Religious right fights science for the heart of America

[struggle4progress]

Creationists take their challenge to evolution theory into the classroom

Suzanne Goldenberg in Kansas City
Monday February 7, 2005
The Guardian

Al Frisby has spent the better part of his life in rooms filled with rebellious teenagers, but the last years have been particularly trying for the high school biology teacher. He has met parents who want him to teach that God created Eve out of Adam's rib, and then then adjusted the chromosomes to make her a woman, and who insist that Noah invited dinosaurs aboard the ark. And it is getting more difficult to keep such talk out of the classroom.

"Somewhere along the line, the students have been told the theory of evolution is not valid," he said. "In the last few years, I've had students question my teaching about cell classification and genetics, and there have been a number of comments from students saying: 'Didn't God do that'?" In Kansas, the geographical centre of America, the heart of the American heartland, the state-approved answer might soon be Yes. In the coming weeks, state educators will decide on proposed curriculum changes for high school science put forward by subscribers to the notion of "intelligent design", a modern version of creationism. If the religious right has its way, and it is a powerful force in Kansas, high school science teachers could be teaching creationist material by next September, charting an important victory in America's modern-day revolt against evolutionary science. <snip>

The suggested changes under consideration seem innocuous at first. "A minor addition makes it clear that evolution is a theory and not a fact," says the proposed revision to the 8th grade science standard. However, Jack Krebs, a high school maths teacher on the committee drafting the new standards, argues that the campaign against evolution amounts to a stealth assault on the entire body of scientific thought. "There are two planes where they are attacking. One is evolution, and one is science itself," he said.

"They believe that the naturalistic bias of science is in fact atheistic, and that if we don't change science, we can't believe in God. And so this is really an attack on all of science. Evolution is just the weak link." <snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1407422,00.html

[wtmusic]

1. Actually, evolution is about as factual

as the existence of George Washington or Jesus, for that matter.

If they want to open that can of worms...

[struggle4progress]

8. No. Evolution is only a scientific theory. With scientific progress, ...

... ideas will change. We're doing the best we can today, with the knowledge and tools that we have at our disposal. Two hundred years from now, the best available scientific theory may look very different, and it may even be something we can barely imagine at present -- just as the best scientific thinkers in 1805 could barely imagine "facts" about the world that seem obvious to us today.

Creationism is unlikely to become a scientific theory because it probably cannot be based on an interplay between quantitative theorizing and the testing of quantitative hypotheses by measurement. The attempt to design a scientific theory involving creationism seems to present serious logical difficulties: how, for example, could an experiment involving space-time measurements give information about a being who is presumed to have created space and time? We simply cannot do a three billion year experiment in which we compare the life forms that occur in worlds directed by some superior power with those that occur in worlds that all superior powers ignore. Conclusion: Science will never have anything interesting to tell us about whether creationism is "true" or even "possible"; those who arer interested in such questions are necessarily forced to use nonscientific methods.

The real source of these disputes is that critical thinking and scientific method are generally not taught in the schools: instead, students are taught to obey authority and to parrot what they are told. What is passed on as "science" in this dismal context is whatever rigid dogma appears in the textbooks, many of which are poorly written and poorly edited. Those who never receive much more scientific education than that, should perhaps be forgiven for failing to distinguish between the narrow dogmas they are taught at school and the narrow dogmas they are taught at church -- although I am more inclined to accuse them of blasphemy for suggesting that the Lord could be studied by the scientific method.

[wtmusic]

10. OK, then I will say that George Washington's existence is only a theory

based on a plethora of evidence.

Just like evolution.

[struggle4progress]

11. I'll agree that a substantial body of evidence supports evolution.

[Maat]

2. This scares me so much I feel like going out and buying ..

science textbooks, so that I can make sure my kid learns about cell classification, genetics, evolution, and the like.

What has the world come to?

[struggle4progress]

9. The difference between "good" schools and "poor" schools ...

... is frequently how much the children learn at home from their parents.

[Maat]

12. Right you are.

Which is why I pretty much take a listen to everything she says.

I love her little private school. But I do take a look at what they are teaching her closely).

[Canuckistanian]

3. ... and Religious Right is putting up a good fight....

...they're putting a lot of heart in this fight and .... OH, NO, Science knocks Religious Right down, it's a clean knockout, ladies and gentlemen... And the winner and undisputed champeen, SCIENCE!

[rawtribe]

4. Give the kids an F

and send them home.

[DemBones DemBones]

5. If only it were that easy!

Laws that make education compulsory and a right of all mandate that kids are kept in school when they have no interest in learning and in fact refuse to learn.

[Tux]

6. Welcome

To the Ignorant States of America.

[chaumont58]

7. If this continues along this track, the country as a whole will suffer

The kids that are taught only fundie religion will suffer when they get to college. Of course, the Christians can target colleges also.
Whatever, the Christian churches have too much power in this country, and it is only going to get worse. Churches prosper during good times, not bad times. Unfortunately, what they teach requires no logical thought, or proof.
I am an atheist and have a very low opinion of all religions, but especially Christianity. After 9/11, Fallwell and Robertson were so quick to say that God had remove his protection because of abortion , among other things. I was looking for someone to ask Fallwell what happened to South Asia, regarding the tsunami. Was God so angry at South Asia, he removed his protection and allowed 300,000 innocents to be drowned. I don't think anyone ever asked the question, and I would bet Fallwell, himself, would never think to ask himself such a question.
The times are achangin', for the worse.