Last night my wife and I cuddled up and watched the documentary Flock of Dodos. Given the trailer, I was really expecting something much more over the top. It was actually a very well done movie that, while staying light-hearted, presented the filmmaker’s hypothesis quite well.
The premise is that the reason that Intelligent Design (ID) is sticking is two-fold:
- It has gained roots of creationists who see more “hope” in Intelligent Design being taught.
- It has a clean message, promoted by friendly people.
The first point is rather easy to see: just look at the majority of folks who are behind the ID movement. These people appear to be in large part are the ones that used to push for creationism. While some people still spout creationism nonsense, there is little support for ID outside of Christianity.
The second point is a much more subtle point, and the main emphasis in this film. He drew the distinct comparison to what the 2004 Bush vs. Kerry election seemed to boil down to: which of the two candidates would you rather sit down and have a beer with? The conclusion of Flock of Dodos is that in large part, the representatives for ID are those same types of people: kind, generous, and lovable.
They have their talking points. How many times have you heard any of the following phrases come out of an ID supporter’s mouth:
- There no transitional fossils
- There aren’t enough transitional fossils [yet]
- Irreducibly complex
- Evolution is just a theory
- Teach the controversy
These phrases are easy to memorize, and they’ve caught on. Compared to that, can you name any catch phrases from the evolutionary viewpoint?
The point was illustrated beautifully when the interviewer posed this question:
So the catch phrase of the intelligent design movement now is “Teach the Controversy.” What would you say is the equivalent catch phrase for the “evolutionary movement?”
His reply:
Well, I would say that people who are scientists who study evolution feel there is no controversy; that it’s been manufactured by those who would like to…
The video gets overdubbed at this moment by another person expressing the point:
Scientists and professors are some of the communicators I know.
Beyond not having talking points, our scientists often seem arrogant. Scientists do not like to spend time combatting unscientific nonsense. In what the Kansas School Board calls EW2 (Evolution War 2), the scientists didn’t even show up to testify for the school board and instead were represented by a single lawyer.
The conclusion of the film is that we need our catch phrases and people who are able to communicate well. Instead of just one Ken Miller, we need fifty of them.
Let me propose a few talking points:
- Teach the facts
- Teach the science
- Evolution is backed up my millions of fossils
- Intelligent Design is not science
- Modern medicine is owes a lot to the theory of evolution
- Science. It works, bitches.
I’m sure we can come up with others. Feel free to list a few in the comments. Finally I’d like to point out a great series of shirts aptly named Teach the Controversy. I have three of their shirts, and they’ve always been a conversation starter.
Tags: intelligent design, religion, science
