Thursday, March 26, 2009
Hooray for Texas!In the news: (emp add) Science standards challenging evolution debated in Texas
(CNN) -- The Texas Board of Education this week will vote on science standards that critics say seek to cast doubt on the theory of evolution.
The board -- considering amendments passed in January -- will hear from the public on Wednesday. It will then take votes -- an initial one Thursday and the final vote Friday.
"This specific attack on well-established science ignores mountains of evidence and years of research done by experts in a variety of fields," said Steven Newton, project director at the Oakland California-based National Center for Science Education, a proponent of evolution.
One amendment, critics say, undermines the idea that life on Earth derives from a common ancestry, a major principle in the theory of evolution. It calls for the analysis and evaluation of "the sufficiency or insufficiency" of the common ancestry idea to explain the fossil record.
Newton said the board is considering other amendments casting doubt on well-established ideas in the earth and space sciences -- plate tectonics, radioactive decay and how the solar system developed. It's really unfair that up until now biology has had to shoulder the burden of the debate with the young earth creationists. But that may change. With Texas leading the way, geology, physics, and astronomy can get into the fight.
posted by Quiddity at 3/26/2009 07:05:00 AM
8 comments
I have always been interested in the creationist explanation for dinosaurs, the cambrian fossils, and the fact that no human, meaning "homo sapien" fossil remains have been discovered dating back more than 265,000 years. How do you explain all of these missing elements? To lead people to believe that evolution does not exist because scientists have not found every fossil for every evolutionary step from the earliest mammalian species to our current homo sapien species is absolutely ridiculous. My final comment is that Christians of all faiths need to reevaluate the creation story from Genesis, perhaps it didn't take 7 days, but 4.5 billion years and alot of trial and error?
The creationists make the US the laughing stock of the world. Turkey is the only other country where 60% of it's people believe the universe was created by god a few thousand years ago and that every single human being can trace their ancestry back to Adam and Eve.
Well, if the board wants to abandon basic science, then they'd best leave all the goodies that science has given them as well: cell phones, tv, satellites and weather forecasting, microwave ovens, dentistry, heart valve surgery, batteries, sunscreen,transitors, any manufacturing process, etc etc. Since science must be wrong, these things must also be nonfunctional, and we'd be better off not living in the illusion that they do work. I, for example, ought to give back the titanium hip that I walk on, 'cause, no doubt, I'm just hallucinating.
Duh. Texas is sinking into the quicksand of mid-13th century ignorance. Pretty soon all we'll see is a lone hand, waving sadly, before disappearing forever.
Is this not also why The Church and State should be seperate and not in politics? They are taking away a choice of the people and forcing them to believe in only one way.
The Board of Education in Texas NEVER ceases to amaze me in their backwoods intellect. They are always trying to sneak their religious dogma into the classrooms. Whatever happened to separation of church and state? Any sensible person with any education and a mind of their own can see that Creationism and its baby, Intelligent Design, are the same things. I am far from a religious person, so I won't bash people who chose to believe in such things; however, in the same respect,... don't try to shovel it down my childrens throats. You want to teach children about Creationism and I.D., do it like other religions... in a church. It has no place in a public school... plain and simple.
FWIW, there are plenty of Christians who don't read the story of Genesis literally. None of us happen to be Republicans though...
When I was a kid (in the 70s) people believed in God and in evolution. In Catholic school you got evolution in science class and Creation in religion class. What was wrong with that?
So how do creationists explain the recent appearance of MRSA in the last 35 years? And what about its newest, even more virulent variant VISA?
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