Which Came First...?
I happened to catch a “debate” on today’s edition of CBS’s The Early Show. The topic: intelligent design vs. evolution.
I hoped, but didn’t expect much out of the exchange, and the choice of panelists completely ruined what could have been an, ahem, intelligent discussion:
- Dr. Jerry Falwell
- Bill Nye, The Science Guy
- Judy Gold, Comedian
- Harry Smith, Early Show Moderator
Smith started the discussion with proverbial question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Throughout the discussion, he did seem to be trying his best to maintain some semblance of a real debate. Like I said, the choice of panelists pretty much ruined any hope of that.
Falwell said the chicken came first didn’t have much to say beyond most people believe God created everything. At least he managed to say that it takes a lot less faith to believe the universe was created than that it just happened. Otherwise, no scientific support for intelligent design.
Nye, very much against intelligent design, offered that a pre-chicken and a pre-rooster created a chicken egg; that Darwin didn’t create evolution, he discovered it; that modern technolgy’s use of unrelated theories for GPS shows evolution is more proven fact than theory. Beyond that, no real scientific explanation making the case for evolution.
And then Gold. A comedian? A comedian?! Not that a comedian couldn’t have anything to contribute, but she did little more than toss out ridiculous comments. The egg came first, because on The Partridge Family Shriley Jones came out of an egg. Iriquois Indians believed the world was carried on the back of a turtle, so your belief is your belief.
If there is a next time, hopefully CBS will find panelists who can debate the topic intelligently and can provide some real scientific facts backing their position. I won’t be holding my breath.