Newton's Law of Gravity: The Jury is STILL out!

Kevin Drum has a rather amusing post about a column in the National Review by John West (I'll dig up the link later) contesting the theory of evolution being taught in schools. I say "amusing" only because of my ability to laugh through the tears. There are, I believe, three dangerously corrosive trends in American culture over the last 20+ years:

1. The rigid and divisive partisanship which characterizes our politics at every level, from the presidency down to school boards.
   
2. The cheap sensationalism, materialism, violence and raw, loveless, sexuality regularly purveyed by Hollywood (particularly on television).
   
3. The ever greater blurring between that which is fact, that which is opinion, and those things which are articles of individual faith.
   

Of the three (and they are certainly all intertwined) the last is the worst, for by it's very nature it limits our abilities, both individually and as a society, to address the others. If we cannot use the tools of reason and critical thinking, if only in those limited areas where empirical facts exist and can be weighed, then our society will surely fall.

Think I'm being apocalyptic? Read a little Arab history. These were the most advanced societies in the world a thousand years ago, combining high scientific achievements with a remarkable devotion to their faith (a far higher devotion than found even in today's "bible belt"). But at a certain point these societies turned inwards, rejected self-criticism, and faith drove out reason. Today, as David Lamb says in his sublime book The Arabs: Journeys Beyond the Mirage, the average Arab wants technology while rejecting the underlying science. Thus the society which gave us the zero was led, in the early 70's, by a king who stated publicly that the earth was flat and the moon landings were staged (lest this seem an anti-Arab screed, we have lots of similar nutcases here at home).

Let's be clear: gravitation is a fact. There is no empirical evidence to contradict it. If I drop a pencil, it falls. If I drop it a million times, it falls a million times. There are tiny variations in the rate of fall from place to place on the earth (due to the underlying density of the crust) but these are measurable, quantifiable, explainable and predictable. Einstein's theory of gravitation only augmented that of Newton, it didn't displace it. Similarly, the roundness (actually oblate roundness) of the earth is a fact.

Evolution, like the big bang, the expansion of the universe, the life cycle of stars, and a host of other scientific theories is a not a fact, but it's a highly likely conjecture not contradicted by any empirical observations. Why are these not facts? Well, because we have a finite lifespan and weren't there at the time to TiVo the events. Just because evolution isn't a fact in the same sense as F=ma doesn't mean that it's no better (or, in some people's mind, worse) than the allegorical writings of Semitic shepherds 2000 years ago.

I frequently encounter people who, feeling strongly about an issue, say their opinion "is a fact." Wheher or not you agree with their opinion (a different issue entirely!) when you meet such people I suggest taking a religiously inspired response: be like the Amish, shun them.

Comments

[Barry Ritholtz]

Time for a google bomb!

Link to the phrase "intelligent design" so any subsequent search points to a definitive article from Scientific American refuting the faith based argument against evolution

Use this link:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000D4FEC-7D5B-1D07-8E49809EC588EEDF&pageNumber=1&catID=2

There are more resources here:
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/writing/2004/04/intelligent_des.html