The dominant, foundational, and unifying theory among all
biological sciences for the past century — evolution by natural
selection — has been thoroughly debunked by a Facebook video, every
scientist in the world reports.
"Evolution is not a science. Never has and never will be. Why?
Because it cannot fit within the parameters and parentheses of science
for one simple reason: it was never observed,” Feuerstein explains in
his video. “That’s why it’s not science. That’s why it’s called the theory of evolution. One man’s theory.”
The fallout in the scientific community has been widespread and devastating.
“I honestly don’t know what to say,” a visibly shaken Richard Dawkins told BBC World News this week.
For decades, the scientist and author has been widely considered one of
the world’s most eloquent defenders of evolutionary biology, but
Feuerstein’s arguments left him stammering and virtually speechless.
“It’s just … I don’t know. Really, I don’t. It’s like, you spend your
life studying this stuff, and then, one day you see a video on a
friend’s Facebook page that just … undoes everything you thought you
knew.”
Pressed by BBC lead anchor Katty Kay about his thoughts of
Feuerstein, Dawkins shook his head slightly, staring off into space with
a strangely vacant expression.
“He’s a brilliant man,” he replied softly. “A saint.”
Without wasting time on such trivial matters, Feuerstein’s video
skillfully sidestepped the evidence for common ancestry and struck right
at the theory of evolution’s greatest weakness: it’s stupid.
“In some accidental cosmic bang, out of that was created one cell,
and from that one cell, all life springs,” Feuerstein said, summarizing
the definition of evolution affirmed by all biologists. “Every plant,
every animal, every single human being. And somewhere along the way over
years and years, we mysteriously and magically all developed different
wills and all developed different characteristics and traits, all
because we willed it?”
“I just had never thought about it that way before,” admitted Michael
Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and another
once-well-known proponent of evolutionary science.
Shermer has been in seclusion at his south California home since
Feuerstein’s video began gaining traction, but he agreed to answer a few
questions through email.
“Josh just nailed it. That’s all there is to it,” Shermer wrote in an
email that was, originally, utterly devoid of any capitalization or
punctuation, as though the writer had simply lost the will to follow
such mundane grammatical conventions. “After watching his video, I
remember sitting back in my chair and just thinking, ‘Holy (expletive),
he’s right. This (expletive) (expletive) doesn’t make sense.’”
One of Feuerstein’s main points of evidence was what he called “The
Law of Thermodynamics,” which appears to be a postulate of his own
devising, since the scientific canon contains nothing that precisely
correlates with the idea. Feuerstein defined the law concisely:
“Chaos can never produce order.”
“What if I were to tell you that somewhere in Oklahoma a tornado
rolls through a junkyard of old cars, and somewhere on the other side of
that tornado, out of that junk pile, it magically produces a perfectly
red, shiny, working Lamborghini?” Feuerstein asked in his clip. “You
would tell me I was nuts. You would tell me I had lost it. You would
probably try and admit me to the psychiatric ward. Why? Because that is
absolutely stupid. I mean, how much faith would it really take to
believe something as idiotic as that? And yet, that’s exactly what
science believes.”
“It’s true: we do believe that,” agreed a shell-shocked Ann Reid,
former executive director of the National Center for Science Education,
which permanently disbanded in disgrace last week. “Well, at least we did, you know, before Mr. Feuerstein’s work was brought to our attention.”
Appearing deeply humbled but saying she had to “give credit where
it’s due,” Reid said Feuerstein’s scientific contributions to future
generations would include not only the Law of Thermodynamics and the
Parable of the Lamborghini in the Junkyard, but also what the scientific
community has termed the “Stupidity Test,” meaning that any theory must
be ruled invalid if a member of the general public finds it stupid —
regardless of what the evidence says.
According to his Facebook page, Feuerstein appears to have no formal
training in the sciences, but Reid said that is not unprecedented.
Reid trailed off, shaking her head and muttering something that
sounded like “Out of the mouths of babes…” After a while, she smiled and
shrugged.
“I guess we’re just seeing history repeat itself.”
Feuerstein’s video has not been entirely without its critics. Some,
Reid included, have called the evangelist’s final thought — that the
word “universe” is composed of “uni” meaning “one” and “verse,” meaning
“a spoken statement” — a bit questionable.
Though “uni” does mean “one,” “verse” is actually taken from the
Latin “vertere,” meaning “something rotated, rolled, changed,” Reid
said. Then she chuckled embarrassedly and looked at the ground.
“Oh, what’s the point?” she mumbled, her face reddening. “I’m just being a nitpicky little sore loser, aren’t I?”
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