There Are Four Lights

The following video contains the answers of Miss America contestants when asked if evolution should be taught in class rooms. Make all the jokes you want about the stereotype regarding how intelligent a beauty pageant contestant is (I was in a beauty pageant when I was in high school…so…uh…yea~), but their answers are pretty typical of what you’d get if you asked anyone from the general public. The problem isn’t just a lack of understanding of what a scientific theory is. There’s an larger problem at work here; the idea that knowledge is relative and that science is just another “story” among the many narratives we choose to tell ourselves.

A common view expressed by the contestants is that “both sides of the story” should be taught. One problem with this view is it seems there is the assumption that “creationism” means the Christian story of how life began. If you’re going to teach creation stories in school, then you should be teaching children all of the creation stories—-not just the Christian one. But the bigger problem is placing a scientific theory on the same level as a culture’s mythology.

It’s obvious that there’s a common misunderstanding of the term “theory” when used in the scientific context. Yes, evolution is a theory, but it’s the same kind of theory as the theory of gravity, germ theory, and the theory of relativity. Scientific theories are a collection of related facts which make testable predictions about the world. Gravity will still pull you to the ground if you step out your second story window regardless of your worldview. Germs will still exist and cause disease despite your disbelief in them and your GPS will guide you to your destination thanks to relativity whether or not you understand the theory. These are not “stories” or world views. These are facts about the world.

The same is true of evolution. Evolution is not another creation myth, therefore legitimizing the teaching of other creation myths. Firstly, evolution does not tell us how life began (creation). A hint is right in the title of Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species (By Means of Natural Selection). See that? It’s about the origin of species, not the origin of life. Evolution tells us about species—-their origin and their extinction. Evolution doesn’t deal with how life began, only with the the fact that different varieties of it have lived and died throughout history, and continue to do so. This is not a creation story at all—-it is a set of facts based on observations of the real world.

This all comes from the more general assertion that science is simply another narrative—-just another worldview that you can choose for yourself. This position has the advantage of sounding nice; it sounds tolerant and fair. But it’s an intellectually dishonest position with only one purpose; to avoid the discomfort of being wrong. If you say everyone is right, then no one (and most conveniently, you) can never be wrong. The argument that mythologies and beliefs are just as legitimately true as scientific facts is not presented in an intellectually honest manner. That is to say, when it’s brought up in debate it’s not being used to honestly critique the limits of knowledge but rather is only a strategy tolevel the playing field. The only condition in which mythologies and belief system won’t collapse is if you take away the weight of evidence. They require biased and fallacious thinking in order to stay intact. You have to destroy the concept of knowing and place yourself in a position where anything anyone makes up is true. You have to bring down science to the level of “just another story” because myths and mystical thinking never survive the attempt to bring them up to the standards of science.

You wouldn’t teach flat-earth views in geology, the geocentric model in astronomy, or holocaust denial in history. You realize how ridiculous that would be because the intellectually honest part of you understands that there are things which can be shown to be unambiguously false. When your personal belief clashes with scientific fact, it means your story doesn’t line up with reality.

All the hundreds of millions of people who, in their time, believed the Earth was flat never succeeded in unrounding it by an inch. –Isaac Asimov