Wednesday, August 4, 2010 Written by The Independent Weekly Staff
C’EST BON It’s premature to proclaim we’ve dodged a bullet — the bullet being the millions of gallons of crude oil from the BP spill that haven’t invaded our marshes and Gulf Coast beaches. Time, tides and currents will tell. What isn’t premature is joining the collective voice of the Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation and others calling on the feds to create a $5 billion BP escrow account as well as direct the millions of dollars BP is liable for in Clean Water Act violations to fund the 3-year-old Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Plan, a blueprint for coastal salvation drawn up after hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged Louisiana. Time is ticking away on our fragile, priceless coast, the spawning ground for a seafood industry that supplies America’s restaurants. It’s time for Washington to dust off the pledges to restore Louisiana’s coast. This is the perfect opportunity to turn the BP crisis into a Louisiana victory.
PAS BON It is an indictment of us as a community that historic Holy Rosary Institute in north Lafayette has gone to seed in the more than decade and a half since it closed its doors. Now the doors are gone, too. Thieves made off with 40 cypress doors valued at about $1,000 apiece recently, further cementing the status of this increasingly dilapidated campus in north Lafayette as a neglected eyesore. Cops recovered a few of the doors at a second-hand shop, according to KLFY, but the theft is just further proof that despite the fit-and-start efforts of alumni to restore this gem of black Lafayette history, HRI — a National Historic Register property that opened its now-missing doors in 1913 — is headed for the ash heap of local history. Damn shame. COUILLON Pardon the mingling of geology metaphors to talk biology, but despite the inexorable, glacial creep of a mountain of evidence proving — time and again — Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, the flat-earthers among us continue to attempt to erode the biology curriculum in Louisiana’s public high schools with their unprovable, non-testable, indigestible pseudoscience. The latest example comes to us from Ouachita Parish, where Monroe’s News-Star reports that “concerned” pastors and parents plan to review proposed science text books to “make sure the way evolution is taught reflects the most current knowledge.” Said a spokesman for the self-annointed righteous brigade: “Darwin didn’t have the microelectronic microscope. We are able to see inside of atoms. The DNA is so complex that mathematicians are saying that there is no way that macro evolution occurred. Science is proving creation.” Science, of course, is doing nothing of the sort. We would dismiss such inane pontifications as preposterous if they weren’t so dangerous.
... written by Resident , August 04, 2010 - 02:07 pm
Religious fascists on the march in Ouachita Parish. What exactly is the scientific background of these people? Their spokesman has an uncanny way of reversing reality. Our ability to see more, both micro and macro, has strengthened evolution via natural selection, not weakened it. And stating that science "proves" anything underscores his ignorance of the scientific method. Science only DISPROVES, using inductive reasoning to whittle down hypotheses and produce degrees of certainty.
Further, evolution makes no attempt to explain the origin of life (creation). It is an explanation of what happens when there is population variability in a dynamic environment over geologic time.
How about letting kids learn what science has to offer and allowing them to make their own decisions, instead of attempting to stifle free thought and scientific progress?
These folks are Baptist I assume, based on the geography. They sure could take a lesson from the Catholic church which has said that evolution and religion can coexist.
... written by yesidoknow , August 04, 2010 - 02:14 pm
Rosary is owned by the Diocese of Lafayette. Shouldn't your indignation be directed at them.
... written by ragin_cajun , August 04, 2010 - 03:31 pm
"Science only DISPROVES, using inductive reasoning to whittle down hypotheses and produce degrees of certainty"
I disagree.
... written by HARD HAT , August 04, 2010 - 06:04 pm
Evolution an Religion ,that is Catholic can co-exist with Baptist which is but a side line of the Catholic religion as are the protestants, the lutherans and the methodists as long as the Catholic is the only controls the LIMONSA, for you who speak only english and not too well, that is the donation basket.....the Catholic religion has fallen on hard times paying off victims of the pedeophile priests, this does not mean the other religions are squeeky clean it just that the other religious leaders are into adult mischievous games like prostitute and running off with their deacons wives..........
... written by Resident , August 04, 2010 - 06:20 pm
Ragin, I don't know how you can disagree with a fact. Care to expound? I suggest reading up on the philosophy of science.
... written by ragin_cajun , August 05, 2010 - 02:33 am
Resident--
I read alot of philosophy (for an amateur), and perhaps that's why I'm such a stickler about statements like this. I disagree with your statement for 2 reasons. Science has proven all kinds of things. For you to say Science only disproves things suggests to me that there is really no objective proof of natural phenomena--no true knowledge. I reject that.
Also, I think your misstating what inductive reasoning actually says. "Inductive reasoning maintains that if a situation holds in all observed cases, then the situation holds in all cases" That indicates to me that induction creates more than just some DEGREE of certainty, it creates certainty. I infer from your statement that Science never reaches any true certainty about anything, and I reject that.
I know that there's been much philosophical debate about the validity of inductive reasoning, and there are many people who reject the idea of objective truth, and deny that humans can ever really know anything with certainty. Your statement reminds me of all that, and I disagree. Perhaps I'm putting words in your mouth.
... written by Resident , August 05, 2010 - 03:04 pm
Science has not proven anything in the technical sense. It has given us very high degrees of certainty. This is not a bad thing. In fact, that is the beauty of science because it always allows for explanations to be modified as new information is learned. If science stated something with absolute certainty, how could knowledge advance at all?
Absolute proof does not exist in science because we do not define the system, namely nature. Absolute proof exists in mathematics because we define the system.
Inductive reasoning does not produce absolute certainty. Here is a very basic example of inductive reasoning: it has always been observed that the sun rises each day in the East. Therefore we can infer that the sun always rises each day in the East.
Of course, one day the sun may not rise in the east, but this is highly unlikely. This is inductive reasoning, using specific observations to make general predictions.
Here is a great website on the subject, which also addresses the fear some people seem to have that there is no absolute knowledge of nature (or "objective proof of natural phenomena" as you state). http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=517
... written by ragin_cajun , August 06, 2010 - 01:37 am
So rational certainty is impossible, science is unprovable, man's mind is impotent, incapable of escaping "categories" and "forms of perception", etc. We've been hearing this for centuries, now. I STILL disagree.
... written by Resident , August 09, 2010 - 12:00 pm
I don't know how you make the leap to "man's mind is impotent" from my description. To me, notions of absolute certainty would do more to foster impotence than a state of mind where conclusions can always be refined with new information.
What you are disagreeing with is not my words, but the philosophy of science itself. You can disagree all you want, but that's not going to change this great system we have developed.
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Further, evolution makes no attempt to explain the origin of life (creation). It is an explanation of what happens when there is population variability in a dynamic environment over geologic time.
How about letting kids learn what science has to offer and allowing them to make their own decisions, instead of attempting to stifle free thought and scientific progress?
These folks are Baptist I assume, based on the geography. They sure could take a lesson from the Catholic church which has said that evolution and religion can coexist.