Sonntag, 13. April 2008

I should get bored by Expelled-lies.

Recently, people on scienceblogs.com (or at least that's my source) have been pointing out that there is an anti-semite in the creationist movie Expelled: No Intelligence within allowed.

In fact, it is Maciej Giertych, who is speaking for the ID creationist side of things. Of course, as far as I understand it, his unfriendly ideas towards Jews are not mentioned in the movie, only the side that he, as a scientist, speaks for ID.


So, nobody is surprised by this. Everyone is merely pointing it out.

But I was wondering, why are we not at all surprised? The answer seems obvious, to say the least: It's yet another lie (yawn) within this movie.

But it's not only that - it's an absolutely typical lie for the creationist fraction, and especially for Expelled. It goes into the same ranks as excluding Kenneth Miller and other religious scientists from the movie: It is evidence against the purpose of the movie, which is to suggest that an acceptance of evolution ("Darwinism") leads to atheism, and is necessary for the Holocaust to happen.

Religious scientists in acceptance of evolution and creationists with hostile views towards Jews would totally ruin the movie. Neveretheless, Giertych is in the movie and Miller is not. And we're still not surprised.

Now why that? Because it's ID, and ID doesn't do research, ID doesn't put effort into anything but publicity and political agenda. And that research includes that on the people they're talking to and about. That includes research on Darwin's lack of racism, the meaning of the title of his book, the premises of evolution and also research on the people they interview.

It does not matter which side people are inteviewed for, all that matters is purpose. And the purpose here is that a scientist agrees with the creationist view. It isn't of any relevance, apparently, that he's the best example against the main point made in the movie.

And that's exactly another reason why this movie is anything but scientific. In science, all you do for 'purpose' is set up your experiments in the hopes that the results will fulfill the purpose (or rather, the hypothesis you have). But if they don't, then you either move on into a different direction, or you accept the results and think about what they'll tell you. You don't go picking and chosing things to your liking. And you'd do better within research, knowing as much as you can about what you're talking about - all of it, in the best case scenario, though that's not always possible. So you'd go back into the literature about whatever you're investigating and try to figure out not only how to design your experiment, but also how to interpret the results based on this background.


If they had ever applied such a basic, scientific premise to the making of Expelled, not only would they have needed to include religious scientists into their 'documentary', but also taken a good look on the whole of their evidence. And one piece of evidence in the movie is Mr. Giertych. And 'interpreting' his anti-evolution ideas on the full background of his views would definitely mean something. Let put this in a scientific way:

These findings suggest that both belief in ID and acceptance of evolution are possible, but not necessary, for the development of anti-semitism in a person.

In fact, it can be assumed that neither causes or facillitates hostility against Jews, but that anti-semitistic views are decided on other premises or on a personal basis.

What this doesn't mean is that ID causes anti-semitism. It just means Giertych is an immoral little.........

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