I think that rather than contrasting America with the rest of the world, you
should contrast it with the rest of the developed world. Creationism (and
its offshoot ID - it's splitting hairs to differentiate) is a feature of
many parts of the developing world, but ask virtually anyone in Europe what
they think and ten to one (literally) they will pooh-pooh the idea.
It is *not* an argument between Darwinism and creationism, as it has been
posed here. It is an argument between scientific method and scientific
thought  - and superstition. Scientists may stick to lines of thinking
they're invested in heavily for too long, but the thinking will yield to
properly tested hypotheses and all the rest in time. Science is about
testing and questioning; superstition is about accepting on faith. What
concerns those of us who live in the rest of the world so dominated by
America is just how high a proportion of the USA's citizens are wedded to 'I
believe' as a way of thinking, rather than 'I question'. And how high in
government, which is making decisions that impact on the rest of us too,
this way of 'thinking' goes!
Mandi
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robt Mann" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 4:30 AM
Subject: Re: Descent of Man Revisited


>
> >  Nancy Davies asked:
> >
> >Has anyone other than me noticed that the discussion
> >of Darwin, Creationism, and Intelligent Design is
> >largely an American phenomenon?
>
> The 3 are not identical.  I think the differences are rather important.
> Discussion of Darwinism has never let up, as there have
> always been philosophers and even scientists who realise evolution is
> not nearly explained by mere physical processes (random mutations
> followed by natural selection narrowing the variance among the
> mutants).  Top biologists have regularly pointed out there's more to
> explaining evolution.  For instance, Sir A Hardy  -  zoology prof
> Oxon  -  'The Living Stream' (Collins 1965).
> Creationism arose in the USA, less than a century ago, and
> doubtless has its main following among fundamentalists there.  But it
> is also an active fanatical commercial phenomenon in Australasia  -
> mainly thru 'Answers In Genesis'.  I can assure you this burden is
> not confined to the USA.
> IDT on the other hand is an almost entirely USA phenomenon.
> The only rationalisation I've found for this is that it's intended to
> get around the past half-century of illogical rulings from the USA
> supeme court pretending that to discuss religion in schools is
> tantamount to establishment of a particular religion i.e. giving it
> legal privileges over others.
>
> R
>
> >  Due to the USA's
> >omnidominance over the news media, the Pope had to go
> >on record to say it's not a worthwhile discussion,
> >evolution happened, case closed.  I guess everybody but
> >us concurs.
> >The USA is the most relgious fundamentalist nation of
> >the Western World.  I don't see anybody in other
> >countries much concerned with our (non)scientific
> >debates, from which I conclude that the issue has
> >nothing to do with Darwin or science and everything to
> >do with social control and the exercise of power.
>
> The scientific objections to neoDarwinism as a purported
> thorough explanation of evolution are widely held and by no means
> confined to the USA.
>
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