too many interesting
stories to get into, here; however, one point he stressed is that he
felt that the questions of evolution, ecology and global warming were
very closely linked, at the scientific level; ideologically at the
level of whether humans are the “capstone of creation” or are a
component of nature; he emphasized as well that in his community,
this was very practical, and had everything to do with whether you
are concerned about the real world or “end times”. He emphasized
that in his view there’s a lot of unity on the ground between those
who support evolution and those involved even in things like
recycling, which in his community is something that some preachers
are opposing!)
Darwin Day and Darwin Year
are going to
be significant in terms of the societal impact, more so than we had
fully realized; which is very good. Concurrently, there’s the
continuing, relentless creationist attack which poses a challenge to
Defend Science – and others! As we said to people at the
conference, it is not yet decided what will come out of this – and
what everyone does will make a great deal of
difference!
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