From Washington Dispatch.com ‘Commentary Evolution’s Absence ‘Commentary by Edward MeSweegan April 6, 2005 In May, the Kansas Board of Education is expected to stage a public debate about the teaching of evolution in its public schools. The consensus among scientists and educators is, the Kansas event is intended as yet another forum for biblical fundamentalism and its pseudoscientific offspring, creationism and intelligent design. Indeec, it’s been a busy year as religious fundamentalists fought pitched legal battles in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Ohio and other states to replace a fundamental principle of nature with a minority religious opinion You would think after 150 years of accumulated data and observations from numerous branches of science that the validity, universality, and demonstrability of biological evolution would be as obvious as relativity or plate tectonics. Yet, the early 21” century remains dluttered with pockets of people who, when confronted with Nature, turn back to the Nurture of ancient tradition and parental habit. ‘The Kansas Board of Education is not likely to sway many people with another argumentative show-and-tell from the proponents and opponents of evolutionary biology. Never mind that only one side Is actually qualified to make judgments about such things. Instead, it might be more instructive—and less disingenuous—for the Board to engage in a public “thought experiment” by asking what the world would look like if evoluition was nat a true and valid scientific body of knowledge. Robert Pirsig, the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, conducted such a thought experiment when he sought to demonstrate the existence of “Quality:” that dynamic interaction between subject and object, which gives rise to our perceptions of reality. According to Pirsig, and a school of philosophy called realism, “A thing exists if a world without it can’t function normally.” He used that approach to subtract Quality from his imagined world and discovered, for example, that the fine arts immediately disappeared. Without Quality one painting was as good as another (or blank wall), and Beethoven was just as remarkable as Britney Spears. Poetry and comedy vanished ("Heard any good jokes lately?” was a question that Made no sense in a world where there was no difference between a joke and no Joke.).. Professional sports became a collection of empty statistics. Industrial design, advertising, architecture, brand names and fashion vanished (everyone would dress like Ralph Nader and shop at Price Club). Much of applied science and technology also was altered. A world without Quality wes a colorless, static existence not unlike that of ancient Sparta, present day North Korea, or the twisted utopias of 1984 and Brave New World. From this imaginary experiment Pirsig conciuded that Quality, though difficult to define, clearly existed as demonstrated by the wounded world left in its absence. We can similarly subtract evolution from the world and see what happens. Evolution—the ability of populations to adapt over time to changing environments—is the beating heart of modern biology. Without evolution biology becomes just a collection of disconnected plants end animals frozen in time, Without evolution we also lose our understanding of the dynamic stability and mutability of DNA’s hereditary properties.Modern genetics and molecular biology disappear, as does the biotechnology industry. Horticulture and agriculture lose their rational underpinnings. (Try not to think about that giant ear of corn in the grocery store, that Clydesdale horse in the field or that tiny Chihuanua nipping at your heels.) : Industrial processes that depend on the genetic pedigree and metabolic behavior oF microorganisms—such as breving— revert to medieval guesswork and luck. Much of the clinical rational for treating infectious diseases and cancers in such a way as to prevent the ‘emergence of drug-resistant variants is undermined. Genetic testing for disease susceptibility and birth defects ceases to exist, as does ONA forensics in criminal and civil cases. Of course, paleontology—the study of fossils—immediately disappears as a scientific field of study. No more trips to the museum to ponder the remains of 7. rex. Paleontology is a branch of geology so studies of the fossilization process, rock strata and the age of sedimentary rocks disappears, as does the scientific search for “fossil fuels” such as oil and coal. ‘The absolute dating of fossils, rocks and other materials by radioactive decay and isotope ratlos 1S undermined, which in turns undermines a lot of modern physics. Without physics, chemistry doesn’t make much sense because it's all just atoms, electrons and ions formerly ‘obeying what used to be the laws of physics. Without chemistry, all of biology becomes an nknoviable mystery, and we're right back where we started. ‘The world ceases to function normally. The world ceases to make sense. Without evolution huge pieces of modern science and technology are distorted or destroyed; we lose our ability to Investigate, to understand end to predict events around us and within us. "A thing exists if a world without it can’t function normally." Evolution exists. Pirsig’s thought experiment would add some honesty and originality to the pending Kansas debate on evolution. It would cost"the Board of Education only a little effort, and a little thought, to stage one. Then, having run evolution through a public thought experiment, they might consider putting creationism, “Intelligent design” or the Book of Genesis to the same test of worldly necessity. Or perhaps not. © Copyright 2004 The Washington Dispatch