A thought occurred to me in my Geology 102 class ("Life Through Time") as I was learning about the Eons, Periods, and Epochs of Earth. I'll get to that in a minute, but first lets look at what we know:
We know that the earliest forms of life start peaking through the geologic record around 3.5 billion years (in the middle of the Archean Eon) ago. We know this due to stromatolite rock formations. We also have chemical evidence in chert that suggest life. The Proterozoic Eon encases the "Great Oxygenation" event where sponges are found throughout this Eon. Evidence for soft-bodied organisms preserved in the Edicaran Epoch such as Edicaran fauna appear (most found in Australia, but some recently discovered here in Nevada) just before life really takes off. Then, an explosion of life rapidly (in geologic scale - millions of years ) fills the fossil record in the Cambrian rock formations. These become index fossils geologists can use to mark older/younger layers of rock. photosynthesis and cellular respiration begin to cycle as oxygen continues to climb to a threshold that supports shelled-organisms. With the formation of shells - life explodes in the oceans and traits are selected as we see an "arms race" of predator vs. prey. With the discovery of "Red Beds" (rocks that must have oxygen to form) we get evidence for oxygen releasing into the atmosphere.
Fish first appear in the fossil record in the Cambrian Period, as well as starfish, clams, and other shelled creatures. Transitional fossils such as tiktaalik show the use of arm-like fins to climb out of the oceans. Amphibians (laying eggs without shells in water) appear in the Devonian Period. From then, despite the massive extinctions (Such as the greatest extinction event known as the "Great Dying"during the 252 million years ago in the Permian Period) there is no stopping the diversity of life. In the Carboniferous Period reptiles appear (laying shelled eggs) to the rise of the mighty dinosaurs in the Triassic Period. Almost simultaneously we see the rise of small mammals, though dinosaurs kept us down.
Birds are essentially avian dinosaurs. Birds show up in the Jurassic Period. And then it's all she wrote for the non-winged dinosaurs with the asteroid slamming into the Yucatan Peninsula some 65 million years ago. This impact kicked up enough dust and debris to block sunlight for many years - thus killing many plants and animals - the food source for the dinosaurs. Then something akin to the Cambrian Explosion happens with mammals as the top predator (dinosaurs) going extinct. Niches open up and mammalian life explodes. In the Paleogene Period we see the rise of hoofed animals, whales, and primates. Through the Neogene to the Quaternary Period our ancestors evolve with larger brains. We use tools, we form tribes, we use deductive reasoning, we shed our body hair (well some of us), we walk upright and conquer our surrounding environment.
We can actually trace our genetic makeup through the animal kingdom all the way back to the beginning. We follow the fossils backwards and we end in the deepest of oceanic trenches with single cellular organisms in the Archean Eon. The thought that occurred to me in class was contrasting active scientific research with something like "intelligent design theory" or even "climate change denial". The first sign you are accepting a UNscientific "theory" is that there is no active research being done with said "theory". In "intelligent design theory" there is no actual scientific papers being published in any scientific journals (so the peer-reviewed process so essential to science doesn't happen with ID) What we have is an organization like the Discovery Institute (which has a religious agenda - though it claims it doesn't) constantly poking holes at evolution. Or trying to. Unsuccessfully I might add. The small amount of unscientific "evidence" presented by ID has been refuted many years ago such as "irreducible complexity" and so on.
"Climate change denial" is another "theory" that is comprised of conservative groups or PR departments of large energy companies. They hire a handful of scientists. Most of which are not even climatologists but meteorologists - which should tell you something right there. The sensational partisan media machine (such as Fox News for television or all of conservative "talk radio" for radio) Conservative voices (though as Neil deGrasse Tyson says - shouldn't conservatives want to conserve the environment?!) such as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levine, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and so on tell their listeners on a daily basis that the science of climate change is nothing more than a liberal conspiracy to implement overreaching federal government control on the citizens of this country. A conspiracy that consists of 97% of climate scientists. The people that believe this might as well join the conspiracy theorists that think that the moon landing was faked on a Hollywood set because it's equally ridiculous in the wake of insurmountable evidence.
It seems obvious that the reason most of these people (those that choose ID over evolution or "climate change denial" over evidence for anthropogenic climate change) are denying reality is because they simply aren't informed. They have not either payed attention to or been exposed to the evidence for evolution or climate change. They also may not understand how science works. It's a beautiful tool for understanding reality. The best we have! We can make predictions, we can test those predictions, theories are falsifiable thus any theory can at any time be proven wrong. Someone once asked Richard Dawkins what would make him doubt evolution. He said something like - finding ungulate fossils in the Ordovician. In other words - the fossils and layers have become so cemented in the relative dating of geology and paleontology that with all this evidence (on top of radiometric dating of isotopes) we have a pretty clear timeline of events on earth from its formation 4.54 billion years. The fact that we are so certain to round it to 3 significant figures should tell you our certainty.
Contrast all of this with the circus I walked into outside of class after it let out. At the university I attend there is a large walkway near the library where the majority of students converge between classes all crisscrossing each other. I dodged annoying kids on skateboards, longboards, scooters, roller blades (OK maybe not rollerblades). I walked through basically this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhAr_UeroCk
I was met with an enormous handmade sign that said "EVOLUTION IS A LIE! JESUS SAVES!" as a group of Christians passed out tracts and preached their Christian dogma through a bullhorn. I was tempted to approach them and say ... "Weird. I just was learning about evolution in my geology class just now. So maybe I should drop that class then?" Of course I'm being ridiculous, but I remember when I used to think I knew more then every biological scientist in the world.
I recently watched a video about the arrogance of Creationism. These ill-informed people holding the "evolution is a lie" sign are basically saying they know more than the scientific experts in their respective fields. Think about that. Think about the arrogance of someone that holds a sign like that in public! These people that claim to know that evolution is false haven't even bothered to take the time to not just learn about the theory they say is false, but they also have no degree or credentials at all in regards to evolutionary biology. No need to really understand it. Just reject it whole cloth. If this isn't a clear sign of ignorance I don't know what is.
If you are one of these people (which many reading this of course are not!) I suggest starting small. Read a simple book on evolutionary biology. If you are going to deny reality you must learn about what you are denying as much as possible. When you do I am 100% certain you will be convinced by all of the evidence that evolution is true. I don't understand people who do not wish to understand the world around them. Many people I know bury their head in the sand and like many things contort their world-view (of human history, cosmology, etc) to fit what they are comfortable with (which usually always matches to how they were raised, or at the very least what country and what time period they were born into). The beautiful thing about science is that it doesn't care about any of these biases. It simply tests theories and compares data and weeds out bad information. It gets us to physical reality. If you want metaphysical reality - have at it. I know plenty of people who do and more power to them, but if you want to know what's happening on planet earth, in this galaxy, in this universe - look to science. It has answers. Real ones.
I have mentioned my father in past blog postings. I assume he is still a Young Earth Creationist like he was when I was a kid. *Check out my blog on my childhood memory of my father saying that the Sun was not a star but a Sun. However as of recent I have noticed something different about him. He seems to be seeking more. He's more open. He seems fascinated with new information. Of course I highly doubt he will ever follow the evidence all the way and take the humble position of an atheist, but hopefully he'll let go of some silly notions of our planet and our universe. We were discussing how amazing Einstein's "E equals MC squared" is and how most people don't even understand it. I used to not. We talked about how Newton invented calculus to explain his scientific laws. Can you imagine inventing a field of mathematics to explain your theory? Newton was a god among men. Still is.
Unlike other friends or family, I am able to talk about things like climate change (tho not so much evolution) with my father. This means so much to me. On some small level my father (who didn't consider the Sun a star) is opening up in some small ways. I can tell my dad is who I get my "unquenchable search for knowledge" from. Even though his religious beliefs cause him to censor himself in many ways (he doesn't watch R-rated movies for example), he doesn't censor all scientific information. This is wonderful and I hope in the future we are able to talk more about things that matter to me.
I hope to always have a healthy appetite for knowledge. I never have understood people who say they are bored. Your life is so fleeting and you are bored?! You live 5 minutes away from a library (with an absurd amount of information in hard copy form!) Your laptop is used to play Angry Birds during chemistry class!? (true story! I was sitting behind someone in my class who's attention was divided between facebook and Angry Birds; in the meantime our teacher was talking about THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE!) There is no excuse for "downtime" in our lives. There is just too much to learn in the short amount of time we have til it all goes black. What is wrong with these people? I'm not one of them. My father isn't one of them. Isaac Newton sure as hell wasn't one of them.
On the flip side - this leads me to wonder why on earth anyone would dedicate their life to theology. There is so much going on in the natural world around us and such a small amount of time to study it. Those that do I would argue have gone off path in one of the worst ways possible. They have dedicated their lives to studying "things no one can't possibly know" (what your God has said to homo sapiens in ancient writings). This will be a separate blog post I will continue ranting about in due time.
Our lives are short. There are certain things we can check off the list as reality. Where humans come from is one of these things. Evolution is a fact of life. Modern human activity (such as the burning of fossil fuels) is causing the climate to change rapidly. In the case of climate change, ignorance is dangerous so if you are going to pick one of these to deny - please pick evolution. Denying your "inner fish" isn't nearly as detrimental as living unsustainably. Everyone is needed to help curb climate change. There are consequences to all of our actions. In some of the same ways we have discovered life evolves, we know the biosphere of this planet is interconnected. This connection is apparent in human-caused climate change. I hope those that deny reality will join us soon so that I, for one, can stop ranting about those that know nothing but preach UNscientific ideas. This will lead to a better planet for all of us.
Here are some relevant links:
The Arrogance of Creationism: (Part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVtYAfyzkb4
The Arrogance of Creationism: (Part 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgRdA2KAMw4
Helpful books on evolution I've read and recommend:
Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/your-inner-fish-neil-shubin/1102811347?ean=9780307277459
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/greatest-show-on-earth-richard-dawkins/1100333495?ean=9781416594796
Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/why-evolution-is-true-coyne/1116745079?ean=9780143116646
Finally, an amazing reference book I just purchased with many illustrations on the history of life on this planet:
Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth by DK Publishing
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/prehistoric-life-inc-dorling-kindersley/1102558429?ean=9780756699109
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