Here's What our New Energy Secretary Is Up To...

[AnnieBW]

My husband works at DoE, and is somewhat of a science geek. Anyway, he comes home yesterday all excited about the appointment of Steven Chu as his new boss. Turns out that Chu is one of the founders of "Project Steve". It's a petition by various scientists that ONLY evolution should be taught in schools. The catch is that one can only sign it if their name is some permutation of Steven/Stephen/Stephanie, etc.

Here's the link to their site:

http://ncseweb.org/taking-action/project-steve

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. The idea being that when creationists say they have lists of scientists who support them,

Scientists who support evolution can supply a bigger list of of scientists, even if the list is limited to scientists named Steve.

(For those who hadn't heard about this)

[eshfemme]

3. That is fucking awesome. Creationists OWNED by Steves

I can imagine the scientists telling the creationists, "We are legion. We don't even need to use all of us to beat you into submission with our intellect. We'll just use our Steves."

[burythehatchet]

23. Its almost worth changing one's name to Steve

[nickinSTL]

2. I should forward this to a friend of mine...

he's a math professor named Steve whose expertise is in time-space boundaries.

[Clio the Leo]

4. You mean "only evolution should be taught in science classes..."

As there's not a thing wrong with teaching "creationism" in a philosophy/religious studies class. ;)

[nc4bo]

5. All things in their place, don't you love it!? nt

[nichomachus]

7. Do our public schools really have philosophy/religious studies classes?

I think they need to focus first on reading, writing and math. My experience has been that many high school graduates are deficient in all three. First things first.

[Shiver]

8. Such classes below college would probably be electives. eom

[Bad Thoughts]

9. Western Civ would not likely be an elective

And it would include copious discussion of religions.

[Shiver]

10. But would not include creationism anyway.

Such classes would teach about religion in the cultural and historical contexts, as well as the impact the various faiths have had on society. Civ classes would not be considered religious or philosophy classes.

[Bad Thoughts]

11. No, not strictly

They are not philosophy or religion, but they consider everything that falls under the evolution of thought. What makes Western Civilization different is that it is a series designed to impart a sense of the uniqueness (and in the past, the superiority) of Greek and Christian traditions. Indeed, many notions about what makes the "West" are derived from notions taught in Western Civ.

[immoderate]

13. Creationism is not a religion.

Creationism is a pseudo science based on religious mythology. If it's not taught as made up nonsense that defies modern notions of reason and epistemology, then it would be doing the student a disservice.

--IMM

[nichomachus]

24. I'm all in favor of teaching creationism

as long as they talk about all creation theories -- especially the one where the world was created as the result of the god masturbating.

But as long as they show how all creation stories are primitive myths trying to explain how we got here -- I don't have a problem.

It's when they want to teach one creation story as a reasonable alternative to actual science is when it gets my hackles up.

Heck, even Genesis has three different creation stories in it -- if you know how to read it in the original language and approach it with some intellectual honesty. The so-called "creationists" only want to teach one of those three stories.

[Bjorn Against]

18. I took a religious studies class at a public school, and it was one of the best classes I have taken

We learned about Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hindu, and other religions as well. There was no favoritism shown to any religion, we just discussed their customs and beliefs to get an understanding of where they were coming from. It was a great class, and I think that all students should be exposed to a class of that sort as it is important to know something about the world religions as they do have a major impact on our world affairs.

[merh]

20. Add civics to the list of lacking

do they even offer civics as an elective?

[Posteritatis]

22. Quite a few do

Mine sucked until the year I graduated, as is the ironclad law for such things at any school I attend, but one of the other ones across town (also a public school, mind you) taught things like religious studies, oceanography, Gaelic, etc.

Reading, writing and math are necessary, of course, but just the three of those are woefully inadequate these days - and there's little reason you can't simultaneously work on those and the rest of the curriculum.

[SeattleGirl]

25. I took "The Bible as Literature" in my senior year in high school.

Wonderful class.

And since it was a literature class, reading (and writing) were very much a part of it.

[immoderate]

12. ...along with astrology, phrenology, alchemy, numerology and other pseudo-science?

Let the high schoolers sort it out, right?

--IMM

[Clio the Leo]

14. Yeah 'cause numerology is such a mainstream world religion....

... and all. It's impact on world history is so far-reaching. It was the motivation behind the great crusades wasn't it?

[Bad Thoughts]

15. But kings started wars because of what the stars told them

And the birds, and other such nonsense.

[Clio the Leo]

16. A king started a war because of a bird .......

..... seriously ..... i'm about to leave for work. That'll give you 8 hours to come up with an example of a king starting a war because of a bird and how said bird changed the course of human history.

GO! :)

[Bad Thoughts]

17. Look up original meaning of "auspice" eom.

[Bad Thoughts]

26. I'm waiting ...

I gave you the whole of Roman History as an example in five minutes. Eight hours have passed.

[immoderate]

19. I'm not sure I get your point...

Numerology is quite prevalent in some cultures. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Modern numerology often contains aspects of a variety of ancient cultures and teachers, including Babylonia, Pythagoras and his followers (Greece, 6th century B.C.), astrological philosophy from Hellenistic Alexandria, early Christian mysticism, the occultism of the early Gnostics, the Hebrew system of the Kabbalah, The Indian Vedas, the Chinese "Circle of the Dead", and the Egyptian "Book of the Master of the Secret House" (Ritual of the Dead).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerology

It's an example of irrational thinking, like creationism, and I have no problem with it being taught as such. What would you teach about it?

--IMM

[Shiver]

6. Damn...

Now I wish I was better at science.

....


And named Steve...

[formercia]

21. It's nice to have someone sane in charge of Nuke development.

I saw him on TV. He seems like a up-front guy. He's got my vote.