When facts count
Shamelessly lifted from Cosmic Variance, who linked it from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
We don’t get to pick facts. This very thing was pointed out by Derb at the AEI discussion described here by the NYT, about whether evolution helps or harms conservative philisophy. From the NYT article, Derb is quoted:
As for Mr. Derbyshire, he would not say whether he thought evolutionary theory was good or bad for conservatism; the only thing that mattered was whether it was true. And, he said, if that turns out to be “bad for conservatives, then so much the worse for conservatism.”
I entirely agree. At NRO, Derb expounded a little, and ended with this:
Reality, as someone once said, is the stuff that doesn’t go away when you stop believing in it.
Conservatives should be realists. Wishful thinking is for children and lefties. Big, fat, solid, scientific consensuses that have survived decades of inquiry, like the one that exists on evolution, give us our clearest insights into reality.
Maybe evolution is wrong in some details, maybe the appearance of evolution is all some con trick arranged by God, but the attempt to, firstly, try to magic up an allegedly scientific alternative (which effort is now shifted to Intelligent Design) or wonder whether it’s a good or a bad thing for conservatism, is to miss the point. It is, or it isn’t; in both cases, conservatives, and everyone else, should try to work out which is the case, and then deal with it.