Sense of the World

deconversionmovement:

Turkey’s science state council halts publication of evolution books

The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) has put a stop to the publication and sale of all books in its archives that support the theory of evolution, daily Radikal has reported.

The evolutionist books, previously available through TÜBİTAK’s Popular Science Publications’ List, will no longer be provided by the council.

The books have long been listed as “out of stock” on TÜBİTAK’s website, but their further publication are now slated to be stopped permanently.

Books by Richard Dawkins, Alan Moorehead, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Levontin and James Watson are all included in the list of books that will no longer be available to the Turkish readers.

In early 2009, a huge uproar occurred when the cover story of a publication by TÜBİTAK was pulled reportedly because it focused on Darwin’s theory of evolution.

The incident led to intense criticism and resulted in finger-pointing by various officials of that publication and its parent institute.

A few months later, the article in question appeared as the publication’s cover story.

See, apatheists and accommodationists; this is why we can’t stay quiet.  This is why we can’t live and let live.  Our silence gives them more authority—either because they feel that our silence is a way of saying we don’t care or because our silence is means to admit that what they’re doing is acceptable and even right.  We must care; moreover, the primary way of getting someone to realize that they’re wrong is by telling them.  In the case of these obdurate zealots, the voices must be louder; they must be less tolerant of this kind of behavior.  So, if you think you’re doing everyone a favor by remaining silent, you’re wrong; you’re committing an injustice.  You’re telling them that it’s okay to march on gay parades; you’re telling them that it’s okay to strip women of their rights; you’re telling them that it’s okay to prohibit children from learning evolution; you’re telling them that it’s okay to acid bathe children seeking an education and to murder children during exorcisms.  In this world, silence is a form of permission and I will not grant them permission.  These type of religious people will change or be changed; their doctrines will change—thus, changing the face of their religion—or their doctrines will be brought down and their religion along with them.  That is our ultimatum and all out of respect for human rights and those who fought long and hard for the free enterprise of reason; wherever and whenever rights are infringed upon or the free expression of reason is limited or even censored, we should speak.  Speak regardless of who’s offended; speak regardless of what’s jeopardized; speak even if you are threatened; fear not the chains of dogma that have enslaved minds for centuries.  Those chains are looser and rustier now than ever; let us proceed and let us break them.

Every time I read something like this, I get just a little more annoyed at religious zealots who somehow end up in control of government. It’s really annoying.

Evolution is a well-supported, accepted scientific theory that has no viable competing scientific theory to challenge it any more. This is not an attack on anyone’s ideology, it’s simple scientific process searching for objective truth. It’s so frustrating that people still don’t understand what this means and can’t adapt to new information. Why be human, with a human’s capacity for rational thought and behavior, if you’re going to ignore it like this?

realcleverscience:

An article I recently read made an argument built on the premise that we’re living in a scientific age. I had to disagree, to some extent, or just make a clarification: We may be living in a scientific age, but not a scientific society.

I think this graph sums up a lot of what I meant by that.

P.s.

 Your “scientific age” post made me think you might like this quote from my personal Favorite Human Being, Richard Feynman:
“Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe? This value of science remains unsung by singers, you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.”
— sirelderberry

Perfect! Thanks!

This is a great chart that pretty much explains itself.

Also, I’d be curious to find more info on the demographics of the study.  Particularly, what did the people in each category on the right side of the chart study in graduate school (or even college)?  I bet there’d be some interesting information there too.

(Source: confrontingbabble-on)

A very nice explanation of what a scientific theory is, courtesy of my friend Tom via Facebook.

Somehow, the opponents of fact and truth have done a good job of convincing a large chunk of the public that the Theory of Evolution is not that developed.  Or perhaps the scientific community has not done an adequate job of defending their truthseeking because they just view these opponents as crazy (which they are). Either way, I think it’s about time that the scientific community banded together to put an end to irrational challenges to the Theory of Evolution.

It is a WIDELY ACCEPTED theory based on REAL EVIDENCE, both observed and gathered through experimentation. The theory is very mature, in the Thomas Kuhn sense of the word. Evolutionary Biology is similarly a paradigmatic scientific enterprise.  As the graphic states above, there is always room for further refinement, but the evidence is so vast and detailed that the theory itself will most likely never be replaced.

THERE IS NO OTHER WAY AROUND THIS FACT. Creationists refuse to accept this because they cannot reconcile the fact that their basis for argument, the “information” they’ve been forcefed through their religious beliefs, can be wrong (and IS wrong in this case).

That’s really the issue here: Religious people destroy the concept of faith by insisting that irrational ideas are actually rational fact.  They aren’t.  By their own definition, they aren’t. The tales in the Bible/Old Testament/Any other religious text are METAPHORICAL PARABLES, and in NO WAY should be used in place of observable, measurable FACT.  It’s disgusting that anyone would even WANT to replace observable, measurable FACT with something that was simply told to them and has been around for a long time. Longevity has nothing to do with truth.  Only EVIDENCE does.