The tests of life

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom, and therefore, unfortunately, we must return to "intelligent design", which tries to side with evolution in regards to the description of the processes that led to the development of life on Earth

By: Steve Mirsky, Scientific American

First let's remember. It all started with the science of creation, a stupid phrase that contradicts itself, which claims that the biblical creation, and not evolution, explains the existence of all life on earth. Creation science gave birth to intelligent design, a more sophisticated claim that says that life is too complex to develop naturally, and for that reason there must be an intelligent designer (whose identity is unknown, but one can guess his name) who created them and created the wonders of nature such as, for example, the shoton, that tail Flaunting that several types of bacteria flaunt it, and actresses such as Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston.
On September 13, 2005, the New York Times published an article describing how the documentary "The Imperial Family" became a big hit among certain groups because of the lesson it teaches. A reviewer for the World Magazine opined that the fact that the penguins' fragile eggs survive the conditions of the arctic climate is "an important piece of evidence in support of intelligent design." Conservative commentator Michael Medwood argued that the film "passionately endorses traditional norms such as monogamy, sacrifice and childcare."
I happened to watch the movie a few days before. On a hot day in South Florida, I wisely planned my afternoon so that I could sit in an air-conditioned hall and watch the penguins. So, I might be able to help.

Penguins are not human despite their handsome stature and upright gait. As part of their traditional norms, they go around naked and rummage to feed the "children". But criticizing such behavior is just as ridiculous as praising them for their monogamous lives. What's more, the film explicitly states that the penguins are seasonal monogamous - like other movie stars who are the object of the guardians of morality, the penguins also find themselves a new partner every season.
And there is also difficulty in testifying that they are used for intelligent planning. When the penguins incubate the egg, they balance it on their feet and attach it to their warm bodies. If the egg falls on the ground, even for a short time, it freezes and cracks. Real intelligent design would have ordered intracorporeal development or a thicker shell, or life in Miami. And finally, the couple must walk, each in turn, a distance of 110 km to bring food from the sea. The birds must go.

We will now move from the judges to the court. On September 26, 2005, I sat in federal court in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and heard the attorney ask, probably for the first time in history, "Can we see the bacterial whip, please?" This moment, which has pioneering significance in legislative history, occurred on the first day of the legal hearing that will determine whether the Dover, Pennsylvania school board violated the First Amendment to the US Constitution by introducing religion into a public school. The council demanded that the anti-evolutionary position supporting intelligent design be presented in the XNUMXth grade biology classes.
The trial was sometimes called "Scopes 2", after the biology teacher from Tennessee, John Scopes, who was accused and convicted of teaching evolution in the famous "Monkey Trial" in 1925. But it is more appropriate to call it "Scopes 3". The 1987 US Supreme Court hearing, Edwards v. Aguilard, which banned creation science from public schools, is often referred to as "Scopes 2." And there can't be two scopes 2, unless the irrational forces have started overhauling the math curriculum as well.
Dover school board members interested in the intelligent design instruction are free to refer to the first paragraph for an explanation of what intelligent design is. The head of the curriculum committee, who supports the teaching of intelligent design, William Buckingham, could have copied it to a note and used it when he was asked during a deposition in January 2005: "Do you understand in very simple terms what intelligent design is? What does intelligent planning teach?" Buckingham replied: "Except for what I said, that is - scientists, many scientists - don't ask me what their names are. I can't tell you where it came from. Many scientists believe that once upon a time, something, molecules, amoebas, whatever it was, evolved into the complexity of life as we know it now."
Are our students learning anything at all? In any case, at the time of writing this column, the trial is still ongoing. We will therefore have to return to the subject in the future. Hey, no one said it was easy to stand eternally on guard.