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Citizen MD [American Medical Association op-ed against Intelligent Design]
American Medical Association ^ | 12/02/2005 | Paul Costello

Posted on 12/03/2005 6:18:54 AM PST by Right Wing Professor

I’m afraid we live in loopy times. How else to account for the latest entries in America’s culture wars: science museum docents donning combat gloves against rival fundamentalist tour groups and evolution on trial in a Pennsylvania federal court. For those keeping score, so far this year it’s Monkeys: 0, Monkey Business: 82. That's 82 evolution versus creationism debates in school boards or towns nationwide—this year alone. [1]

This past summer, when most Americans were distracted by thoughts of beaches and vacations or the high price of gasoline (even before the twin hits of Katrina and Rita), 2 heavy-weight political figures joined the President of the United States to weigh in on a supposedly scientific issue. US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Arizona Senator John McCain, and President George W. Bush each endorsed the teaching of intelligent design alongside evolution in the science classroom. Can anyone reasonably convince me that these pronouncements were not just cynical political punditry but, rather, were expressions of sincere beliefs?

So you have to ask yourself in light of all of these events, are we headed back to the past with no escape in the future? Are we trapped in a new period of history when science, once again, is in for the fight of its life?

In times like these, as inundated as we are by technical wizardry, one might conclude that American technological supremacy and know-how would lead, inevitably, to a deeper understanding or trust of science. Well, it doesn’t. Perhaps just the opposite is true. Technology and gee whiz gadgetry has led to more suspicion rather than less. And a typical American’s understanding of science is limited at best. As far as evolution is concerned, if you’re a believer in facts, scientific methods, and empirical data, the picture is even more depressing. A recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Science found that 64 percent of respondents support teaching creationism side by side with evolution in the science curriculum of public schools. A near majority—48 percent—do not believe that Darwin’s theory of evolution is proven by fossil discoveries. Thirty-three percent believe that a general agreement does not exist among scientists that humans evolved over time [2].

What if we become a nation that can’t chew gum, walk down the street, and transplant embryonic stem cells all at the same time? Does it matter?

New York Times journalist Cornelia Dean, who balances her time between science reporting for the Times and lecturing at Harvard, told me that she believes that science stands in a perilous position. “Science, as an institution, has largely ceded the microphone to people who do not necessarily always embrace the scientific method,” she says. “Unless scientists participate in the public life of our country, our discourse on a number of issues of great importance becomes debased” [3].

Others, such as journalist Chris Mooney, point to the increasing politicization of science as a pollutant seeping into our nation’s psyche. In his recent book, The Republican War on Science, Mooney spells out the danger of ignorance in public life when ideology trumps science.

Science politicization threatens not just our public health and the environment but the very integrity of American democracy, which relies heavily on scientific and technical expertise to function. At a time when more political choices than ever before hinge upon the scientific and technical competence of our elected leaders, the disregard for consensus and expertise—and the substitution of ideological allegiance for careful assessment—can have disastrous consequences [4].

Jon D. Miller, PhD, a political scientist on faculty at Northwestern University’s School of Medicine, believes that the sophisticated questions of biology that will confront each and every American in the 21st Century will require that they know the difference between a cell and a cell phone and are able to differentiate DNA from MTV. For decades, Miller has been surveying Americans about their scientific knowledge. “We are now entering a period where our ability to unravel previously understood or not understood questions is going to grow extraordinarily,” says Miller. “As long as you are looking at the physics of nuclear power plants or the physics of transistors [all 20th Century questions]…it doesn’t affect your short-term belief systems. You can still turn on a radio and say it sounds good but you don’t have to know why it works. As we get into genetic medicine, infectious diseases…if you don’t understand immunity, genetics, the principles of DNA, you’re going to have a hard time making sense of these things” [5].

Culture Wars and 82 Evolution Debates

Yet in some corners today, knowledge isn’t really the problem. It’s anti-knowledge that is beginning to scare the scientific community. Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, calls 2005 “a fairly busy year” when he considers the 82 evolution versus creationism “flare-ups” that have occurred at the state, local, and individual classroom levels so far. According to a spring 2005 survey of science teachers, the heat in the classroom was not coming from Bunsen burners or exothermic reactions but rather from a pressure on teachers to censor. The National Science Teachers Association’s informal survey of its members found that 31 percent of them feel pressured to include creationism, intelligent design, or other nonscientific alternatives to evolution in their science classroom [1]. Classrooms aren’t the only places feeling the heat. Science museums have also become conflict zones. In her New York Times article, Challenged by Creationists, Museums Answer Back, Dean detailed special docent training sessions that will enable the guides to be better armed “to deal with visitors who reject settled precepts of science on religious grounds” [6].

These ideological battles aren’t likely to vanish any time soon. If anything, an organized and emboldened fundamentalist religious movement buttressed by political power in Washington will continue to challenge accepted scientific theory that collides with religious beliefs. So one must ask, is it too farfetched to see these ideological battles spilling over into areas of medical research and even into funding at the National Institutes of Health?

Now I am not asking for a world that doesn’t respect religious belief. My education as a Roman Catholic balanced creed and science. In the classroom of my youth, one nun taught creationism in religion class while another taught evolution in science, and never the twain did meet.

Where Is the Medical Community?

The medical community as a whole has been largely absent from today’s public debates on science. Neither the American Medical Association nor the American Psychiatric Association has taken a formal stand on the issue of evolution versus creationism. When physicians use their power of political persuasion in state legislatures and the US Congress, it’s generally on questions more pertinent to their daily survival—Medicare reimbursement, managed care reform, and funding for medical research. Northwestern’s Miller believes that the scientific community can’t fight the battle alone and that, as the attacks against science accelerate, the medical community will have to use its privileged perch in society to make the case for science. “You have to join your friends, so when someone attacks the Big Bang, when someone attacks evolution, when someone attacks stem cell research, all of us rally to the front. You can’t say it’s their problem because the scientific community is not so big that we can splinter 4 or more ways and ever still succeed doing anything” [5].

So what does one do? How can a medical student, a resident, or a physician just beginning to build a career become active in these larger public battles? Burt Humburg, MD, a resident in internal medicine at Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center, is one role model. He’s been manning the evolutionary ramparts since his medical school days in Kansas in the late 1990s when he became active in Kansas Citizens for Science. On a brief vacation from his residency volunteering as a citizen advocate for the federal trial in Pennsylvania, he said education is the key role for the physician. While he realizes that medical students, residents and physicians might not view themselves as scientists, per se, he sees himself and his colleagues as part of the larger scientific collective that can’t afford to shirk its duty. “The town scientist is the town doctor, so whether we want it or not, we have the mantle—the trappings—of a scientist” [7].

It is time for the medical community, through the initiative of individual physicians, to address not only how one can heal thy patient, but also how one can heal thy nation. There are many ways to get involved; from the most rudimentary—attending school board meetings, sending letters to the editor, and volunteering at the local science museum—to the more demanding—running for office, encouraging a spouse or partner to do so, or supporting candidates (especially financially) who are willing to speak out for science. As Tip O’Neill, the larger-than-life Speaker of the House of Representatives, famously declared, “All politics is local.” Speak out for science. Isn’t that a message that should be advanced in every physician’s office?

Northwestern’s Jon Miller concedes that speaking out may come with a price, “It won’t make…[physicians]...popular with many people but is important for any profession, particularly a profession based on science” to do so [5]. Consider this: shouldn’t civic leadership be embedded in the mind of every blooming physician? In the end, doesn’t combating this virulent campaign of anti-knowledge lead us back to that old adage of evolutionary leadership by example, “Monkey see, monkey do?” Seize the day, Doc.

References

1. Survey indicates science teachers feel pressure to teach nonscientific alternatives to evolution [press release]. Arlington, Va: National Science Teachers Association; March 24, 2005. Available at: http://www.nsta.org/pressroom&news_story_ID=50377. Accessed November 21, 2005.
2. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press: Reading the polls on evolution and creationism, Pew Center Pollwatch. September 28, 2005. Available at: http://people-press.org/commentary/display.php3?AnalysisID=118. Accessed November 21, 2005.
3. Dean, Cornelia. E-mail response to author. September 27, 2005.
4. Mooney C. The Republican War on Science. New York, NY: Basic Books; 2005.
5. Miller, Jon D. Telephone interview with author. September 29, 2005.
6. Dean C. Challenged by creationists, museums answer back. The New York Times. September 20, 2005. F1.
7. Humburg, Burt C. MD. Telephone interview with author. October 3, 2005.
Paul Costello is executive director of communications and public affairs for Stanford University School of Medicine.
The viewpoints expressed on this site are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: ama; crevolist; idisjunkscience
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To: Amish with an attitude
A bandit with a red shirt robbed a bank therefore, if all red shirts are destroyed there will be no more bank robberies.

Yeah, but if all the red shirted people magically disappeared it wouldn't be a major planetary improvement. And thinking of it wouldn't give me a nice warm feeling.

181 posted on 12/03/2005 2:21:47 PM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: Amish with an attitude

BTW what is an Amish doing anywhere near an electronic device? Or is that the "with an attitude" part? Of course that means you can't be Amish. I'm so confused.

What are you, exactly? Other than what you reveal in your posts.


182 posted on 12/03/2005 2:22:00 PM PST by furball4paws (The new elixir of life - dehydrated toad urine.)
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Stay-Puft-Man placemarker.


183 posted on 12/03/2005 2:23:57 PM PST by jennyp (WHAT I'M READING NOW: Art of Unix Programming by Raymond)
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To: mdmathis6
Evolution belief= smart person worthy of the Scientific elite.

Evolution debunker= dumb bigoted religious hick

yeah we do get it!

Or, conversely:

Evolution belief = Godless athiest, anti-Christian bigot.

Evolution debunker = Good Christian who is in the graces of the Almighty.

Yeah, we get it too!!

Ain't bickering fun???? LOL

184 posted on 12/03/2005 2:24:42 PM PST by 2ndreconmarine (Horse feces (929 citations) vs ID (0 citations) and horse feces wins!!!!!)
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To: jennyp; Gumlegs

I'm waiting for Gumlegs to post a picture.


185 posted on 12/03/2005 2:25:12 PM PST by furball4paws (The new elixir of life - dehydrated toad urine.)
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To: furball4paws

Perceptive of you, that is ideed the attitude part.


186 posted on 12/03/2005 2:25:52 PM PST by Amish with an attitude (An armed society is a polite society)
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To: b_sharp
"The message and the value of post 71 is easily understood. What is hard to understand is your penchant for presenting 'quote mines'. For those lurkers out there. A quote mine is a quote taken out of context and presented in such a way that its meaning is changed. The usual purpose is to make the original author appear to be agreeing with the miner. It is a contrived use of the 'Appeal to Authority' logical fallacy."

A contextomy is to quote someone out of context in such a way as to misrepresent what he believes about the subject of which he is writing or speaking.

If there was any misrepresentation of Ruse's beliefs, it was done by John S. Wilkes, since he is the one who quoted him. DUH.

Now if you want "context", you got context, my friend - I just posted his whole commentary HERE.

187 posted on 12/03/2005 2:30:41 PM PST by Matchett-PI ( "History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid." -- Dwight Eisenhower)
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To: whattajoke; JudgemAll

"Unproven, evil, satanic theories."


They are not unproven, one can demonstrate the "fact" regarding the "theory" of lift simply through the use of colored smoke and a wind tunnel with the corresponding math to describe what is going on. Or yet, build a plane.

What hasn't been proven is that life can arise from non-life...though evolution is supposedly more concerned with the Origin of species and their development into modern forms and not with Life's(in the macro sense) origins per se.

The problem with the theory of evolution as opposed to the theory of Lift is that you can concretely demonstrate lift,(build a plane with certain mathematical and physical characteristics and it will fly). Evolution at best can only be demonstrated INFERENTIALLY through measurements and predictions based on observations of strata, age of rocks and fossils,ect and "educated" speculations.

You science types are ultimately going to have to build a time machine so that you can show concretely that evolution unguided by any sort of the divine actually occured, inferences won't make the "plane" fly so to speak.


188 posted on 12/03/2005 2:34:48 PM PST by mdmathis6 (Proof against evolution:"Man is the only creature that blushes, or needs to" M.Twain)
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To: js1138

What I find wrong with it is its use as a quote mine.


189 posted on 12/03/2005 2:36:45 PM PST by b_sharp (Science adjusts theories to fit evidence, creationism distorts evidence to fit the Bible.)
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To: 2ndreconmarine
"But the reason is the same as for you creationists: we are really uncomfortable with some of the things people teach or want to teach our children."

I am not a "creationist" as that word is understood by Darwinists, nor do I want to teach your children anything. What your children are taught is YOUR responsibility and none of my business. And I want the same attitude extended to me. This problem will never go away as long as people insist that they have the right to ursurp parental rights and use "the government" to indoctrinate school children with ideas their parents object to. That is the REAL debate.

190 posted on 12/03/2005 2:39:32 PM PST by Matchett-PI ( "History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid." -- Dwight Eisenhower)
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To: 2ndreconmarine

"Ain't bickering fun???? LOL"


Well one things for sure...Wahabist Muslims want to kill both evolutionist and Christian infidel. I'll guard your back when the fighting starts if you guard mine...when the smoke clears...we can always bicker again later!


191 posted on 12/03/2005 2:40:05 PM PST by mdmathis6 (Proof against evolution:"Man is the only creature that blushes, or needs to" M.Twain)
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To: Amish with an attitude

So you must exist "mostly", outside the fold. Yet you seem to cherish the Amish part, too. Are you young and expect to rejoin later? Or are you cut off, permanently?

If I'm too curious, just say so.


192 posted on 12/03/2005 2:42:21 PM PST by furball4paws (The new elixir of life - dehydrated toad urine.)
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To: Alain Chartier

Agree. Not much question he was a fool. Bu Linnaeus was going by appearances, modern evolutionary analysis is mostly molecular


193 posted on 12/03/2005 2:46:20 PM PST by From many - one.
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To: mdmathis6

"I'll guard your back when the fighting starts if you guard mine...when the smoke clears...we can always bicker again later!"

Very witty and all to true, count me in too.


194 posted on 12/03/2005 2:46:31 PM PST by Amish with an attitude (An armed society is a polite society)
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To: furball4paws

Never been Amish officially.

After spending 38 years immersed in the world of high tech electronics in a land called Kalifornistan, I now prefer the outwardly simple life here on the ranch many miles from whence I came.


195 posted on 12/03/2005 2:57:50 PM PST by Amish with an attitude (An armed society is a polite society)
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To: Amish with an attitude

Ah, so a Lancaster Co. adoptee. OK everything makes sense now. Too bad. A real Amish would have been very interesting.


196 posted on 12/03/2005 3:00:14 PM PST by furball4paws (The new elixir of life - dehydrated toad urine.)
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To: 2ndreconmarine
Proposal 3: Let's determine if he believes in the Intelligent Designer and all he/she/it Designs. If 'No', then no money for you. If 'Yes', then we'll give you some money but we'll be watching you closely.
197 posted on 12/03/2005 3:07:32 PM PST by ml1954 (NOT the disruptive troll seen frequently on CREVO threads)
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To: furball4paws

Sorry I couldn't help on the Amish thing.

Made myself too old in that last post, make the 38 a 15.


198 posted on 12/03/2005 3:08:07 PM PST by Amish with an attitude (An armed society is a polite society)
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To: balrog666
you unbelievably ignorant clown!

This thread is a veritable circus.

199 posted on 12/03/2005 3:08:46 PM PST by RightWingNilla
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To: furball4paws

He's so big, he doesn't fit!

200 posted on 12/03/2005 3:11:14 PM PST by Gumlegs
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