Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Irony Whiplash
The PR gold mine the DI struck when the California Science Center cancelled the DI's disingenuous little fauxumentary, Darwin's Dilemma, is continuing to be exploited. But this from John West is just jaw-droppingly clueless: The debate over whether nature is the product of intelligence or a blind process is one of the great debates of Western Civilization, and significant numbers of philosophers, scientists, and other scholars have espoused some form of intelligent design over the past century, including the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection, Alfred Wallace! Comparing support for intelligent design to Holocaust denial is a shameful effort to suppress open debate by smear tactics. This tactic is especially appalling given the clear historical connection between Darwinism and the development of Nazi ideology itself. Given the role played by Darwinism in the ideology of the Holocaust, one would think that modern Darwinists would be a little squeamish in equating their critics to Holocaust deniers.
In short, according to West, it is a perfectly praiseworthy and civil exercise to accuse scientists past and present with complicity in the Holocaust and to label them promoters of Nazi-esque ideology on highly suspect history but suggesting that ID advocates, who regularly deny the existence of scientific evidence (witness the witless Casey Luskin), are comparable to people who also deny massive amounts of evidence is appalling to West's delicate soul.
West's sensibilities are certainly dead to the sting of irony.
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Labels: California Science Center
