I'm missing something, here. I must be. Probably an elephant. Maybe two or
three elephants. Can anyone fill me in?
A posting announces a campaign against closure of Wildwalk. A rejoinder
holds Wildwalk up to ridicule for 'deliberately avoiding the subject of
Darwinian Evolution'. Two former At-Bristol employees defend Wildwalk but
not without prominently asserting that Wildwalk _does_ present evolution to
its visitors, if only implicitly. One of them objects in passing to
'knee-jerk k[ow]tows to Darwinism'. In another posting on the matter,
another poster disapproves of what he perceives to be a growing tendency for
people to take exception to the 'question[ing]' of the influence of religion
on science and likens this to appeasement. In another contribution today
(copied below), the same poster smoothly segues from the question of whether
it's necessary for biological science coms always to make evolution explicit
to 'why it's important to get the evolution thing right' as if these were
the same thing.
And so to the elephant. What is it about Wildwalk (which I had never heard
of before the first posting mentioned above) that undeniably requires the
clear teaching of Darwinian evolution? Am I reading this wrong if I take it
that there is some kind of orthodoxy under which any science communication
relating to the natural world is deemed heretical unless it refers to
evolution and doesn't damned well mince its words on that score? (In which
case Bill Oddy et al. had better take note and get a copy of the catechism.)
Are things really conspiring to bring the apocryphal words Lady Hope put in
the mouth of the ailing Darwin true? - 'I threw out queries, suggestions,
wondering all the time over everything, and to my astonishment, the ideas
took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.'
Chris
> -----Original Message-----
> From: psci-com: on public engagement with science
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Kenward
> Sent: 04 March 2007 22:09
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Save At-Bristol's WildWalk!
>
> Why is it so I important to get the evolution thing right,
> and, perhaps, not to "imply" that it happens? Perhaps because
> the heathens are at the gates.
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