Keep Darwin's 'lies' out of schools: Polish official

A word was missing in their denunciation of evolution. Is there no word for monkey in Polish?

Posted it over there. We'll see if we can agree to say it's fair to discredit the whole thing because of Berthault.

Orzechowski said that the theory was a feeble idea of an aged non-believer, who had come up with it perhaps because he was a vegetarian and lacked fire inside him

At least it's somewhat new and original, unlike the boredom that the local creationists have become as of late (constantly gibbering about bacterial flagellums, research that doesn't exist but we pretend that it does and is uber secret etc).

Keep Darwin's 'lies' out of schools: Polish official PvM posted Entry 2644 on October 15, 2006 10:23 PM. Trackback URL: http://degas.fdisk.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2638 ... Relevant Links Hans Zimmer

Some of Darwins lies from the Descent of Man:

1. The characterization of "savage" races; i.e., not Victorian Elitist enoougn.

2. Women are intellectually inferior to men.

3. Vaccination weakens the race.

And just look in the index for his references to the "great work" of the eugenicists Francis Galton for plenty more.

That's Zillmer, not Zimmer.

Polish Academy of Sciences already made a public statement in which they describe anti-evolution comments made by Giertych as disgraceful. Many Catholic Church officials also said that anyone who makes such comments shouldn't be taken seriously.

The deputy minister of education who also made anti-evolution comments (the ones about Darwin being fire-lacking vegetarian) is a deluded religious kook. What a disgrace...

I refer the honourable gentlemen to this post:
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A seminar critical of the theory that all life has a common ancestor was held for Members of the European Parliament on Wednesday October 11th, Truth in Science has learned.

Polish MEP, Maciej Giertych, former head of the Genetics Department of the Polish Academy of Science introduced the seminar to fellow MEPs in Brussels. He claimed that universal common ancestry is a falsified hypothesis and lacks usefulness in scientific research. He questioned the value of teaching it to students throughout Europe.

Professor Giertych related how his children (one of whom is now Deputy Prime Minister of Poland) had returned home from school having been taught about the theory of evolution. They were told that the proof of the common ancestry of biological life was to be found in the science of genetics. Professor Giertych, who had spent his life working in this field at the highest level, replied that such proof does not exist in genetics, only disproof.

This was backed up by Professor Emeritus Joseph Mastropaolo who gave a lecture explaining that the biological sciences offer no empirical proof of macroevolution, just insurmountable problems.

Dr. Hans Zillmer told the meeting that the fossil record holds no proof for evolution theory either. Instead of showing gradual change from one species to another, as is often claimed in the classroom, it actually reveals the stasis and stability of life forms.

Finally, Dr. Guy Berthault spoke to the audience about the results of his empirical research programmes concerning the deposition of sediments. He said that his research, published in journals of the National Academy of Sciences in France, Russia and China, appears to show that continuous depositions of water-borne sediments can sort themselves mechanically, simple changes in flow velocity causing rapid formation of strata.

Amongst those helping to organise the seminar was Dr. Dominique Tassot, Director of Centre d'Etude et de Prospectives sur la Science, an organisation of 700 French-speaking scientists, intellectuals and professionals, who oppose evolutionary theory on scientific grounds.

Truth in Science was not involved in this seminar and is not in a position to comment on its scientific content. We simply note this scepticism over aspects of evolutionary theory in Europe.

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From:
http://www.truthinscience.org.uk/site/content/view/199/63

They are the latest creationist attempt at getting into schools, by stealing ID wholesale.

Anyone know anything about the purported French group?

While reading about the Polish creationist attempts to deny Evolution (and by extension, much of science), it occurs to me that we might try a new tact:

Start showing up at creationist meetings, and agreeing with them. Comment about how the large numbers of humans on the planet have led to environmental degradation, global warming (that's in there on purpose), wholesale extinctions, and wars (and I'm sure that this is a very partial list).

Point out that evolutionary science (and other types of science denied by creationists as well) have been phenomenally successful in allowing large scale civilization (by recovering natural resources such as various metals and petroleum, by figuring out where and when to plant crops - you all can come up with other benefits) and preventing human deaths (by preventing or curing disease and improving crop yields, and again, I know that you all can come up with others as well).

Then agree that we should remove evolution, nay, all of science that deviates even slightly from the bible from the school curriculum. As human population inevitably drastically declines, the world will again approach its "Garden of Eden" condition, which should please the creationists no end.

Snarky? Yes. Sarcastic? Of course. Effective? Probably not, but it's still early and I'm not yet recovered from the weekend. I'd love to see the expressions on their faces, though, as you agree with them, and then point out the probable large scale effects.

A couple of trouble-raisers.

"The leader of the League of Polish Families, Roman GIERTYCH, made clear it unconditionally opposed Polish membership in the EU. He is the deputy prime minister today in charge of education. These young people objected not that he is Euro-sceptical but to what they called his extremism:
0:02'14'' Young demonstrator (in Polish): "We're demonstrating because Roman GIERTYCH has become minister for education. Given that he expresses fascist opinions, we're afraid this will mean losing free schooling, free thought. We oppose this." ( http://www.europarl.europa.eu/eplive/expert/shotlist_page/20060614SHL08999/default_en.htm )

"Eurosceptic finds EU useful
Perhaps the Polish Eurosceptic MEP Maciej Giertych, who earlier in his life was a professor of forestry, is turning over a new leaf." ( http://www.europeanvoice.com/archive/issue.asp?id=501 )

"Anti-abortion exhibition ignites row
A row broke out in the European Parliament this week over an anti-abortion exhibition organised by the Polish League of Families MEP Maciej Giertych." ( http://www.europeanvoice.com/archive/issue.asp?id=469 )

I can't find any notes on the purported seminar on EU parliament web though.

But creationism and anti-science seems to infect political circles of Europe. When I recently read up on the swedish sceptics magazine "Folkvett" ( http://www.vof.se/ ) I learned two things:
1. A known creationistic christian democratic member of the parliament had placed a motion, concurrent with when Paul Nelson visited Sweden, that evolution education should be moved to philosophy to be discussed with 'alternatives'. It was dismissed without discussion, what I can see in the records.

After the election the christian democrates are members of the new majority government. But fortunately the creationist parliament member was replaced. Now we have to see if any more creationists are members.
2. A christian college (Andreasgymnasiet in Stockholm) with a few students has been permitted to teach ID concurrent with evolution by the Swedish school authority, against a number of complaints.

The point two seems to be an unfortunate consequence of swedish ingrained habit of consensus. The nonstringent division between government and judiciary makes law weaker and less important. This lack of law support in turn somewhat paradoxically narrows the societal diversity. Which may seem good until something kooky slips under the consensus radar and is found hard to eradicate.

The swedish school law lack an explicit requirement of scientific basing for all of the education. (The universities law has such a requirement.) This loop hole is now exposed and criticised. Religious neutrality is otherwise handled by having comparative religion classes about religions and their histories.

"This lack of law support in turn somewhat paradoxically narrows the societal diversity."

Or perhaps the other way around. In any case it is a clear correlation.

"In any case it is a clear correlation."

If we throw in US and call that the universe of our data set. This part strikes me as one of my worst reasoning ever. I'm biased - I don't like the boring consensus and its consequences, and I don't like the weak courts and its consequences. Oh, well.

And just when I thought that the Polish Joke was dead.

There are many problems in Poland. My last Au Pair was from Poland, so I communicate with someone in Poland regularly. Radio Maryja is a conservative Catholic radio station founded in Poland in 1991. My Au Pair told me about anti-semitic guests on this radio program. I googled the radio station to get the name right and found lots of dirt on the radio station at Wikipedia. The station has been condemned by Lech Walesa and many others for anti-semitism, promoting freemason and jewish world domination conspiracy theories, history falsification regarding Auschwitz, and other topics. The point that I am making is that there is a scary political movement in Poland that goes beyond denying evolution. I have many Catholic friends, and they would be shocked by the current movement among many Catholics in Poland. The vatican has instructed Radio Maryja to no longer mix prayer and politics.

I wonder if Dembski will abandon groupthink and speak out against poor science, even though it involves occupants of the Big Tent?

Speaking as a pro-evolution person who thinks Uncommon Descent is mostly a haven for cranks, how do you get "groupthink" and "Big Tent" into the same sentence here? Isn't groupthink the opposite of a Big Tent?

Tassot believes that recent experiments by a French colleague on sedimentation support a quasi-literal interpretation of Genesis regarding the physical age of the earth. This brings him close to a view known as "Young Earth Creationism," although Tassot says he is not a creationist.

Last week, I interviewed Peter Schuster, president of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who will speak at the upcoming meeting with the pope. Schuster, a microbiologist, regards the evidence for evolution as beyond dispute.

Speaking as a pro-evolution person who thinks Uncommon Descent is mostly a haven for cranks, how do you get "groupthink" and "Big Tent" into the same sentence here? Isn't groupthink the opposite of a Big Tent?

— Boo

Groupthink, and its related dysfunctional group behavior, the Abilene paradox, wherein groups agree to pursue goals with which the individual members do not agree, continue to fascinate researchers in the field of Social sciences. The reason for this fascination is that these theories appear to explain the observed behavior of individuals and groups in many social contexts.

Dembski has been accused of censoring critics on his blog. Ed Brayton, a critic of Dembski, alleges that Dembski as a matter of course removes reasonable criticisms and questions left at his personal blog, uncommondescent.com [44]. Along with comments, Dembski often removed "trackback" links to other blogs where his claims were discussed. A small number of Dembski supporters from the uncommondescent blog have trolled blogs and forums critical of Dembski, notably Dispatches from the Culture Wars [45] and Wikipedia's Intelligent design article discussion page. At Dembski's blog those whose comments are in opposition to Dembski's own views but not disruptive have been blocked by Dembski from contributing [46] [47].

The question for UcD posters is simple: Will they be able to abandon the strongly enforced groupthink mentality and point out the many problems with the arguments of these people or will they self censor themselves and reinforce the groupthink mentality?

Time shall tell. So far, the responses seem to go towards groupthink, not critical thinking.

Speaking as a pro-evolution person who thinks Uncommon Descent is mostly a haven for cranks, how do you get "groupthink" and "Big Tent" into the same sentence here? Isn't groupthink the opposite of a Big Tent?

Antediluvian Discoveries Prove Dinosaurs and Humans Co-Existed

Davison disagrees with most people there in some way or other (though he was recently kicked off),

So you're saying that a past Davison at Uncommon Descent is undeniable, but a present Davison at Uncommon Descent is undemonstrable?

I love it so!

Course, they're making the same groupthink charge over there about PT. I notice you guys tend to back up charges with actual evidence, tho. Must be your materialist dogma mindsets.

"A small number of Dembski supporters from the uncommondescent blog have trolled blogs and forums critical of Dembski"

That would suggest an openness to exploring other sides. It's a matter of convention in deciding if they're really "open" but this objective standard seems to hold.

Re "And just when I thought that the Polish Joke was dead."

Wonder what Archie Bunker would say about this?

Oh wait, Archie would probably have sided with I.D. in the first place.

Never mind.

Henry

1. The characterization of "savage" races; i.e., not Victorian Elitist enoougn. 2. Women are intellectually inferior to men. 3. Vaccination weakens the race.

In the Big Tent sense, it is surely not groupthink.

A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.

His eight symptoms indicative of groupthink: 1. Illusion of invulnerability 2. Unquestioned belief in the inherent morality of the group 3. Collective rationalization of group's decisions 4. Shared stereotypes of outgroup, particularly opponents 5. Self-censorship; members withhold criticisms 6. Illusion of unanimity (see false consensus effect) 7. Direct pressure on dissenters to conform 8. Self-appointed "mindguards" protect the group from negative information

1. The characterization of "savage" races; i.e., not Victorian Elitist enoougn.

2. Women are intellectually inferior to men.

3. Vaccination weakens the race.

And just look in the index for his references to the "great work" of the eugenicists Francis Galton for plenty more.

On UcD Sal shows not only a level of disrespect for copyright by quoting verbatim a book review but also helps to uncover the intellectual vacuity of Maciej Giertych's claims.
As a YECer I am not surprised that Sal may find Giertych's claims to be relevant or even truthful but these are just the same old YEC canards.

Is ID willing to let these kind of arguments set their agenda? Is it time to abandon the groupthink and speak out against bad science. Or is ID willing to risk that its opponents may point out the hypocrisy in the position of 'teach the controversy' as it pertains to ID's attempts to improve scientific education.
Or is that all a thin veil after all to cover up the big tent?

1. Illusion of invulnerability 2. Unquestioned belief in the inherent morality of the group 3. Collective rationalization of group's decisions 4. Shared stereotypes of outgroup, particularly opponents 5. Self-censorship; members withhold criticisms 6. Illusion of unanimity (see false consensus effect) 7. Direct pressure on dissenters to conform 8. Self-appointed "mindguards" protect the group from negative information

1. Illusion of invulnerability 2. Unquestioned belief in the inherent morality of the group 3. Collective rationalization of group's decisions 4. Shared stereotypes of outgroup, particularly opponents 5. Self-censorship; members withhold criticisms 6. Illusion of unanimity (see false consensus effect) 7. Direct pressure on dissenters to conform 8. Self-appointed "mindguards" protect the group from negative information

Very funny Lenny. Yes, lately many americans seems to be engaging in wishful groupthink. And look what good that did to this country...

1. Illusion of invulnerability
2. Unquestioned belief in the inherent morality of the group
3. Collective rationalization of group’s decisions
4. Shared stereotypes of outgroup, particularly opponents
5. Self-censorship; members withhold criticisms
6. Illusion of unanimity (see false consensus effect)
7. Direct pressure on dissenters to conform
8. Self-appointed “mindguards” protect the group from negative information

6. sparc // Oct 14th 2006 at 11:25 pm 5. direct pressure on any member who expresses strong arguments against any of the group's stereotypes, illusions, or commitments, making clear that this type of dissent is contrary to what is expected of all loyal members; ... 8. the emergence of self-appointed mindguards - members who protect the group from adverse information that might shatter their shared complacency about the effectiveness and morality of their decisions. William Dembski: For your fatuous remarks above, I should boot you from this forum Comment by sparc --- October 14, 2006 @ 11:25 pm

Iirc, a Finnish cristian MP tried to make the same effort in Finland's parliament a few years back. No one cared about her comments and the motion was buried.

Advocatus:

Great! My feeling is that Finnish people is exactly the opposite of a consensus society (with the independent and artistic spirit they are more like the French of the North, really - at least they like their courtship, food, booze, dance and smoke about as much :-) but the similar reaction doesn't surprise me. Rationalist societies doesn't take kookery well.

Hope it will stand up, though.

"...I take all declarations about the next big revolution in science with a stiff shot of skepticism. Despite that, I grow progressively more convinced that intelligent design will revolutionize science and our conception of the world." http://www.talkreason.org/articles/revolution.cfm

"I think at a fundamental level, in terms of what drives me in this, is that I think God's glory is being robbed by these naturalistic approaches to biological evolution, creation, the origin of the world, the origin of biological complexity and diversity. When you are attributing the wonder of nature to these mindless material mechanisms, God's glory is getting robbed." http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/tdr.html

Although Discovery Institute does not support the particular policy adopted by Dover, it has been clear in supporting the principle of academic freedom when it comes to intelligent design. That is why the Institute supported filing a friend of the court brief on behalf of 85 scientists who sought protection of the freedom to research and write about intelligent design. That is also why the Institute itself filed its own brief defending the constitutionality of teaching about intelligent design. Regardless of the particular outcome of the Dover case, Discovery Institute believes that support in the scientific community for the theory of intelligent design will continue to grow. This is because the case for intelligent design is ultimately based on scientific evidence, and that evidence cannot be ruled out of existence by the courts. http://www.evolutionnews.org/2005/11/the_truth_about_discovery_inst.html

Of course they say today, let them have only one [opinion]- only ours. Many contemporaries who think of themselves as liberals are not - for the most part - liberals in any sense. No, they are materialists, naturalists, Darwinists, or devotees of a local variant of one of those deities. They cling to their doctrine with Sunday Blue tenacity. But for them every day is a Blue day. Psychologically, they have much more in common with the "Sunday Blue" leagues of yesteryear, particularly in their desire to suppress anything that offends them. http://www.uncommondescent.com/archives/1707

Welcoming all views is reasonable--after all science (and this list is supposed to be about science) welcomes all views. But what science never does is place views "off limits." How, I asked in subsequent posts, can we be "about science" if a scientific topic, namely the age of the earth, is off the table? A handful of people replied by email (I flew below most everyone's radar on this list) to say they agreed with me, but on the list the argument against my position was that the age of the earth was not relevant in the domain of ID. I pointed out that for cosmological ID it is extremely relevant, since fine-tuning arguments make no sense for a YEC position--but shortly thereafter the thread was closed for discussion. (I didn't post much on this list, but I had a Ted Williams-like batting average for having my threads closed.) http://helives.blogspot.com/2006/10/first-time-dembski-booted-me.html

Welcoming all views is reasonable--after all science (and this list is supposed to be about science) welcomes all views. But what science never does is place views "off limits." How, I asked in subsequent posts, can we be "about science" if a scientific topic, namely the age of the earth, is off the table? A handful of people replied by email (I flew below most everyone's radar on this list) to say they agreed with me, but on the list the argument against my position was that the age of the earth was not relevant in the domain of ID. I pointed out that for cosmological ID it is extremely relevant, since fine-tuning arguments make no sense for a YEC position--but shortly thereafter the thread was closed for discussion. (I didn't post much on this list, but I had a Ted Williams-like batting average for having my threads closed.) http://helives.blogspot.com/2006/10/first-time-dembski-booted-me.html

I have posted the following comment in the The Groupthink Syndrome thread at UD and WD's threat to kick out A. McNeill 6. sparc // Oct 14th 2006 at 11:25 pm 5. direct pressure on any member who expresses strong arguments against any of the group's stereotypes, illusions, or commitments, making clear that this type of dissent is contrary to what is expected of all loyal members; ... 8. the emergence of self-appointed mindguards - members who protect the group from adverse information that might shatter their shared complacency about the effectiveness and morality of their decisions. William Dembski: For your fatuous remarks above, I should boot you from this forum Comment by sparc --- October 14, 2006 @ 11:25 pm

I'm sorry for poor Polish guys. Even in Turkey, we don't see such nonsense.

Even in Turkey, we don't see such nonsense.

Excellent observations Glen, I had started my own research to find examples and you seem to have beaten me to it. Well done.
It also seems that Jason Rosenhouse has taken the challenge as well.

Thanks, Pim. Much could be added from their considerable record of groupthink.

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/b8ykm

Even in Turkey, we don't see such nonsense.

I just noticed a funny coincidence.

The deputy minister's name is Orzechowski. It just so happens that the word "orzech" means "nut" in Polish.

His name, therefore, could plausibly be translated as "nutty."

Something to read about this matter:

http://www.polskieradio.pl/polonia/article.asp?tId=43301&j=2

Fortunately, there are not only religious nuts in Poland, but also some top level scientists. For instance, there's Pr. Zofian Kielan-Jaworowska, who could rightly be called Poland's Dr. Dino, having dicovered many dinosaurs in the Gobi desert during the 1970s. Here's what she has to say about MEP Maciej Giertych:

"There are people who still believe that not the earth is going round the sun but the sun round the earth. His views have nothing to do with science; I would not call him a scientist. We are deeply ashamed that he got the title of a professor and that he is a biologist."

The last paragraph of the article shows that the Catholic church is very cautious on the matter, and takes care not to give any support to these fundies.

Who do you think Harun Yahya is?

Da Vinci, seems to me if anything you were being too kind to Yahya by calling him dishonest. (Not to say you're wrong to use softer language, but that your restraint is commendable.)

"He" is not a "he". "He" is a "they". And they are getting money and lit from Americans.

— 'Rev Dr' Lenny Flank

Da Vinci, seems to me if anything you were being too kind to Yahya by calling him dishonest. (Not to say you're wrong to use softer language, but that your restraint is commendable.)

— Leon

Posted by Christensen's Clones