Oy, vey! In Russia, a test of God vs. Darwin:
....She did not attend the first two court hearings and seems far less interested in the outcome than her father, Kirill Shraiber, who spoke to the court on her behalf, and Anton Vuima, a family friend who heads a public relations firm called Spiritual Heritage.
Vuima, whose firm goes by the slogan, "We Create Sensations," believes that nothing short of society's collapse is at stake when it comes to the teaching of evolution. He, like the lawsuit, contends that Darwinism, while not a political ideology, stems from Marxist-Leninist ideology; after all, both Darwin and Karl Marx, who is said to have offered to dedicate Das Kapital to the scientist, wrote of grand struggles for survival.
Before launching the current "information war" against Darwin - which includes the Web site antidarvin.com and a special number that is accepting text-message "votes" for and against the scientist - Vuima set out to determine how society as a whole had become so morally bankrupt.
He decided, in short, that it was because of a lack of faith in God. And, by his logic, since Darwin's theory as presented in schools essentially teaches that there is no God, Darwin himself is the enemy.
"If we want to have a high level of morality, not just in Russia but all over the world, we have to challenge Darwin's theory," Vuima said. "Darwin's theory kills morality. It denies the copyright of God."
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The Russian Orthodox Church is standing behind her. The Rev. Artemy Skripkin, head of the youth department of the St. Petersburg patriarchate, attended court hearings in a show of support. The next, perhaps final, one is scheduled for February.
"We consider it inadmissible when one theory - the theory of Darwin - is presented as the only true theory," Skripkin said. "Russia has always been presented as an atheist country. We are not all atheists.
"What this school is advocating is atheism, which is wrong."
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But Sergei Mamontov, one of the authors, says the book doesn't advocate anything - except the teaching of science. Taking offense to Darwinism, in his view, is like taking offense to the theories of Einstein or Copernicus.
"In middle and high school, students learn scientific theory - and not religious theory - for one simple reason: Nobody is able to prove religious theories," said Mamontov, a professor of biology at Russian State Medical University and a member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. "You just have to believe in them."
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It is the sickest form of populism to presume you will change the validity of a scientific theory uncontradicted by a century of evidence and research with the simple mechanism of a "vote".
Those who do not understand science are condemned to refute it.
This past fall I was asked to write a lengthy peice for the spanish edition of Foreign Policy magazine on the prospects for ID-Creationism to spread internationally. I have an english-translation posted here:
http://scienceblogs.com/framing-science/2006/10/can_intelligent_design_…
Thanks, Matt - that is insightful.
On the other hand, pushing IDC in Serbia totally backfired. I would exoect something similar in Russia. After 50 or more years of state-sponsored atheism, the return of religion in those places is of different nature than in the USA. There, religious affiliation is essentially a sign of tribal belonging and has not much to do with belief in supernatural stuff.
In Soviet Russia, scientific hypothesis proves YOU!
I have been waiting so long to say that.....
"Denies the copyright of God?"
I have no idea what this guy means by that, but it fills my head with many images, most ridiculous.