Godless: The Church of Liberalism
Encyclopedia
Godless: The Church of Liberalism is a book
by best-selling author and conservative
columnist Ann Coulter
, published in 2006. The book is an argument against American liberalism, which Coulter regards as so anti-scientific and faith-based
that it amounts to a "primitive religion
" which she claims has "its own cosmology
, its own explanation for why we are here, its own gods, and its own clergy." Coulter asserts that "the basic tenet of liberalism is that nature is god and men are monkeys."
and reviles people of faith, yet bears all the attributes of a religion itself. Coulter argues that the tenets of the liberal "church" are:
", who helped push for the 9/11 Commission
and have been critical of US security policies writing:
These statements received national attention after an interview on The Today Show, and were widely criticized. Coulter refused to apologize, and responded, "I feel sorry for all the widows of 9/11...[but] I do not believe that sanctifies their political message....They have attacked Bush, they have attacked Condoleezza Rice
, they're cutting campaign commercials for Kerry. But we can't respond because their husbands died . . . I think it's one of the ugliest things 'the left' has done...this idea that you need some sort of personal authenticity in order to make a political point..."
On June 8, 2006, Coulter appeared at a book signing in Huntington, New York
, home of many who died in 9/11, where she was handed a letter stating "Your latest comments deriding the widows of 9/11 are a disgrace to thousands who perished on that day," and that her claim that the women had profited from their husbands' death is a "nauseating misrepresentation of their struggle to keep the memory of what happened that day alive." The man who presented the letter was Huntington town board member Mark Cuthbertson, who told her "I'm here on behalf of many of my constituents. We are disgusted with your comments." Coulter tore up the letter.
Also on June 8, New Jersey
Assemblywomen Joan M. Quigley
and Linda Stender
issued a joint press release, calling on "...New Jersey retailers to ban the sale of her book throughout the state."
Coulter also says in a footnote, "Throughout this book, I often refer to Christian
s and Christianity because I am a Christian and I have a fairly good idea of what they believe, but the term is intended to include anyone who subscribes to the Bible
of the God of Abraham
, including Jews and others."
and proponents of intelligent design
, devotes approximately one-third of the book to attacks on evolution, which Coulter terms "Darwinism
." Coulter turned to leading intelligent design proponents for tutors in writing this section of the book: "I couldn't have written about evolution without the generous tutoring of Michael Behe
, David Berlinski
, and William Dembski…" Behe, Dembski and Berlinski are all fellows of the Discovery Institute
, the hub of the intelligent design movement, which Coulter endorses in the book. Chapter 8, "The Creation Myth: On the Sixth Day, God Created Fruit Flies," advances the book's thesis that liberalism is a religion, this time by attempting to show what she argues is its cosmogony
. The chapter begins:
Later in the chapter, she presents a parody
—the "Giant Raccoon's Flatulence Theory"—to illustrate what she sees as fallacious arguments of those who espouse the theory of evolution. The "theory" states:
The imagine, perhaps and might (italicized by Coulter in the book) refer to what she believes is the speculative, mythical, 'made-up-story' nature of the modern evolutionary synthesis
theory that species evolved through mutation and non-random selection. Chapter 9, entitled Proof for How the Walkman Evolved into the iPOD by Random Mutation, begins
To back her opinion, Coulter refers to examples of evolution used in long-standing evolutionary arguments against creationism, but also to examples that were later shown to be misinterpreted, or hoaxes. She presents the Galapagos finches, the peppered moth
, Piltdown man
, Archaeoraptor
, Haeckel's drawings
, and the Miller-Urey experiment
, as flawed, discredited, or made-up evidence and stating arguments to support her case. While portraying evolution theory as a "religion," Coulter portrays intelligent design as legitimate "science":
The scientific community discounts the claims, such as Coulter's, that the modern evolutionary synthesis
lacks scientific rigor
, is based on a tautology, or is without experimental or physical proof. The claim that modern evolutionary theory lacks rigor is emphatically rejected by the United States National Academy of Sciences
which says that evolution is one of the most thoroughly tested and confirmed theories in science. Coulter's assertion that evolution is based on a "tautology" is also widely considered to be baseless, as are her claims that evolution is without proof 'http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CA/CA602.htmlThe scientific community
also views intelligent design not as a valid scientific theory
but as pseudoscience
or junk science
. The National Academy of Sciences has stated that intelligent design "and other claims of supernatural
intervention in the origin of life" are not science because they cannot be tested by experiment, do not generate any predictions and propose no new hypotheses
of their own.
Coulter's reliance on controversial sources for science, intelligent design proponents and creationist sources, has prompted some critics of the intelligent design movement
to analyze her claims. PZ Myers
, countering Coulter's claim that there is no evidence for the theory of evolution, points to the scientific literature
that contains hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of articles about various aspects of evolution. He also argues that Coulter has it backwards: The issue is not whether there is evidence that supports evolution theory, but whether there is evidence that is explained by evolution theory, since theories
are explanations for data. In response to Coulter's citing of Jonathan Wells' arguments concerning peppered moth evolution
, Ian Musgrave argues that Coulter misrepresents the significance of the peppered moth experiments, makes a number of factual errors, and a "wildly ignorant misrepresentation of evolution." James Downard criticized Coulter's favoring of secondary source
s over primary source
s, saying "she compulsively reads inaccurate antievolutionary sources and accepts them on account of their reinforcement of what she wants to be true."
Media Matters for America
responded to Coulter's "strawman" arguments against evolution by noting 11 types of "distortions" in her writing and going into detail explaining why her claims are false and contrary to science.
A satirical account of Coulter's take on evolution was written by probabilist Peter Olofsson whose tongue-in-cheek argument was that Coulter had in fact written a veiled criticism of the intelligent design movement, much like Alan Sokal
did to the postmodern movement in his famous hoax.
Coulter claims this is evidence of a "liberal-left" conspiracy to create generations of atheists taught through the public school system.
In a famous decision, an influential court ruled that
However, Coulter asserts that students in the public school system should have the opportunity to debate evolution versus intelligent design in a classroom setting. One group that supports her view is the Discovery Institute and its Teach the Controversy
strategy.
-detection software, found in the book three instances of what he claims to be plagiarism. The Rawstory website claims that she used text taken from the Illinois Right to Life website, making only slight changes for the book. The TPM Muckracker website provided a "complete" list of examples of alleged plagiarism discovered so far in all of Coulter's works. Coulter's publisher Crown Publishing Group
has since characterized the charges as being "as trivial and meritless as they are irresponsible."
On August 7, 2006, Media Matters for America
claimed that Coulter misrepresented and distorted the statements of her sources, omitted information in those sources that refuted the claims in her book, misrepresented news coverage to allege bias, relied upon outdated and unreliable sources, and invented "facts."
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
by best-selling author and conservative
American conservatism
Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...
columnist Ann Coulter
Ann Coulter
Ann Hart Coulter is an American lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events...
, published in 2006. The book is an argument against American liberalism, which Coulter regards as so anti-scientific and faith-based
Faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...
that it amounts to a "primitive religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
" which she claims has "its own cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
, its own explanation for why we are here, its own gods, and its own clergy." Coulter asserts that "the basic tenet of liberalism is that nature is god and men are monkeys."
Central thesis
Coulter argues that liberalism rejects the idea of GodGod
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and reviles people of faith, yet bears all the attributes of a religion itself. Coulter argues that the tenets of the liberal "church" are:
- Creation myths (the theory of evolution)
- SacramentSacramentA sacrament is a sacred rite recognized as of particular importance and significance. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites.-General definitions and terms:...
s - Coulter compares abortionAbortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
to "virgin sacrifice" - Holy Writ (Roe v. WadeRoe v. WadeRoe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...
) - MartyrMartyrA martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
s (from Alger HissAlger HissAlger Hiss was an American lawyer, government official, author, and lecturer. He was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and U.N. official...
to Mumia Abu-JamalMumia Abu-JamalMumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner and sentenced to death. He has been described as "perhaps the world's best known death-row inmate", and his sentence is one of the most debated today...
) - ClergyClergyClergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
(public school teachers) - Place of worshipPlace of worshipA place of worship or house of worship is an establishment or her location where a group of people comes to perform acts of religious study, honor, or devotion. The form and function of religious architecture has evolved over thousands of years for both changing beliefs and architectural style...
(government schools, where Coulter claims that prayerPrayerPrayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
is prohibited but condomCondomA condom is a barrier device most commonly used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy and spreading sexually transmitted diseases . It is put on a man's erect penis and physically blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner...
s are free) - Doctrine of infallibilityInfallibility of the ChurchThe Infallibility of the Church is the belief that the Holy Spirit will not allow the Church to err in its belief or teaching under certain circumstances...
(as manifest in the "absolute moral authority" of spokespeople from Cindy SheehanCindy SheehanCindy Lee Miller Sheehan is an American anti-war activist whose son, U.S. Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed by enemy action during the Iraq War. She attracted national and international media attention in August 2005 for her extended anti-war protest at a makeshift camp outside President...
to Max ClelandMax ClelandJoseph Maxwell Cleland is an American politician from Georgia. Cleland, a Democrat, is a disabled US Army veteran of the Vietnam War, a recipient of the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for valorous action in combat, and a former U.S. Senator...
) - CosmologyCosmologyCosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
(The Big Bang TheoryBig BangThe Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
, by which Coulter concludes that mankind is an inconsequential accident)
The 9/11 "Jersey Girls"
Throughout the book, Coulter criticizes the four 9/11 widows, known as the "Jersey GirlsJersey Girls
The Jersey Girls or Jersey Widows refers to four American women who lost their husbands in the September 11 attacks. All four, Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Lorie Van Auken, and Mindy Kleinberg, were residents of New Jersey, and helped lobby the U.S...
", who helped push for the 9/11 Commission
9/11 Commission
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to...
and have been critical of US security policies writing:
These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. These self-obsessed women seemed genuinely unaware that 9/11 was an attack on our nation and acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them. ... I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much ... the Democrat ratpack gals endorsed John KerryJohn KerryJohn Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
for president ... cutting campaign commercials... how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorceDivorceDivorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
these harpiesHarpyIn Greek mythology, a harpy was one of the winged spirits best known for constantly stealing all food from Phineas...
? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in PlayboyPlayboyPlayboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
.
These statements received national attention after an interview on The Today Show, and were widely criticized. Coulter refused to apologize, and responded, "I feel sorry for all the widows of 9/11...[but] I do not believe that sanctifies their political message....They have attacked Bush, they have attacked Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
, they're cutting campaign commercials for Kerry. But we can't respond because their husbands died . . . I think it's one of the ugliest things 'the left' has done...this idea that you need some sort of personal authenticity in order to make a political point..."
On June 8, 2006, Coulter appeared at a book signing in Huntington, New York
Huntington, New York
The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. Huntington is part of the New York metropolitan...
, home of many who died in 9/11, where she was handed a letter stating "Your latest comments deriding the widows of 9/11 are a disgrace to thousands who perished on that day," and that her claim that the women had profited from their husbands' death is a "nauseating misrepresentation of their struggle to keep the memory of what happened that day alive." The man who presented the letter was Huntington town board member Mark Cuthbertson, who told her "I'm here on behalf of many of my constituents. We are disgusted with your comments." Coulter tore up the letter.
Also on June 8, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
Assemblywomen Joan M. Quigley
Joan M. Quigley
Joan M. Quigley is an American Democratic Party politician who has served in the New Jersey General Assembly since 1994, where she represents the 32nd legislative district. Quigley serves as the Majority Conference Leader starting with the 2006-2008 legislative session...
and Linda Stender
Linda Stender
Linda Stender is an American Democratic Party politician who has served in the New Jersey General Assembly since 2002, where she represents the 22nd legislative district. She ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing New Jersey's 7th District, in 2006 and...
issued a joint press release, calling on "...New Jersey retailers to ban the sale of her book throughout the state."
Christianity
The book begins with a quotation from the Bible: "They exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creation rather than the creator.... Therefore, God gave them up to passions of dishonor, for their females exchanged the natural use for that which is contrary to nature. — Romans 1:25-26".Coulter also says in a footnote, "Throughout this book, I often refer to Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s and Christianity because I am a Christian and I have a fairly good idea of what they believe, but the term is intended to include anyone who subscribes to the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
of the God of Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
, including Jews and others."
Judaism
Echoing the author's contention is this passage from Norman Podhoretz's book, Why Are Jews Liberals?- To most American Jews, then, liberalism is not, as has often been said, merely a necessary component of Jewishness: it is the very essence of being a Jew. Nor is it a ‘substitute for religion’: it is a religion in its own right, complete with its own catechism and its own dogmas and, TertullianTertullianQuintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
-like, obdurately resistant to facts that undermine its claims and promises. http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36422
Science and intelligent design
Coulter, citing various critics of evolutionEvolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
and proponents of intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
, devotes approximately one-third of the book to attacks on evolution, which Coulter terms "Darwinism
Darwinism
Darwinism is a set of movements and concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or of evolution, including some ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin....
." Coulter turned to leading intelligent design proponents for tutors in writing this section of the book: "I couldn't have written about evolution without the generous tutoring of Michael Behe
Michael Behe
Michael J. Behe is an American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate. He currently serves as professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and as a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...
, David Berlinski
David Berlinski
David Berlinski is an American educator and author of several books on mathematics. Berlinski is a Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, the hub of the intelligent design movement. Though he criticizes the theory of evolution, Berlinski who is an agnostic,...
, and William Dembski…" Behe, Dembski and Berlinski are all fellows of the Discovery Institute
Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
, the hub of the intelligent design movement, which Coulter endorses in the book. Chapter 8, "The Creation Myth: On the Sixth Day, God Created Fruit Flies," advances the book's thesis that liberalism is a religion, this time by attempting to show what she argues is its cosmogony
Cosmogony
Cosmogony, or cosmogeny, is any scientific theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. The word comes from the Greek κοσμογονία , from κόσμος "cosmos, the world", and the root of γίνομαι / γέγονα "to be born, come about"...
. The chapter begins:
Later in the chapter, she presents a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
—the "Giant Raccoon's Flatulence Theory"—to illustrate what she sees as fallacious arguments of those who espouse the theory of evolution. The "theory" states:
The imagine, perhaps and might (italicized by Coulter in the book) refer to what she believes is the speculative, mythical, 'made-up-story' nature of the modern evolutionary synthesis
Modern evolutionary synthesis
The modern evolutionary synthesis is a union of ideas from several biological specialties which provides a widely accepted account of evolution...
theory that species evolved through mutation and non-random selection. Chapter 9, entitled Proof for How the Walkman Evolved into the iPOD by Random Mutation, begins
To back her opinion, Coulter refers to examples of evolution used in long-standing evolutionary arguments against creationism, but also to examples that were later shown to be misinterpreted, or hoaxes. She presents the Galapagos finches, the peppered moth
Peppered moth evolution
The evolution of the peppered moth over the last two hundred years has been studied in detail. Originally, the vast majority of peppered moths had light colouration, which effectively camouflaged them against the light-coloured trees and lichens which they rested upon...
, Piltdown man
Piltdown Man
The Piltdown Man was a hoax in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. These fragments consisted of parts of a skull and jawbone, said to have been collected in 1912 from a gravel pit at Piltdown, East Sussex, England...
, Archaeoraptor
Archaeoraptor
"Archaeoraptor" is the generic name informally assigned in 1999 to a fossil from China in an article published in National Geographic magazine. The magazine claimed that the fossil was a "missing link" between birds and terrestrial theropod dinosaurs. Even prior to this publication there had been...
, Haeckel's drawings
Recapitulation theory
The theory of recapitulation, also called the biogenetic law or embryological parallelism—and often expressed as "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"—is a disproven hypothesis that in developing from embryo to adult, animals go through stages resembling or representing successive stages...
, and the Miller-Urey experiment
Miller-Urey experiment
The Miller and Urey experiment was an experiment that simulated hypothetical conditions thought at the time to be present on the early Earth, and tested for the occurrence of chemical origins of life. Specifically, the experiment tested Alexander Oparin's and J. B. S...
, as flawed, discredited, or made-up evidence and stating arguments to support her case. While portraying evolution theory as a "religion," Coulter portrays intelligent design as legitimate "science":
The scientific community discounts the claims, such as Coulter's, that the modern evolutionary synthesis
Modern evolutionary synthesis
The modern evolutionary synthesis is a union of ideas from several biological specialties which provides a widely accepted account of evolution...
lacks scientific rigor
Rigour
Rigour or rigor has a number of meanings in relation to intellectual life and discourse. These are separate from public and political applications with their suggestion of laws enforced to the letter, or political absolutism...
, is based on a tautology, or is without experimental or physical proof. The claim that modern evolutionary theory lacks rigor is emphatically rejected by the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
which says that evolution is one of the most thoroughly tested and confirmed theories in science. Coulter's assertion that evolution is based on a "tautology" is also widely considered to be baseless, as are her claims that evolution is without proof 'http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CA/CA602.htmlThe scientific community
Scientific community
The scientific community consists of the total body of scientists, its relationships and interactions. It is normally divided into "sub-communities" each working on a particular field within science. Objectivity is expected to be achieved by the scientific method...
also views intelligent design not as a valid scientific theory
Scientific theory
A scientific theory comprises a collection of concepts, including abstractions of observable phenomena expressed as quantifiable properties, together with rules that express relationships between observations of such concepts...
but as pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
or junk science
Junk science
Junk science is a term used in U.S. political and legal disputes that brands an advocate's claims about scientific data, research, or analyses as spurious. The term may convey a pejorative connotation that the advocate is driven by political, ideological, financial, or other unscientific...
. The National Academy of Sciences has stated that intelligent design "and other claims of supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
intervention in the origin of life" are not science because they cannot be tested by experiment, do not generate any predictions and propose no new hypotheses
Hypothesis
A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι – hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose". For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...
of their own.
Coulter's reliance on controversial sources for science, intelligent design proponents and creationist sources, has prompted some critics of the intelligent design movement
Intelligent design movement
The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the idea of "intelligent design," which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are...
to analyze her claims. PZ Myers
PZ Myers
Paul Zachary "PZ" Myers is an American biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris and the author of the Pharyngula science blog. He is currently an associate professor of biology at UMM, works with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology , and also cultivates an...
, countering Coulter's claim that there is no evidence for the theory of evolution, points to the scientific literature
Scientific literature
Scientific literature comprises scientific publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences, and within a scientific field is often abbreviated as the literature. Academic publishing is the process of placing the results of one's research into the...
that contains hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of articles about various aspects of evolution. He also argues that Coulter has it backwards: The issue is not whether there is evidence that supports evolution theory, but whether there is evidence that is explained by evolution theory, since theories
Theory
The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...
are explanations for data. In response to Coulter's citing of Jonathan Wells' arguments concerning peppered moth evolution
Peppered moth evolution
The evolution of the peppered moth over the last two hundred years has been studied in detail. Originally, the vast majority of peppered moths had light colouration, which effectively camouflaged them against the light-coloured trees and lichens which they rested upon...
, Ian Musgrave argues that Coulter misrepresents the significance of the peppered moth experiments, makes a number of factual errors, and a "wildly ignorant misrepresentation of evolution." James Downard criticized Coulter's favoring of secondary source
Secondary source
In scholarship, a secondary source is a document or recording that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere. A secondary source contrasts with a primary source, which is an original source of the information being discussed; a primary source can be a person with direct...
s over primary source
Primary source
Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied....
s, saying "she compulsively reads inaccurate antievolutionary sources and accepts them on account of their reinforcement of what she wants to be true."
Media Matters for America
Media Matters for America
Media Matters for America is a politically progressive media watchdog group which says it is "dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." Set up as a 501 non-profit organization, MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and...
responded to Coulter's "strawman" arguments against evolution by noting 11 types of "distortions" in her writing and going into detail explaining why her claims are false and contrary to science.
A satirical account of Coulter's take on evolution was written by probabilist Peter Olofsson whose tongue-in-cheek argument was that Coulter had in fact written a veiled criticism of the intelligent design movement, much like Alan Sokal
Alan Sokal
Alan David Sokal is a professor of mathematics at University College London and professor of physics at New York University. He works in statistical mechanics and combinatorics. To the general public he is best known for his criticism of postmodernism, resulting in the Sokal affair in...
did to the postmodern movement in his famous hoax.
Intelligent design and public education
Coulter argues that intelligent design proponents' challenges to the theory of evolution are immediately disqualified as being based on religious beliefs. For example:- The world's largest general scientific society, American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
, representing 262 affiliated societies and academies of science and 10 million individuals, has said that "although advocates of Intelligent Design usually avoid mentioning a specific creator, the concept is in fact religious, not scientific" and that efforts to teach "the controversy" are flawed as "there is no significant controversy within the scientific community about the validity of the theory of evolution. The current controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution is not a scientific one." - The ruling in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School DistrictKitzmiller v. Dover Area School DistrictTammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design...
found that intelligent design is not science but is essentially religious in nature.
Coulter claims this is evidence of a "liberal-left" conspiracy to create generations of atheists taught through the public school system.
In a famous decision, an influential court ruled that
However, Coulter asserts that students in the public school system should have the opportunity to debate evolution versus intelligent design in a classroom setting. One group that supports her view is the Discovery Institute and its Teach the Controversy
Teach the Controversy
Teach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while attempting to discredit evolution in United States public high school science courses...
strategy.
Accusations of plagiarism, distortions and falsehoods
John Barrie, creator of iParadigms, LLC's plagiarismPlagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
-detection software, found in the book three instances of what he claims to be plagiarism. The Rawstory website claims that she used text taken from the Illinois Right to Life website, making only slight changes for the book. The TPM Muckracker website provided a "complete" list of examples of alleged plagiarism discovered so far in all of Coulter's works. Coulter's publisher Crown Publishing Group
Crown Publishing Group
-External links:*...
has since characterized the charges as being "as trivial and meritless as they are irresponsible."
On August 7, 2006, Media Matters for America
Media Matters for America
Media Matters for America is a politically progressive media watchdog group which says it is "dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." Set up as a 501 non-profit organization, MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and...
claimed that Coulter misrepresented and distorted the statements of her sources, omitted information in those sources that refuted the claims in her book, misrepresented news coverage to allege bias, relied upon outdated and unreliable sources, and invented "facts."
External links
- Coulter on The Today Show: Criticism of four 9/11 widows - Transcript and video of The Today Show interview with Matt Lauer (June 6, 2006).
- William Dembski on Coulter and Godless: The Church of Liberalism
- Brain Food (A column discussing each chapter)
- free analysis of Ann Coulter's new book Godless: The Church of Liberalism by blogger Scoobie Davis
- Susan Campbell, Hartford Courant: Resisting The Urge To Dance On Ann Coulter's Head, June 14, 2006
- Ron Brynaert: In new book, Coulter 'cribs' stem cell list from right-to-life group
- Ann Coulter on Evolution (Part I) (Part II) (Part III), a site on evolutionary science reviews and critiques Coulter's sources and writing
- Ann Coulter's "Flatulent Raccoon Theory" Media Matters for America charges that her book Godless, is full of misrepresentations on evolution
- Quiz: Coulterism, or not?
- Provonsha, Matthew; A review of Godless at skeptic.com