Sandwalk: How the National Academy of Sciences Framed their Book on Evolution

Saturday, March 08, 2008

How the National Academy of Sciences Framed their Book on Evolution

The National Academy of Science (USA) recently published a book on the evolution/creationism controversy. You can download it for free on their website [Science, Evolution and Creationism].

In an earlier posting I complained about one part of that book. I think the NAS made a mistake by claiming that science and religion are entirely compatible. They mislead the public by focusing on those scientist who were religious rather than state the truth, which is that the majority of scientists are not religious [see National Academies: Science, Evolution and Creationism].

We know why they did this. It was to appease the average religious American and make evolution less threatening. I don't agree with this sort of framing because it distorts the truth. As far as I'm concerned, accuracy is the number one goal of any publication by scientists and it should never be compromised.

Two of the authors of the booklet have published an article in CBE: Life Sciences Education where they explain how they developed their frame (Labov and Pope, 2008).

However, unlike its predecessors, this new edition was shaped to a large extent by a careful program of audience research. This research was initiated to bring about a better understanding of the frame of reference that the intended audiences bring to this issue. The committee decided early in the revision process that its goal was to successfully inform opinion leaders and influentials who could then use this information to help reframe discussions about the evolution "controversy." By presenting authoritative scientific information in ways that address the questions and concerns of those who are unsure about teaching evolution in science classrooms, the authoring committee would provide opinion leaders and influentials (scientists, business leaders, clergy, teachers, members of school boards, policy makers, judges, lawyers, and others) with the tools needed to change the understanding and decisions of other people who comprise the "wobbly middle." They defined the wobbly middle as the large percentage of citizens that various national polls have shown to be undecided about whether or not evolution, creationism, or some combination should be taught in public school science classrooms.

This opens a can of worms. It is very difficult walk the thin line between "presenting authoritative information" and framing that information so that it makes everyone comfortable. I'm not sure that it can be done.

As a result of discussions with non-scientists, surveys of the general public, and selected focus groups, the authors decided to place more emphasis on the compatibility of science and religion. And they decided to take the position that religion was a valid way of knowing. (In spite of the fact that most scientists disagree.)

Compared with the previous two versions, there is more discussion in SE&C about how science and religion differ as ways of knowing and how, for many scientists and other people, acceptance of the evidence for evolution can be reconciled with personal faith. Published statements are provided from various religious denominations and from prominent living scientists declaring that acceptance of the evidence for evolution is compatible with the tenets of their faith.

I'm sure Matt Nisbet and Chris Mooney are very pleased about this.

Labov, J.B. and Pope, B.K. (2008) Understanding Our Audiences: The Design and Evolution of Science, Evolution, and Creationism. CBE Life Sci Educ 7: 20-24. [CBE Life Sciences] [DOI:10.1187/cbe.07-12-0103]

3 comments :

Anonymous said...: Re Kary Mullis

I'm not sure that Mullis is a bigger embarrassment then Brian Josephson, backer of PK, ESP, and cold fusion.; Saturday, March 08, 2008 8:21:00 PM
Anonymoustache said...: I agree totally with your take on this. Worst part is, now there is an official concession from the NAS that serves to actually marginalize the majority! (of scientists who believe that science and religion are NOT compatible). This will be brought up at every opportunity. Even if the book tries to present a rational view overall, all that the fundies need is a sound-bite and the NAS gave it to them. Inevitably, the creationists will also use this concession as a foothold to begin "Huckabee-ing" science----"Hey, the two are compatible, even your NAS said it, so now we must shape science to fit in with religion" And this 'logic' will appeal to the fundies---Fitting data to fit their 'facts' is basic protocol for them.
Really sad.; Sunday, March 09, 2008 9:51:00 AM
Anonymous said...: There are terms which, when I see them, alert me that I'm probably reading nonsense. "Holistic" is one such term. "Paradigm" is another. I've now added "way of knowing" to the list.

There are few ways of knowing, and many ways of acquiring opinions. Religion is one of the latter, not of the former. If religion was actually a way of knowing, deep differences of opinion among those called "experts" would not persist for millennia, as they have.; Sunday, March 09, 2008 7:49:00 PM

Quotations

The old argument of design in nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me to be so conclusive, fails, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. We can no longer argue that, for instance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made by an intelligent being, like the hinge of a door by man. There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows.Charles Darwin (c1880)

Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this volume, I by no means expect to convince experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine. It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as "plan of creation," "unity of design," etc., and to think that we give an explanation when we only restate a fact. Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of a certain number of facts will certainly reject the theory.

Charles Darwin (1859)

Science reveals where religion conceals. Where religion purports to explain, it actually resorts to tautology. To assert that "God did it" is no more than an admission of ignorance dressed deceitfully as an explanation...

Peter Atkins

Quotations

The world is not inhabited exclusively by fools, and when a subject arouses intense interest, as this one has, something other than semantics is usually at stake. Stephen Jay Gould (1982)
I have championed contingency, and will continue to do so, because its large realm and legitimate claims have been so poorly attended by evolutionary scientists who cannot discern the beat of this different drummer while their brains and ears remain tuned to only the sounds of general theory. Stephen Jay Gould (2002) p.1339
The essence of Darwinism lies in its claim that natural selection creates the fit. Variation is ubiquitous and random in direction. It supplies raw material only. Natural selection directs the course of evolutionary change. Stephen Jay Gould (1977)
Rudyard Kipling asked how the leopard got its spots, the rhino its wrinkled skin. He called his answers "just-so stories." When evolutionists try to explain form and behavior, they also tell just-so stories—and the agent is natural selection. Virtuosity in invention replaces testability as the criterion for acceptance. Stephen Jay Gould (1980)
Since 'change of gene frequencies in populations' is the 'official' definition of evolution, randomness has transgressed Darwin's border and asserted itself as an agent of evolutionary change. Stephen Jay Gould (1983) p.335
The first commandment for all versions of NOMA might be summarized by stating: "Thou shalt not mix the magisteria by claiming that God directly ordains important events in the history of nature by special interference knowable only through revelation and not accessible to science." In common parlance, we refer to such special interference as "miracle"—operationally defined as a unique and temporary suspension of natural law to reorder the facts of nature by divine fiat. Stephen Jay Gould (1999) p.84

Quotations

My own view is that conclusions about the evolution of human behavior should be based on research at least as rigorous as that used in studying nonhuman animals. And if you read the animal behavior journals, you'll see that this requirement sets the bar pretty high, so that many assertions about evolutionary psychology sink without a trace.

Jerry Coyne
Why Evolution Is True

I once made the remark that two things disappeared in 1990: one was communism, the other was biochemistry and that only one of them should be allowed to come back.

Sydney Brenner
TIBS Dec. 2000

It is naïve to think that if a species' environment changes the species must adapt or else become extinct.... Just as a changed environment need not set in motion selection for new adaptations, new adaptations may evolve in an unchanging environment if new mutations arise that are superior to any pre-existing variations

Douglas Futuyma

One of the most frightening things in the Western world, and in this country in particular, is the number of people who believe in things that are scientifically false. If someone tells me that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, in my opinion he should see a psychiatrist.

Francis Crick

There will be no difficulty in computers being adapted to biology. There will be luddites. But they will be buried.

Sydney Brenner

An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: 'I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one.' I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist

Richard Dawkins

Another curious aspect of the theory of evolution is that everybody thinks he understand it. I mean philosophers, social scientists, and so on. While in fact very few people understand it, actually as it stands, even as it stood when Darwin expressed it, and even less as we now may be able to understand it in biology.

Jacques Monod

The false view of evolution as a process of global optimizing has been applied literally by engineers who, taken in by a mistaken metaphor, have attempted to find globally optimal solutions to design problems by writing programs that model evolution by natural selection.

Richard Lewontin

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Saturday, March 08, 2008

How the National Academy of Sciences Framed their Book on Evolution

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