When Climategate broke in November 2009 a catchy song appeared on Youtube called Hide the Decline. It mocked those scientists involved in the climate research who were exposed for manipulating scientific data. The song starts off:
Makin’ up data the old hard way
Fudgin’ the numbers day by day
Ignoring the snow and the cold and a downward line …
It’s very catchy and very funny. And it is hard to get the tune out of your head.
Climategate reminds us how personal philosophy, vested interests and politics can corrupt science.
And it is the same for the creation/evolution issue.
In early January a paper was published in Nature about tetrapod tracks in Poland that consigned the cherished fish-to-tetrapod transitional sequence to the garbage heap. One famous fossil that lost status in a big way was Tiktaalik. Paleontologists around the world are familiar with the paper. They expressed their surprise, amazement and disappointment at the discovery.
PZ Myers promptly posted on the topic Tetrapods are older than we thought.
Yet today Myers posts the old but catchy Tiktaalik song without a word that Tik-tik is irrelevant as far as the fish-to-tetrapod transition is concerned. Judging by the comments on his blog people are persuaded by the catchy song and don’t care about the evidence. PZ didn’t say a word about the problem like ,”Good song but pity it’s now a dead-end.”
The gatekeepers are busy on Wikipedia too keeping this new Polish find hush-hush. The edit history for Tiktaalik is particularly enlightening.
These sacred icons of evolution are untouchable. Like the mythical Phoenix they keep appearing in the evolutionary books and blogs decades after they are discredited. Reminds me of the word “ignoring” in the Climategate song.
Which raises some questions. Are we seeing a Paleogate coverup here? Do the Polish tetrapod tracks need a catchy song on Youtube?
Kenneth Acushla
The time will come when they will know it is the SUN. It will become scorching blazing hot. Read my comments on Creation Evolution and Climategate.