Science standards challenging evolution debated in Texas

[eppur_se_muova]

Source: CNN

(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.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/25/texas.evolution.teaching/index.html

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It's not what it looks like.

They're just forced to compete with the Taliban for hearts and minds. Seriously.

[havocmom]

1. 'the question is: is our children learning?'

Indeed

[rurallib]

2. Colleges should simply refuse to allow Texas science courses to count

toward admission until they meet accepted standards. Then let the Texas Board of Education make determinations based on those circumstances.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. GMTA. I was just pondering the same idea. nt

[Gator_Matt]

4. They're also denying plate tectonics and radioactive decay!

Talk about a celebration of ignorance. This is frustrating beyond words.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Anything which argues against a Young Earth is targeted.

Neither radioactive decay (basis of dating fossils) nor plate tectonics is essential to an understanding of evolution, but they both point to the planet being billions of years old -- contrary to Scripture. In the minds of Bible-thumpers, this means they must by fought tooth and nail.

[eppur_se_muova]

28. BTW -- welcome to DU! nt

:hi:

[scytherius]

5. Utterly and completely hysterical

The only real way for the Right to be eliminated is for them to do this kind of thing. They continue to marginalize themselves and the rest of America continues to point and laugh.

[DCKit]

7. From transportation, to food, to healthcare - everything: No more benefits of science...

for the religiously insane and willfully ignorant.

[DUlover2909]

8. If the universe was created 6000 years ago,

We would only be able to observe stars in the sky up to 6000 light years away.

[provis99]

9. well, that's if you believe in light years

It seems to be a contest these day between which state is the most goofy: Texas or Florida.

[bulloney]

14. Ironically, much of our space program is based in TX and FL. I hope they don't recruit locally.

[madeline_con]

33. Gotta fuck with FL and TX. Why is it so many DUers do that?

The open minded, tolerant DUer at work dissing the southern DUers. I've met some real dumbasses from the supposedly enlightened north, let me tell you.

[DUlover2909]

15. Ironically, I was born and raised in rural Texas.

Somehow I turned into a lib with a brain and a degree in physics from a liberal arts college in Los Angeles.

[jfkraus]

10. God just made it that way, so there.

God put the fossil record there to test our faith. Haven't you been to the Creation Museum? People and dinosours walked the earth together.

[NinetySix]

18. None of what you say is true. I have the truth:

The world and everything in it was created exactly 10 minutes ago. This includes the Bible, all geological and astronomical features, and all your memories of past events, including good times with friends and family, and what you had for breakfast. My unassailably scientific position has one major component in common with that of Creationists and Young-Earthers: it is fundamentally immune to otherwise normal epistemology, and thus requires skeptics to prove me wrong.

So proceed.

[DUlover2909]

27. I thought about that argument for a couple of minutes.

I couldn't think of a way to debunk it. The only counter argument I came up with was to ask who or what created everything 10 minutes ago and by what method exactly? Which is the same question I ask creationists. It doesn't ruin the argument fundamentaly, but it does create reasonable doubt by discrediting the theory, since there is obviously no good answer at all.

I could also claim that the whole universe is all my imagination, which in reality, from only my point of view, is absolutely true. I must have a very clever and uncanny imagination since I imagine things that I could have never expected nor predicted. I also imagine other people with intelligence greater than mine that solve problems that I can not solve myself.

And on and on...
:hi:

[NinetySix]

30. That's the trouble with Creation "Science."

Any evidence that supports the Creationist argument is indubitable, while any evidence to the contrary can be easily dismissed through some kind of conventionalization (e.g., Triassic Era fossils being planted by Satan to sow doubt among certain people who lack sufficient faith, but who would otherwise be intelligent enough to recognize the literal truth of the Genesis story). What this sort of "scientific" thinking in fact does is to undermine the neutrality that empiricism provides to evaluate any claim about the natural world, and dismiss out of hand the value of the verafiability or falsifiability of those claims in favor of naked ideology (or, perhaps more precisely, theology).

But that kind of approach is a two-edged sword, as my analogy shows. Those who make it their mission in life to undermine modern cosmology and biology in this way are subject to precisely the same undermining tactic, and anyone who tries to argue with me regarding the veracity of claims regarding geological time scales or the function of evolution in biology gets it just like this, with both barrels.

Your example of the universe being contained entirely within your own imagination (solipsism) is another species of the same genus, subjectivism. Whatever I wish to be true IS true, solely by virtue of my wishing it to be so. Don't confuse me with "facts" or "evidence," since I'm too invested in my "faith" and "ignorance." That path, ironically, leads to the biggest boogeyman of the faith-and-values crowd: relativism.

Thanks for responding to my post, 'cause I love talking about this kind of thing; and although I'm not usually one to use emoticons, :hi: right back atcha!

[DUlover2909]

31. Forgive me if I am wrong, but you sound like a scholar of philosophy or religious studies.

I also love discussing these issues. I come from a physical sciences educational background, but I am very interested in metaphysics and ethics. In fact, I enjoy the latter subjects quite a bit more, because they seem to me to be more ellusive, and they offer to me an even greater understanding of humanity and our role in the world. When I say "metaphysics" I really mean philosophy and psychology, and how they relate to biology. I am still grappling with how I perceive ethics, but I enjoy imagining ethical hypotheticals and drawing my own conclusions.

Are you a professor in any of these fields? Just curious.

[cpompilo]

25. And Jesus rode a dinosaur

I live in Texas...I hate it

[Fumesucker]

23. God created the light also, in transit so to speak..

All the evidence for an old universe and Earth is simply a test of our faith.

[callous taoboy]

35. If this passes maybe I can finally teach that there is an angry unicorn on the dark side of the moon

and if you say pish posh to that I would challenge you to prove me wrong. I mean, isn't my unicorn idea just as valid as anything my bull-goose loony brethren would claim is science?

[Fumesucker]

36. And it is impossible to prove that there is no angry unicorn..

Because he is invisible..

BTW, there is no "dark side" to the Moon.

[callous taoboy]

37. So you say......

:evilgrin:

[RedCloud]

11. If they can't brainwash them at Sunday schools...

10-12 years x 52 weeks. Scare them with fire and give them chocolate rabbits and then some guy coming down the Christmas chimney, well...

Stay the hell out of schools or evolution could go back to the stupid spontaneous generation ideas which religion could not refute based on sheer ignorance.

The nerve. Because schools only get a few minutes to present some diluted version these below 100 IQ deficients want their version there. Screw them! Let's have Buddha represent the religious world.

[eppur_se_muova]

13. "chocolate rabbits" -- the stores are awash in pagan fertility symbols ...

Rabbits and eggs. How obvious does it have to be? These are pagan fertility symbols, celebrating the return of Spring.

Nothing to do with Easter, or Christianity in general.

[DUlover2909]

17. That's so funny. I never thought of it that way. Seriously.

I've often wondered but never bothered to find out about easter egg hunting.

[cpompilo]

26. In my household we celebrate the Easter Sperm!

[DUlover2909]

29. Must get kinda messy.

Welcome to DU!:hi:

[hatrack]

12. And this country's "leaders" talk about competing with India & China & the EU in science?

Manufacturing? Engineering? Biotechnology?

Good luck.

[TheCoxwain]

19. But .... Dont you know .....

we can PRAY our way to prosperity ...

The LORD will not allow a country without Gods or Country of Pagans to get ahead of this Jesus loving nation ...

We will pray and pray till our back yard are overflowing with rich bounties ( not the paper towel) ...

:sarcasm:

[Downwinder]

16. The Texas Board of Education is an argument against evolution.

They haven't evolved they were just created that way.

[sammythecat]

20. Once again we're reminded

that half of the people in this country are below average and a significant portion of the other half are wrong about a lot of things a lot of the time. Common stupidity and ignorance will give logic, reason, and even common sense, a fight to the death every time.

[sinkingfeeling]

21. It's Texas. Look around at some of the great examples they have: George W. Bush,

Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove come to mind.

[ForrestGump]

32. Lots of truly great Texans

And Bush is from CT, Cheney is from WY (I think), and isn't Rove from NV? Don't think any are native Texans and only Little Boots has lived there for a good deal of time.

[AnneD]

22. It has been a long....

concerted effort to keep the Text book committee Taliban free. I don't think the measure will pass but it seems like every election draws us closer to the stone age.

Edited to add that Cheney, Rove and GB and GWB are not native but interlopers. Ann Richards, Walter Chronkite, Dan Rather, Molly Ivins-that's Native. There are many more but most folks know these guys.

[Veruca Salt]

38. Do they not have real scientists responsible for what goes

into the science books though? Or wait, let me guess, the ones they do have are young earthers who just got a degree to further their f-ing creationist theories.

I fucking hate creationists who try to inject themselves into real science. :mad:

[sofa king]

24. Good for everyone else, I guess.

In these tough times, I'm sure it would make HR departments happy if they could simply trash any resume that says "Texas" or "Kansas" on it.

[callous taoboy]

34. If the vote was yesterday why no news on it yet?

I teach science in TX and am wringing my hands.

If the Talibornagain win this vote won't this be challenged in court with the Dover, PA case setting legal precedent?