8 Evolution and the Fossil Record
There are a whole range of ideas that might be considered what Al Gore very aptly called
“inconvenient truths”—scientific evidence that conflicts with our belief systems, whether it be
climate change or evolution. But scientists have nothing to gain by telling us what we don’t
want to hear, and they don’t win grant funds or societal approval by bearing bad news. Scien-
tists are not killjoys or spoilsports by nature. Instead, they are obligated by the scientific method
to report what the data tell them, no matter whether we like it or not. Instead, the incentives for
most people is to tell you good news you want to hear, so if a scientist tells you an inconvenient
truth, it is almost certainly because the scientist must do so. A very amusing web cartoon shows
this through a series of panels that depict scientific advances that society did not appreciate,
from Archimedes being killed by a Roman soldier, to Giordano Bruno being burned at the stake
for saying the earth revolves around the sun, to Darwinian evolution, to Einsteinian relativity.
The final panel says it best: “Science: if you ain’t pissin’ people off, you ain’t doing it right.”
FIGURE 1.3. This Doonesbury cartoon eloquently expresses the inherent hypocrisy of the creationists, who try
to have it both ways. They reject science and evolution, except when it benefits them. (Cartoon by Garry
Trudeau, by permission of Universal Press Syndicate)