

The Improbability Pump - tokenadult
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100510/coyne/

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Lendal
All the same arguments, but ignoring the most likely explanation of why people
choose to disbelieve in evolution: It doesn't matter to the common person.

Disbelief in germ theory could get you killed, whereas disbelief in the
evolution theory gets you ridiculed by a bunch of nerds that you don't like
very much anyway. Why should one irritate one's parents by openly defying the
Bible when there's nothing to gain from it? How could the average schmoe
leverage evolution in their daily life to gain wealth, status or comfort? No
answer? I didn't think so. I won't be openly supporting evolution until it
pays the bills or helps me personally in some realistic way.

Ironically, evolution is the reason why people don't believe in evolution.
Belief in evolution makes you a nerd, and nerds don't get laid.

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thyrsus
I agree with all but one point concerning evolution in the article, which is
its dismissal of the evolution of the population. The example _in extremis_ is
the ant colony: a mutation in a drone may give no advantage to that individual
drone, and possibly even a mild disadvantage, but if it creates a sufficiently
better adapted (non-reproducing!) worker, then that mutation is more likely to
propagate than the absence of the mutation because of its advantage to the
population as a whole. I extrapolate that, though it may not be the primary
mechanism of adaptation, it nonetheless is a possible mechanism in any social
species, from coral to human.

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wanderr
Although I agree wholeheartedly with this article I was a bit disappointed
going in, I though it was going to be related to an improbability drive...such
as an infinite improbability drive. ;)

