As we discussed in class, scientists are often portrayed as the villians in movies, tv, books, etc, as a result of their ambition for scientific advancement overpowering their morals and sense of right and wrong. However, this image of the scientist as the "bad guy" persists in society in more subtle forms. This article in the LA Daily News discusses Ben Stein's support of a documentary about the supression of the intelligent design theory by the majority of the scientific community. Stein, a well known actor and activist, states that supporters of intelligent design are being "punished for it because they questioned the Darwinist paradigm" and the article suggests that this documentary claims that "the educational and scientific community has persecuted proponents of intelligent design". The use of the words "punished" and "persecuted" make the majority of the scientific community seem villian-like and tyrannical. Stein even goes as far as to state, "Darwinism, as I see it, was a political system designed by Darwin, whether he knew it or not, to rationalize the domination of the world by Northern European man... Darwinism was one of the fundamental props of the National Socialists and the Nazi Holocaust." This is an extreme opinion--blaming the
Holocaust on Darwin's theory of evolution is absurd. This idea echoes back to the media stereotype I first described: an ambitious scientist is the villian becuase his work is used for evil means.
This article shows the persistance of science stereotypes in society today. I am really interested in seeing this documentary and seeing in what other ways scientists are portrayed.
Monday, April 7, 2008
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2 comments:
I agree with you that the scientists who support Darwinism are being portrayed as evil and close-minded by both the article and by the movie. From what the article says about the documentary, it sounds like the movie will try to show some scientists as attempting to force the theory of natural selection on people without being open to other possibilities, such as intelligent design. While I agree with one part of the article that freedom of speech should be respected and people should be able to explore any ideas they want, I definitely do not think intelligent design has any place in science classrooms, nor should 'research' into it receive federal funding. Intelligent design cannot be tested by experiment and cannot be separated from creationist ideas. I think saying Darwinism helped lead to the Holocaust just shows an ignorance about Darwin's basic principles and observations. I think it will be interesting to see how the public responds to this documentary, and whether support for evolution or intelligent design increases.
I couldn't agree more with the two previous posts. Villainizing Darwin and other evolutionary biologists and saying they were partially responsible for the Holocaust is ludicrous to me.
As posted above, Intelligent Design is not considered to be "science" by the vast majority of the scientific community because it is not testable, and because it makes no predictions (two critical components of a scientific "theory"). It is interesting to note the image of Darwinism that proponents of Intelligent Design try to create in the mind of the public - much Intelligent Design propaganda focuses on the fact that evolution is merely a "theory," and that it is debated among scientists. In reality, the term "theory" is not nearly as arbitrary as Creationists claim, and very few scientists doubt that evolution is real.
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