Saturday, May 07, 2005

"Intelligent Design" Suspiciously Absent from Scientific Critique

It just occurred to me that all of these scientific texts have been talking about "Creationism" and "Creation Science" and completely ignoring the use of the term "Intelligent Design" which the fundamentalists have been using themselves. This is the opposite of the proponents of "Intelligent Design" who adamantly try to frame evolution as just another "theory" that is no more justified by science than their own. This is very similar to the usage of language in the debate over abortion. Pro-choice advocates refer to themselves as "Pro-choice" and their opponents as "Anti-choice", while Pro-life advocates refer to themselves as "Pro-life" or "Anti-abortion" and their opponents as "Pro-abortion" or "Murderers". While not quite so blatant, a similar subtle use of language in the debate over evolution and creation is clearly apparent. Language is a very powerful tool in political discourse.

1 Comments:

Blogger Michael C. Habib said...

As an afterthought, this post could just as easily been about the use of Myth vs. Religion as a way that Christianity uses language to frame itself as more true than other creation accounts.

5/07/2005 4:15 PM  

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