No, this isn’t the latest monster movie, and it doesn’t feature Tom Cruise either, though his resemblance to a fish is arguable. Rather, this is about evolution, and the mistreatment it receives in society. What are normally focused on in debates about teaching evolution or creationism are not the consequences (positive or negative) of each, but the place of each with respect to science. The verdict is quite clear: evolution is science, and while creationism makes scientific claims, it is not scientific.

When creationism is taught, people may tend to take things for granted. After all, God gave us this planet, didn’t he? When much of the population is busy celebrating Earth’s 6 000th birthday, issues like global warming, deforestation, peak oil, and artificially imbalanced ecosystems tend to be ignored. This would be all well and good if the world were ending any time soon. (Un?)fortunately, barring a post – Cold War ending to the Cold War, the world will not be ending any time soon, and certainly not in our lifetimes.

This is not just an issue of educational rights and wrongs; it’s about consequences. The consequences of religion and religious style thinking affects people everywhere in ways they usually fail to recognize. Stories such as the one seen here pop up because of failures to plan ahead.

The plight of these fish is due almost entirely due to a failure to apply science – in this case evolution – to real world situations. This has caused the depletion of certain fish stocks, and we will reap the consequences until natural selection manages to sort things out again.

By teaching evolution, and more importantly, the scientific method, we can prevent at least some of these disasters of – in the eyes of the average citizen – insignificant proportions. As Darwin said, “there is a grandeur in this view of life.” Let’s teach the grandeur.

Bunnymuffins