Chiropractors & Christian Supremacy

I recently read a very good book by Sean B. Carroll, “The Making of the Fittest.” (1) I wanted to review more of the content later for you, because it really is one of the best treatments of the genetic evidence for biological evolution that I’ve come across in a book intended for the general public. Today I want to skip to the end, where Carroll takes up the subject of the denial of evolution by the religious right from an interesting perspective. He compares the rhetorical tactics used by Chiropractors to denounce the practice of vaccination to those used by anti-evolutionists.

Carroll tells us that Daniel David Palmer in the late 19th century theorized that most disease is caused by pinched nerves in turn caused by a misalignment of the vertebrae. This of course was in conflict with Pasteur’s and Koch’s developing Germ Theory at the time. By the early 20th century during the battle against polio, The National Chiropractic Association suggested that chiropractic adjustments should be given instead of vaccination. Because Germ Theory conflicts with the central chiropractic dogma, Palmer and his followers ever since have fought the conclusions of modern science that call this into question. Carroll provides us a list of tactics that the Chiropractic profession has used to deny the value of vaccines and the evolution-deniers have used to discredit the established central principle in biology.

1. Doubt the science. Chiropractors have tried to instill doubt into modern scientific claims that microorganisms cause many diseases. The incidence of polio decline, they say, was caused by natural patterns. They ignore controlled clinical studies that demonstrate the Germ Theory as the causal explanation of much disease. Evolution deniers continually ignore science, and claim that there is no evidence for evolution. There are no intermediate fossils that show a pattern of common decent. Mutation cannot explain adaptation. There is no mechanism to show how new genetic information is produced. In spite of 150 years of evidence that natural selection has been the primary process that has lead to evolutionary change, it can’t explain the diversity of life on Earth.

2. Question the motives and the integrity of scientists. Evolution deniers and chiropractors have alleged a conspiracy against their movements on the part of scientists. Vaccination is motivated by the greed of scientists and pharmaceutical companies. Evolutionary science is motivated by atheism. Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis (2) thinks that evolution is an assault upon the fundamental principles that made America great.

3. Magnify disagreements among scientists, and cite gadflies as authorities. Chiropractors have inflated the significance of technical disagreements that scientists have about details of the effectiveness of vaccination: timing and dosing, the need for boosters later in life, etc. Experts are trotted out, whether or not their views have been substantiated by the scientific community. Likewise evolution deniers also try to inflate the importance of technical disagreement about certain details of evolution amongst biologists (include evolutionary, developmental, cell, or microbiologists, geneticists, systematists, paleontologists, archaeologists-put your discipline here). Worse still, the “expert” evolution deniers may try to get their flocks to think that they have a real research agenda and publish in peer reviewed publications (which they don’t and don’t again, respectively).

4. Exaggerate potential harm. Those opposed to vaccination like Chiropractors over-emphasize the risks of vaccinating, while often ignoring the consequences of forgoing vaccination. Ken Ham thinks that evolution teaches children that life is about violence and bloodshed. Because of the implication that natural selection is a blind, anti-teleological process, evolution deniers often try to show that philosophically Darwinism will lead to all sorts of social ills. Carroll quotes Jerry Bergman, “If Darwinism is true, Hitler was our savior and we have crucified him.”

5. Appeal to personal freedom. Since vaccination of school-aged children has become compulsory, one Chiropractic practice in Denver has stated that vaccination is “a conspiracy aimed at the destruction of basic American freedoms.” Carroll notes that many religionists view the teaching of evolution in public schools as an assault upon the religious freedom. We have also heard about school boards like the one in Cobb county, Georgia, that have put disclaimer stickers in biology textbooks. A balanced treatment policy is often attempted to discredit evolutionary theory by appealing to the freedom to have a counter-point argument for everything, including Darwinism, no matter if such positions have any scientific merit or not.

6. Acceptance repudiates key philosophy. Among chiropractors the idea that all diseases come from a misalignment of vertebrae is not open to further scientific inquiry. Carroll quotes R.B. Phillips, “{A}bsolute truth is already known {by the faithful} and only needs personal confirmation through individual observations.” David Cloud of the Way of Life Fundamental Baptist information service argues that evolution denies the Bible, and that we must reject evolution because it denies god and salvation. My evangelical friend, Pastor Gregory Dickow, has stated that science cannot contradict the Bible. Therefore any finding of science that denies the word of God has to be flawed in some way.

If you’ve been as frustrated as I have been about the entrenched belief of mostly Christian evolution-deniers, but have been a little mystified as to how some segments of the population can basically ignore the scientific evidence, you will find Carrolls treatment of the subject enlightening for the very reason that he points out that Christian apologists think that they are at a debate in which rhetorical tactics can win the day in spite of the validity of the arguments of the opposing team. But the thing that really makes me angry is not the poor slobs that buy in to the arguments of the Christian apologists, but the disingenuous tactics of the apologists themselves. I’m personally convinced that fundamentalist Christian apologists aren’t really trying to convince anyone in the sciences, but are exercising tactics to keep their adherents quiet and subjugated , while motivating them politically to “take back” America in acts of Christian supremacy.

Oh, by the way, how many of you rationalists out there swear by the chiropractic treatments you receive?

1. Carroll, Sean B. 2006. The Making of the Fittest. New York: WW Norton & Company
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Fittest-Ultimate-Forensic-Evolution/dp/0393061639

2. http://www.answersingenesis.org/