Interesting story: Creationism Museum Says Darwin Got Something Right
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A controversial Kentucky museum that trumpets the Bible story of creation and rejects evolution is making room for an odd guest: Charles Darwin.
A new exhibit at the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum argues that natural selection — Darwin’s explanation for how species develop new traits over time — can coexist with the creationist assertion that all living things were created by God just a few thousand years ago.
“We wanted to show people that creationists believe in natural selection,” said Ken Ham, founder of the Christian ministry Answers in Genesis and frequent Darwin critic.
*rolls eyes*
I’d like to ask something here.
Namely, why do people like Ken ham insist on continuing to fight an entirely anachronistic 19th century battle here in the 21st century?
The obsessive harping on about Darwin and “Darwinism” that creationists indulge in is precisely that – anachronistic. Science has moved on in 150 years, but these people are still stuck in their 19th century time warp, brandishing sabres and muskets whilst the rest of us have long since moved on to piloting helicopter gunships and stealth bombers. We now have Kimura’s neutral theory in place, which provides among other features a direct empirical test that can be applied to determine whether or not a given gene was subject to purifying selection, neutral drift or positive selection, we have data from whole genome sequencing that Darwin would have gazed upon in awe if he were around to see it, we have Lenski’s experiment placing historical contingency on a rigorous and robust footing, we have Pagel & Joyce’s paper “Darwinian Evolution On A Chip” which provides detailed description of a laboratory apparatus allowing molecular evolution to be observed and manipulated in real time, indeed recent developments in evolutionary biology as documented in the peer reviewed scientific literature are a stunning testimony to the success of evolutionary paradigms as an explanatory framework for biodiversity. Yet these temporally and intellectually challenged individuals keep harping on about “Darwinism” as if valid, evidence-based, reality-based science was some sort of “doctrine”. Here’s a hint for you creationists: when was your book of myths ever subject to detailed empirical test and rigorous quantitative analysis?