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Use Your Brain: Scientific Controversies and Intelligence

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Acknowledge scientific disagreements; explore controversy and different perspectives. Unless the subject is evolution.

In the Wall Street Journal, Steven Poole reviews Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To, by neuroscientist Dean Burnett. I have not read the book, but Poole’s review mentions that it covers various controversial theories, delves into consciousness and the brain, and ultimately concludes that the brain is a simpleton.

But then in the middle of his review, Poole surprised me with an off-topic swipe at skepticism about evolution.

He writes, “It is a shame that ‘teaching the controversy’ has become code for antievolution activism, because the phrase has a useful meaning, which is exemplified by this book’s approach.” He goes on to discuss how Burnett covers many different perspectives on the brain, including “disagreements about intelligence testing, personality research, or particularly the findings of neuroscience.” He notes that Burnett “emphasizes throughout the limitations of current tools and the vagueness of even the best theories.”

But this same type of controversy exists over evolution! I’ve written here before:

In Altenberg, Austria, in 2008, a group of 16 distinguished biologists got together to discuss holes in neo-Darwinism. Out of this conference came the book Evolution: The Extended Synthesis. The scientists of The Third Way of Evolution reject intelligent design, but question the ability of natural selection and random mutations to generate diverse biological species.

The late biologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences Lynn Margulis stated, “New mutations don’t create new species; they create offspring that are impaired.” Over 950 PhD scientists have signed the “Scientific Dissent from Darwinism” list, affirming they are “skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutations and natural selection to account for the complexity of life.” For a summary of weaknesses and links to scientific articles challenging the major mechanisms of neo-Darwinism, read Casey Luskin’s article, “The Top Ten Scientific Problems with Biological and Chemical Evolution.”

Origins science, no less than neuroscience, is beset by controversy. Explicating scientific disagreements in a biology classroom serves to educate, and doing the same in a book would likewise advance knowledge.

Of course, we recommend teaching the controversy over evolution, and we oppose mandating intelligent design in public schools. But Poole’s conclusion links well to the research side of design.

He objects to characterizing the brain as dumb. “The brain is, after all, by far the smartest system we know of in the universe,” he notes. Well, then why not consider the possibility of design?

Here in a review of a book on the brain, Poole highlights Burnett’s discussion of controversies over how the brain works, noting how “teach the controversy” describes the author’s approach. At the same time, Poole discounts skepticism on evolution… then delves into the book’s exploration of the brain, takes issue with the author’s statement that the brain is an idiot, and extols human reason.

Is it such a stretch to recognize that products of human creativity (machines and code) have remarkably close parallels in nature (molecular machines, DNA code) and therefore to consider the possibility that they all have their origin in purposeful, intelligent agency?

Photo credit: Grzegorz Jereczek from Gdańsk, Poland (Uni Karlsruhe) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Sarah Chaffee

Now a teacher, Sarah Chaffee served as Program Officer in Education and Public Policy at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. She earned her B.A. in Government. During college she interned at Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler’s office and for Prison Fellowship Ministries. Before coming to Discovery, she worked for a private land trust with holdings in the Southwest.

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