Thursday, June 08, 2006
There's a Sucker Born Every Minute
Ann Coulter's new diatribe, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, channels ID theorist William Dembski in calling evolution a "cult" and a "fetish."
Coulter claims there is no evidence that evolution is true. "The fossil record," she says "contradicts it, and it is a theory that cannot be disproved. Whatever happens is said to 'prove' evolution. This is the very definition of a pseudoscience, like astrology."
It's odd -- well, not really -- that Coulter would compare evolution to astrology since ID activist Michael Behe recently testified under oath in Dover that intelligent design's proposed re-definition of science would enshrine astrology among its sciences.
The notion that there are gaps in the fossil record or that the fossil record contradicts evolution are nothing more than a shopworn magician's trick.
While he palms the coin, the magicians calls your attention to his shiny cuff links saying,"See, there's nothing up my sleeve."
It's called misdirection.
Like the magician, creationists -- whether of the creation "science" or intelligent design variety -- call attention to supposed gaps in the fossil record in order to direct the attention of the gullible away from the fact that there simply isn't any physical evidence at all for their absurd beliefs.
RSR suspects Coulter, the most cynical of the current crop of right-wing propagandists, probably understands better than any of the other hucksters currently retailing biblical literalism the truth of P.T. Barnum's, perhaps apocryphal, observation that, "there's a sucker born every minute."
The market for her books like that for the sideshows of old -- the bearded lady, the tattooed man, the living skeleton -- the sucker population is boundless.
Coulter claims there is no evidence that evolution is true. "The fossil record," she says "contradicts it, and it is a theory that cannot be disproved. Whatever happens is said to 'prove' evolution. This is the very definition of a pseudoscience, like astrology."
It's odd -- well, not really -- that Coulter would compare evolution to astrology since ID activist Michael Behe recently testified under oath in Dover that intelligent design's proposed re-definition of science would enshrine astrology among its sciences.
The notion that there are gaps in the fossil record or that the fossil record contradicts evolution are nothing more than a shopworn magician's trick.
While he palms the coin, the magicians calls your attention to his shiny cuff links saying,"See, there's nothing up my sleeve."
It's called misdirection.
Like the magician, creationists -- whether of the creation "science" or intelligent design variety -- call attention to supposed gaps in the fossil record in order to direct the attention of the gullible away from the fact that there simply isn't any physical evidence at all for their absurd beliefs.
RSR suspects Coulter, the most cynical of the current crop of right-wing propagandists, probably understands better than any of the other hucksters currently retailing biblical literalism the truth of P.T. Barnum's, perhaps apocryphal, observation that, "there's a sucker born every minute."
The market for her books like that for the sideshows of old -- the bearded lady, the tattooed man, the living skeleton -- the sucker population is boundless.
