Someone mentioned the idea of handing out flyers outside screenings of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, so I drew up a list of bullet-points that I'd like to include. Of course, it's too long for a flyer, but maybe it might give someone ideas or they might pick out a few of them.
I intend to annotate this with hyperlinks to relevant online documents and other media. If you can suggest links, please do. I'm particularly interesting in a video of one of Stephen Meyer's lectures: in the Q&A at the end, an evolutionary biologist makes a fool of Meyer by describing a half-dozen precursor structures to the rotary bacterial flagellum beloved by cdesign proponentsists.
This post is dedicated to the public domain. Do with it as you wish.
- Evolution is an empirically observed phenomenon, like gravity, not “just a theory”. In common language: evolution is a fact.
- Just as “port” has a specific technical meaning with respect to computers (nothing to do with boats or wine), “theory” has a specific technical meaning in science: it does not mean “conjecture”, “speculation”, or “guess”.
- Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is a scientific theory which explains the observed phenomenon of evolution in nature.
- Darwin's theory has been rigourously tested by real biologists for over 150 years, greatly enhanced in detail by generations of scientists, and has not been contradicted or found wanting.
- According to the United States District Court judgement in Kitzmiller vs. Dover, “ID is not science” (p.64) and “ID is creationism re-labeled” (p.33).
- ID is part in the leaked “Wedge Project” of the Discovery Institute, which seeks to subvert science education by smuggling Biblical Creationism into schools using ID as the "thin end".
- The ultimate goal of the "Wedge Project" is to have a right-wing Christian theocracy in power in the United States. They are known by opponents, only half-jokingly, as "The Christian Taliban".
- The Discovery Institute is a "respectable" front organisation for the Christian Taliban.
- Evolution by natural selection is one of the fundamental theories in biology. It is extremely well-corroborated by experimental and other evidence, more than any other theory in biology. It is one of the most successful theories in all science.
- ID is a sugar-coated version of Biblical Creation, a fundamental dogma of the Christian Taliban. It is not corroborated by any experimental or other evidence.
- A very simple lab experiment, taking only a few days, using a kit developed for schools costing less than $100, clearly demonstrates the phenomenon of evolution and corroborates the theory of evolution.
- ID/Creationism is not corroborated by any experiment, simple or otherwise. No ID proponent has ever conducted a single experiment to test their "scientific theory".
- Agreement with experiment is a necessary characteristic of a scientific theory. ID/Creationism is not science.
- The appearance of the antibiotic-resistant “superbugs”, like MRSA, from their non-resistant ancestors are examples of evolution in nature which have happened entirely in living memory.
- ID/Creationism does not explain the appearance of superbugs in living memory, nor the development of species on a longer timescale. It has no explanatory power whatever.
- Explanatory power is a necessary characteristic of a scientific theory. ID/Creationism is not science.
- There are approximately 120,000,000 fossils which support evolution by natural selection, and extensive DNA evidence. No fossil or DNA evidence contradicts evolution. All of the available evidence supports evolution.
- There is no fossil evidence or DNA evidence which supports ID/Creationism.
- Being supported, not contradicted, by all of the available evidence is a necessary characteristic of a scientific theory. ID/Creationism is not science.
- All examples of Behe's ”irreducible complexity” proposed by the ID/Creationist movement have been comprehensively debunked by real evolutionary biologists. Ken Miller on ID (39:37 - 50:17)
- Leading ID proponents have been publically humiliated both in Federal Court and at their own public lectures (03:45+) by evolutionary biologists' explanations of the evolution of bacterial flagella.
- In science, truth is not determined by counting votes. Having “100 scientists” who support ID/Creationism is irrelevant to the truth value of the “theory”.
- As a joke to poke fun at such specious head-counting, Project Steve lists over 875 scientists, all named Steve, who support evolution and reject Creationism.
- There is no “controversy” outside the Christian Taliban: evolution is a superbly well-corroborated and useful theory. Intelligent Design is sugar-coated Creationism, a religious dogma without any of the characteristics of a real scientific theory.
- ID/Creationism is rejected by most scientists, all reputable journals, and all reputable universities because it is not science. It is not a “conspiracy” for science to exclude theology from science: everything that is not science is excluded from science.
- Although the Christian Taliban oppose any science which contradicts a literal interpretation of the Bible, including archaeology, geology, anthropology, and biology, they particularly despise evolution.
- Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a propaganda film of the Christian Taliban produced to undermine the real science of evolutionary biology and promote religious dogma as science.
- Expelled uses time-honoured techniques of propaganda to associate modern evolutionary biology, which the Christian Taliban call “Darwinism”, with the Nazi Holocaust.
- No historian outside the Christian Taliban supports this mendacious slur on biologists, Darwin, or the memory of the Holocaust victims.
- The real scientists in Expelled (Richard Dawkins, P.Z. Myers) were tricked into participating in the film.
- Ironically, even though he is thanked in the credits, PZ Myers was expelled by armed security from a pre-release screening on the instruction of producers and no ordinary film critics have been allowed to review it. Afraid of criticism? Hypocrisy, much?
- The “inside a cell” computer animation (with the "tight-rope walking" motor protein) is a direct reproduction of an Harvard educational animation made by XVIVO Inc. for Harvard University. For educational reasons, it omits and simplifies the real activity inside a cell. In reality, the inside of a cell is crowded and messy. Real motor proteins do not plod along steadily like “little men”.
- Science teachers who teach their own religious dogma, ID/Creationism, instead of science deserve to be fired.
- Professors who teach their own religious dogma, ID/Creationism, instead of science do not deserve tenure.
- Reputable science journals are right to publish only scientific articles and reject theological speculation.
- University science departments should prefer candidates who publish real scientific research in real scientific journals over candidates who publish theological speculations in pretend science journals run by the Christian Taliban.
- The central messages of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed are lies.
- Ben Stein is a lawyer, actor, and comedian. He is not a scientist and he is unqualified to evaluate scientific theories. Indeed, he is so profoundly ignorant that he thinks that intelligent design explains “why the planets don't just fall down” (@2:40).
- Ancient peoples each had their own creation myth. Biblical Creation is the creation story of the nomadic Jewish tribes of bronze-age Palestine. It cannot replace the cornerstone theory of modern biology.
- I can't remember for the life of me where I read about an ambitious project to put 120,000,000 fossils into a single online database.
- Subtlety and impact are enemies. You may think some of the straight-talking is "too straight" like "evolution is a fact", but I owe that one to Dawkins, so take it up with him :o)