Spandrels and Expelled

I assigned The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm by Gould and Lewontin to my students in evolution today. I find the contrast between the reality of such a sharp critique of evolution and the propaganda coming from the makers of the movie Expelled funny. From what I have heard, the central argument of Expelled (besides that "Darwinist" are like Nazis) is that dissent from "Darwinism" isn't tolerated within the academic community.

Spandrels was a full frontal assault on evolutionary biology. It was especially targeted at the young field of sociobiology, but also at the study of adaptation in general. Gould and Lewontin were attacking the way evolutionary biology was done. Were they expelled from the academy for their blasphemy? Of course not. There were many replies and critiques of their paper. A debate ensued that sometimes got quite heated. Science isn't pretty. But the debate was always in terms of science, not ad hominen. The paper introduced terms such as "just so stories" and "spandrels" into our vocabulary. It is widely cited. Even those who disagree with Gould and Lewontin must address the issues that they brought up. Rather than being expelled or black listed by the establishment, Gould and Lewontin are famous for their paper.

Of course, Gould and Lewontin did not attack evolution itself, just some aspects of it. There are many other examples of biologists attacking the orthodoxy, but there are no celebrated examples of biologists attacking evolution itself and being lionized. That isn't because biologists are Nazis enforcing an orthodoxy. It's simply because such attacks are always bad science. Evolution has the advantage of actually being true. It is very difficult to come up with a strong argument to disprove something that is in fact true, and those who attempt to do so are rightly laughed at or ignored.

What is strange is that those who see a Darwinist conspiracy never briefly consider the possibility that the reason their ideas aren't taken seriously is because their ideas are not worth taking seriously. If they ever come up with a good argument disproving any aspect of evolution, they will become heroes.