God and Man at Houston
Houston is no place to be in the summer under the best of circumstances. Just how much fun must it be there now, as the state Board of Education is selecting the curriculum standards for the state's new science texts.
Yup, you guessed it, once again it's time for Evolution vs. Creationism. The sport in which people who don't mind surviving illnesses thanks to medicines designed to overcome evolving diseases decry the belief in evolution as something somehow against God. When I'm in my best of moods, I figure it's simply part of God's plan, that he decided not to provide all people with functioning or evolving brains. In my worst of moods, I simply find these folks to be idiots.
The latest trend in making Creationism fashionable is to not to add creationism itself, which has been turned out of curriculum thanks to court rulings, but to add instruction on the strengths and weaknesses of evolution. Some of this gets all mucked up by language, of all things. The word "theory," for instance is seized upon by creationists who want to push their certainty and beliefs into classrooms as replacements for mere "theories."
One more time creationistas, scientific "theories" are not guesses. The word means a tested explanation of how and why a natural phenomenon occurs. It refers to something that is well-documented and observed.
So why is the Houston school board looking at weakening their students' grasp of scientific theory in favor of belief? Maybe because of the 15 members of the board, seven (one short of a majority) believe in intelligent design, one of the most oxymoronic phrases of all time. As does, by the way, Texas governor Rick Perry. (What IS it, after all, about Texas and their governors lately?) Intelligence, in fact, is the one thing that is missing from these folks.
Best of luck to Texas' kids. Here's hoping that you'll get a decent education from your state. That somewhere, somehow, their parents will remember their duty to their children.
Yup, you guessed it, once again it's time for Evolution vs. Creationism. The sport in which people who don't mind surviving illnesses thanks to medicines designed to overcome evolving diseases decry the belief in evolution as something somehow against God. When I'm in my best of moods, I figure it's simply part of God's plan, that he decided not to provide all people with functioning or evolving brains. In my worst of moods, I simply find these folks to be idiots.
The latest trend in making Creationism fashionable is to not to add creationism itself, which has been turned out of curriculum thanks to court rulings, but to add instruction on the strengths and weaknesses of evolution. Some of this gets all mucked up by language, of all things. The word "theory," for instance is seized upon by creationists who want to push their certainty and beliefs into classrooms as replacements for mere "theories."
One more time creationistas, scientific "theories" are not guesses. The word means a tested explanation of how and why a natural phenomenon occurs. It refers to something that is well-documented and observed.
So why is the Houston school board looking at weakening their students' grasp of scientific theory in favor of belief? Maybe because of the 15 members of the board, seven (one short of a majority) believe in intelligent design, one of the most oxymoronic phrases of all time. As does, by the way, Texas governor Rick Perry. (What IS it, after all, about Texas and their governors lately?) Intelligence, in fact, is the one thing that is missing from these folks.
Best of luck to Texas' kids. Here's hoping that you'll get a decent education from your state. That somewhere, somehow, their parents will remember their duty to their children.
posted by Anonymous at 12:09 PM
3 Comments:
Why is there even a debate? Believe whatever you want, just don't force it on me.
Amerikagulag ;-)
The use of "theory" to mean "wild speculation" always gets to me. Theory is what scientists (a group of people who apply the most rigorous standards to their observations and submit their assumptions to the scrutiny of their peers) believe is true about the world. We need more "mere theories", not just in our schools but in our national debates about everything. Creationists have a 3-year-old mindset: If you just squint your eyes and wish hard enough, something's sure to come true.
Maybe with a new President, we can finally exit the facts-free, faith-based prison we've been living in for the last so many years. I don't think that this approach to running the United States has exactly brought terrific results.
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