I have seen a couple of things in the news lately that have just made me want to flee from this country.  This mostly has to do with various political movements in our country that simply refuse to accept scientific fact.  The extreme right has done more to damage this country than I think anyone can accurately measure.  The bitter irony of this is that many of these right wing politicians make their living in fields that depend on the very science that they denounce.  Every day they use products that are based on science they reject.  It’s just complete madness.

I coordinated and taught quite a lot of paramedic classes, and during that time I had people from all walks of life look to me for their scientific education.  EMS attracts a lot of conservative people.  Many of them are religious.  Some of them are even creationists.  However, much of the medical field is built upon the principals of evolution and natural selection.  Many of my students were surprised to find out that evolution is not just a theory, it has been proven several times over and the technology based on that science is woven into everything.  Evolution isn’t just a theory, it is a core concept in all of science.  And the science works.  People are treated and cured from disease based on this science.

So as I taught anatomy and physiology, pharmacology and other concepts I could see some of the students struggling with their own beliefs.  It is easy to stick your head in the sand from day to day if you just live and work around your family and your church.  Attending four hour lectures about science that is well proven and is the basis of your new profession is something quite different though.  There was a palpable tension with some of these students as they struggled to come to grips with a reality they have denied for so long.  Some of them came to me privately expressing anger and concern.  The wool had been removed from their eyes and they were disoriented.

Most creationists can easily construct the bubble that allows them to maintain their world view.  If you live from day to day as a religious person it is easy to make up little stories about where things come from, and simply not think about the technology that has brought so much convenience to your life.  However, I saw in the eyes of many of my medic students that it was becoming harder and harder to maintain the bubble.  Some personal conferences with students confirmed this.  And it now occurs to me that there are many medically trained conservative people who read this blog.  So if you are a reader who fits into this category, and you still haven’t averted your eyes from this post, you may be one of those people who is what I like to call “creationism-curious.”  In other words, you are an ultra conservative or a creationist that works in the medical field surrounded by working technology based on evolution and natural selection.  You have somehow learned to reconcile both of these worlds.  This post is for you.  I would like to take a minute to explain beyond a shadow of a doubt that the world wasn’t created 6000 years ago as this Arizona State Senator believes.

To give you some grounding in this, many creationists put the beginning of the earth at about 6000 years ago.  They have calculated this number by adding up all the ages of the ancient family tree in the beginning of the bible.  The video below explains this whacky viewpoint.  Please take note of how convincing this so-called scientist is.  He’s got a lab coat and everything!

So I would like to take the time to talk about the technology I introduced to my students. 

I would like to start with viral disease treatments, specifically HIV treatment.  I want to start here because one of the most common arguments from creationist friends, colleagues, and students is that “There aren’t any known examples of evolution.  It’s all just speculation.”

To this I always reply, “I’m not sure where you heard this.  Every patient that has a virus is a living example of evolution taking place.  The evolution of the species of virus that inhabits their body is measurable and predictable.  It is also takes place on a time scale which can bring the concept home to you.”

The above clip is an excellent visual representation on how the AIDS retrovirus works.  Now, there is something striking about this disease process that I want creationists to consider.  Imagine the human host as being the ecosystem that the viral species lives in.  The human host is the world where the viral species thrives and produces offspring.  Now, to give the reader some grounding, we need to compare the HIV virus to the human species.

The human species has roughly six billion members and lives in the ecosystem that is the earth.  Humans begin to reproduce at about the age of twenty years.  Please keep in mind that this is a thumbnail sketch, but it is not far off and it makes the math easy.  There are approximately five human generations every hundred years.  From this it becomes easy to multiply the number of generations over time.  There would be 50 human generations every 1,000 years, 500 generations for every 10,000 years and so on.  This is a slow progression.  The evolution of any species depends on mutations occurring that live to reproduce more easily because they have a desirable trait.  The fact that humans only have 500 generations every 10,000 years makes our evolution extremely slow.  Although many members of our species will live to see several successive generations, none of us will live to ever see big changes in the species.

Viruses are quite a different story though.  A human T-cell that has been taken over by an invading HIV virus can replicate a new virus and release it roughly once every 20 minutes.   Think about this for a moment.  This is the equivalent of a human female that can give birth every twenty minutes.  Now imagine if the woman’s babies grow up a short period later and proceed to begin having babies once every twenty minutes themselves.  The result of this is that the HIV virus will go through what is the equivalent of a millions years of human evolution within a few months.  Now keep in mind that this is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison.  Viruses are not near as complex as the human animal, and they reproduce in a very different way.  But that comparison should help the reader understand the scope of what is occurring with a virus inside a host.

And the mutations happen.  Adaptation of the species begins.

It is always shocking to me how few healthcare providers are aware of the success of recent HIV treatment regimens.  Every time I teach a class on it to fire fighters or EMS personnel, most of them still think that HIV is a death sentence.  They are shocked when I tell them that many people that are HIV positive are having healthy productive lives and will die of old age.  This is because of a series of drug treatments that is designed to thwart the measurable and predictable mutations and adaptations of the HIV virus that is living in the human host.

There are many antiretroviral drugs available on the market.  Now it is important to note that none of these drugs can eradicate the virus.  There is still no cure.  But different antiretroviral drugs attack different parts of the virus’s infection process.  The magic number that seems to work is to give the patient three different drugs that work by three different mechanisms.  Again, it is important to remember that this is not a cure, but the viral load in patients who use this therapy is sometimes so low that some of these patients have had subsequent blood tests that turned up negative for the virus.  But it is still there, lurking in the blood stream in small quantities, reproducing when it can.  And after a couple or three years there is usually a mutation that is created which possesses the traits which allow it to get past all three different drugs.  At this point the patient may start to feel sick or have symptoms again.  If the patient is lucky this will be detected with a regular blood test before the patient feels the ill effects.  But the treatment for this is simple.  The doctor just changes up the drug regimen and the patient is prescribed three new drugs.  The virus population living in the body has no defenses against these new drugs, so the population dies back down to low levels again and the patient feels healthy.  In another two or three years another mutation will occur which allows the organism to adapt to all three drugs and the cycle starts all over again.

With the current drugs available on the market it is possible for the HIV patient to go through about four cycles of this before the available drugs have been exhausted.  This may have produced a time window of about 10 to 12 years where the patient was able to live symptom free.  And at this point the virus is now so different that the original round of drugs will most likely be effective again, and so the virus is thwarted again.

Thanks to this treatment, many HIV positive patients are living normal healthy lives free of symptoms.  For the people that can afford these drugs (people not getting these drugs because they cannot afford it is the subject of a whole other blog post where I will rant and rave until I foam at the mouth) their disease is no longer a death sentence.  It is merely a condition which must carefully be monitored and treated much like diabetes.

And what made all this possible?  The measureable and predictable mutation and adaptation schedule of the virus is brought under control with science.  In other words, the evolution of the virus is known so well that we have learned to control it.

One can find hundreds of examples of this all over the medical field.  Vaccines are another example.  A new flu vaccine is produced every year by scientists who closely watch the virus evolve into different strains.  The recent H1N1 scare was caused by a flu virus that mutated and adapted well, spreading worldwide.  The vaccines that guard against the flu are created every year based on the observable evolution of the species.

Some examples of evolution aren’t success stories though.  MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.  I would like to call the reader’s attention to the word ‘resistant.’  Why do you think this strain is resistant?  Like viruses mutate and adapt to antiviral drugs, this bacteria has mutated and adapted to the antibiotic Methicillin.  Unfortunately, we have been unable to come up with other drugs to fight it off like we have done for HIV.  Many people die from MRSA every year.  But we know what is killing these patients.  It is a bacteria whose evolutionary cycle is much faster than a human (again, generations are produced at a blinding rate) and it has mutated and adapted to our current treatments.  The bacteria has evolved…hence the word ‘evolution.’

However, this isn’t good enough for some creationist healthcare providers.  I once worked in a hospital on a cardiovascular unit with a nurse who was a devout creationist.  I started working there in 1999.  The other employees had told me that she was convinced that the rapture was going to happen on New Year’s Eve of 1999.  She showed up to work in January looking very dejected since she hadn’t been whisked away to heaven.  I came to know her during the tail end of 2000, where she had become convinced that the rapture was going to happen again.

“We just weren’t counting the years correctly,” she told me, “the new millennium actually starts at the end of 2000.  The rapture will most certainly happen then and I will be taken up to heaven.”

So I used to mess with her.  I couldn’t help it.  I caught her during the holiday season just after the January schedule had been posted.  “Hey Jan, I noticed that you are on the January schedule.  I thought you were going to give two-week’s notice for the rapture.”

“You mock me,” she said wagging her finger at me, “but just you wait and see.”

“Well, I haven’t heard anything on the news about floating monsters or boiling seas, but you know, I’m open to anything.  If you are absolutely sure this is going to happen though, do you mind signing over the title to your car?  I bet you won’t need it in the kingdom of heaven, but I could use a new ride to get away from the legions of demons that will be chasing my atheist ass while you’re gone.  Do you own it outright?  Do you have a copy of the title at your house?”

We were both scheduled to work on January 2^nd of the new year.  I came bopping onto the unit doing the rapping bit to ‘Rapture’ by Blondie.  “Man I really dig that old song by Blondie,” I mused out loud, “you remember that song, don’t you Jan?  You remember RAPTURE, don’t you?”

Yes.  Readers of this blog should take note that I can be a dick.

I would watch this lady take care of MRSA and VRE patients, and try to good naturedly bug her about the term RESISTANCE.  I told her that the patients were sick because the organism that infected them had MUTATED and ADAPTED.  But somehow she never picked up on it.  I’m sure she is out there somewhere, treating patients with science based on evolutionary theory, thinking the world will end in 2012.

I have had a lot of students and co-workers tell me that these examples mean nothing though.  They will say things such as, “Well that’s fine for bacteria and viruses.  But that’s just one example.  The whole world doesn’t work like that.”

And to this I usually respond by telling them about the well documented evolution of plants and crops.  I have been making this argument for years, but I recently read a book that had some fascinating information on the evolution of corn.  (Any of you wanting to read a fascinating history of how corn has changed the human race should check out ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ by Michael Pollan.)  Corn was first discovered by ancient peoples and it is one of the best documented crops of all time.  The written history of corn dates back 5000 years.  Archeologists have found actual dried ears of corn that have been dated as far back as 80,000 years.  (Yes, scientists have found ears of corn that date back to 74,000 years before creationists believe the earth was created.)  And as you may have guessed it, corn has mutated and adapted over that time.  Again, comparing corn to humans is a bit of an apples to oranges affair.  But corn evolution is also accelerated, and therefore visible.  Corn is a yearly crop and so there is a new generation every year instead of every twenty years.  The fact that farming is arguably the oldest profession gives us thousands of years of written history and evidence which make it easy to track corn’s evolution.  As corn was taken by people to different parts of the world it adapted to different locations and climates.  As you might expect, news strains were developed from heartier mutations.  Now companies like Monsanto make the study of corn their business.  (An evil business, but a well documented business with unquestionable results nonetheless.)  I really doubt you could find an engineer over at Monsanto who would be willing to tell you that corn had not evolved over the years.  Science derived from evolutionary theory has made Monsanto a multibillion dollar Fortune 500 company.  In fact, ancient corn seeds that were dried and stored have been discovered that still grow and have different properties than modern corn.

And corn is just the tip of a very well documented iceberg.  Oddly enough, agriculture is just like medicine.  It is filled with right wing creationists making a living from the very technology they denounce.

“But wait a minute,” my creationist friends and colleagues say, “these are plants, not humans.  And humans have been guiding the mutations of corn ever since it was discovered.  You’ll need to do better than that.”

Alright, while your head is still stuck in the sand, let me talk to you about the pesticides business.  In order to find examples of evolution in action, one has to finds species that reproduce rapidly and are placed in circumstances where adaptation can be observed and measured.  As it turns out, cockroaches make an excellent example.  In warm climates, some cockroaches can lay an egg case every three days which will hatch within thirty days.  Those hatchlings will be ready to reproduce themselves in under four months.

As with agriculture, the pesticide business is a multibillion dollar industry that produces results with hard science and is well documented.  Many different species of cockroaches have developed over the years with varying adaptations which suit them to their location and climate.  Various species will develop resistances to chemicals commonly used in their area to control infestations.  For this reason, pesticide companies have to keep vigilant, always changing their formula in order to stay ahead of the adaptation schedule of the species.

It is interesting to note that different chemicals are used as pesticides in different countries.  For example: If a pesticide is approved for use in the United States and not in Britain, it won’t be long until the American bug has adapted and is able to survive it’s application.  However, since the same chemical has not been introduced to the British cockroach, they are still very susceptible to it.  So now this company has something they know will work in a certain market, and they already have the means to manufacture it.  This company will then push very heavily for this product to be approved in Great Britain because they can start a new market for a chemical whose sale may be waning in a country where the pest has adapted.

There are thousands of documented cases of this, and it is beyond theory.  This is a profitable business.  A profitable business based on evolutionary science.

But I have heard the same old rebuttals to this.  “But Buckman, that’s insects.  They are nothing like us.  Bacteria, viruses, bugs…none of this is anything like humans.”  That’s when I drop the bomb.

Rats.

Yes, rats.  Rats are mammals that are very close to humans.  This is why they are used in so many laboratory tests.  And they get busy, so their evolution is sped up.  Female rats can produce up to five litters per year if conditions are right.  In just two months those offspring are mature and ready to become pregnant themselves.  And as you can well imagine the pharmaceutical and pesticide industry has a well documented history of how rats have adapted to different regions and in captivity.  This evidence is just as compelling.

So there you have it.  Bacteria, viruses, plants, insects, and now mammals have all been well researched and their evolution is well documented.  Now for any creationists out there who have managed to get through this gauntlet of evidence with your denial intact, I would like to point you towards all of the examples of different humanoid remains that have been found.  Cro-Magnon, Neanderthal, and many other species have been copiously documented.  Fossilized and frozen remains have been found everywhere pointing to the glaring truth that our species has evolved just like the other instances we have been able to observe.

And so this is not some theory.  This is cold, hard, well established fact.  Creationists who look at this evidence and remain creationists are capable of a level of denial that is beyond stubborn.  It’s beyond ignorance.  It’s pathological.

What just slays me is the irony of the way some of these right wing conservative politicians make their money.  The poster child for this is Sarah Palin.  The former vice-presidential hopeful is known for her fervent support of the oil and gas industry.  Her husband made his money as an oil field production operator for BP.  She was even instrumental in promoting the Republican catch phrase, “Drill, baby drill!”  But what is it that her beloved oil companies are drilling for?

It turns out that oil is the substance that is created by small sea creatures such as plankton when they die and fall to the ocean floor.  Plankton and other smaller creatures contain many lipids as part of their makeup and are therefore not very good food for bacteria.  So this biological material builds up over time and is buried by ocean floor formation.  After a few million years (not 6000) the biological material is incased in rock and slowly decomposes and cooks into the goo that we know as crude oil.  The people who find oil know this.  The science of finding oil encompasses many disciplines including geology, biology, and chemistry.  People don’t just drill at random for oil.  There is a lot of well known science to it.  Most oils deposits that are on dry land were once under ancient ocean floors.  This entails millions of years of tectonic shifting which is something that doesn’t sit well with the 6000 year creationist either.  Geologists help find oil by carefully drilling through layers of the earth that let them know just how old these deposits are.  They drill through the fossilized remains of extinct species and understand that the oil they seek is the decayed remains of long dead and extinct creatures.  In fact, any scientist who is employing modern techniques to find oil will know that the very thought of creationism is absurd.

And Sarah Palin lives off the money that these scientists make.  Although Sarah Palin has never come out and said she is a creationist, she has publicly voiced the opinion that both creationism and evolution should be taught in school.  This link from Live Science has the actual quote and a discussion on this.  Her inability to commit completely to the notion of creationism probably comes from the fact that she knows where her checks come from.  But she has become the darling of the Tea Party who is rapidly filling up with creationists.  Where does this infinite capacity for denial come from?  How do people live their lives this way?  One idea is that Palin was a practicing Pentecostal up until 2002.  Have you ever been to a Pentecostal church?  Back in the 70′s there was an Oscar winning documentary/expose about Pentecostal evangelicals.  To get a taste of what that’s about, please watch the first few minutes from this documentary called Marjoe.

Even after my complete argument, there are many people who are not convinced.  The truly desperate will just flail around and say things like, “Well that’s just a bunch of non-sense.  That’s really not proof of anything.  It’s just your opinion.”

But that’s where you’re wrong.  You see, the problem is that my science works.  Plain and simple.  Evolutionary theory gets RESULTS.  Antibiotics kill bacteria and cure the sick.  Antiretroviral drugs allow HIV positive people to lead healthy lives.  Vaccines have help billions of people every year.  Our farms are bursting with crops that have naturally adapted and have been engineered to adapt to their environment.  Pests are killed by that bug spray that was mixed up by the chemist and they continue to be killed by further research.  And pouring over geologic surveys to find ancient sea beds with fossilized remains from millions of years ago puts fuel in our cars.  These are the RESULTS of evolutionary science that you use and live with every day.  Do you really think that if you talked to a geologist who just struck oil for BP that he would tell you that he found it in a 5000 year old sea bed?  Of course not.  He’s not an ignorant junk scientist, he actually got something done.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.  So many members of our government have no grounding in reality.   The Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen is a prime example.  In her youtube clip she praises technology and is arguing for uranium mining in her state.  (By the way, the reason that we know that the earth is billions of years old is through the radioactive decay of uranium.)  In the same breath though she talks about how the earth is only 6000 years old.  I’m sure this woman has at some point taken antibiotics for a cold.  I’m sure she has allowed herself and her kids to be inoculated.  She has probably eaten her share of genetically engineered corn and other crops.  She has probably at some point used pesticides to protect her home from insects and rodents.  Since she is a member of the Republican Party she no doubt supports the oil industry.  Everything about her life is touched by evolutionary science and in the same breath that she is asking to drill for uranium that is billions of years old, she is claiming that the earth is only 6000 years old.  What in the hell is wrong with these people?

This level of ignorance and stupidity in high levels of our government is alarming.  I have written previously about people like this.  Their brains are horribly, horribly broken.  Anyone who is that ignorant and not grounded in reality cannot be trusted to make decisions.  But there she sits in the Arizona State Senate.  Something terrible is happening to our country.

Our education system has failed us.  There is no reason why anyone who has graduated high school in the latter half of the 20^th century should think that the earth is 6000 years old.  There is no reason for anyone who has been to public school to have such a skewed view of the scientific process that they are so easily fooled by such obvious garbage.  It is true that people have the right to believe what they want to believe, but it is also true that we don’t let insane people with a tenuous grasp on reality operate heavy machinery.  The self imposed education gap in this country is going to make things worse before it gets better get better.

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