{"id":1882,"date":"2009-12-04T12:33:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-04T12:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/12\/evolution-the-controversy-in-perspective\/"},"modified":"2009-12-04T12:33:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-04T12:33:00","slug":"evolution-the-controversy-in-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/12\/evolution-the-controversy-in-perspective.html","title":{"rendered":"Evolution: The &#8220;Controversy&#8221; In Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>I am going to offer what I believe are some intelligent perspectives on topics like evolution, creationism, intelligent design and science education. But I don\u2019t think any of them makes the point quite as poignantly as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theonion.com\/content\/magazine\/three_eminent_biologists_and?utm_source=onion_rss_daily\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the front page of <i>The Onion Magazine<\/i><\/a>:<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theonion.com\/content\/files\/images\/evolution.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theonion.com\/content\/files\/images\/evolution.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The so-called controversy about evolution (not about the relationship and relative importance of various mechanisms, the pace, or other such details, but about whether biological evolution has in fact occurred) is the scientists versus some actors and other individuals with an axe to grind and in most cases no qualifications that would have given them the opportunity to study the relevant scientific data in detail. And so there may be no denying that there is a <i>cultural<\/i> controversy; but neither can it be denied that claims that there is a <i>scientific<\/i> controversy are simply false.<\/p>\n<p>Now for the other links. Denis Alexander argues that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/belief\/2009\/dec\/03\/intelligent-design-creation-christian\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Intelligent Design is not only poor science, but unchristian as well<\/a>. Mark Farmer marks the anniversary of the Origin with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.onlineathens.com\/stories\/112409\/opi_528191950.shtml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">an article that suggests the appropriate response is wonder, not fear<\/a>. Richard Firenze also has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pressconnects.com\/article\/20091124\/VIEWPOINTS02\/911240303\/1120\/Darwin-s-legacy-lives-on\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">an article marking the occasion<\/a>. Of course, it is important to note that most of the evidence <em>for<\/em> evolution and most of our understanding <em>about<\/em> evolution, dates from after Darwin\u2019s time and represents a confirmation of the central features of his theory. Other <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chron.com\/commons\/readerblogs\/evosphere.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">articles<\/a> have also appeared in the press, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.springerlink.com\/content\/g64qp2701202\/?p=7e0f0ae5b3dc47e1911d7cd47fc91c74&amp;pi=0\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">latest issue of <\/a><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.springerlink.com\/content\/g64qp2701202\/?p=7e0f0ae5b3dc47e1911d7cd47fc91c74&amp;pi=0\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Evolution: Education and Outreach<\/a> <\/em>is now available.<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-5965924256857548569?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am going to offer what I believe are some intelligent perspectives on topics like evolution, creationism, intelligent design and science education. But I don\u2019t think any of them makes the point quite as poignantly as the front page of The Onion Magazine: The so-called controversy about evolution (not about the relationship and relative importance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Evolution: The &quot;Controversy&quot; In Perspective<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I am going to offer what I believe are some intelligent perspectives on topics like evolution, creationism, intelligent design and science education. But\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/12\/evolution-the-controversy-in-perspective.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evolution: The &quot;Controversy&quot; In Perspective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am going to offer what I believe are some intelligent perspectives on topics like evolution, creationism, intelligent design and science education. But\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/12\/evolution-the-controversy-in-perspective.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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