"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore" -Dorothy to her dog TotoThe separation of church and state is no longer of any concern to the school board there. I am very sorry to see this happen. As if George W. Bush was not an embarrasment enough, now Kansas goes and strikes Darwins theory from what is taught to children. I believe in God and am alive because of his blessings and plan for me. I do have the freewill to live my life and the more knowledge I have of this world that I am a part of, the better my life will be. I cannot see who or how anyone will benefit from the evolutionary theory being omitted from scientific teachings. I see that the religious right thinks that Darwins theory is full of holes. I see science without Darwins theory more full of holes...
I see the backers of this legislation as people who refuse to let go of what they learned as children, that God created the Earth and the heavens in 7 days... I like the story and understand that you had to explain things a little more simply a few thousand years ago so that people could understand and grasp the theory. I cannot understand how some can be so blind to the fact that we are constantly evolving. If evolution were not true, no one would ever get the flu again. The trouble is that a flu bug we immunize for evolves into a flu that can survive the attempts to eliminate it, and so on and so on. (Funny how the influenza evolution may be the end of mans evolution. The way things are looking we may be in big trouble when the bird flu goes human to human.)
We can also understand better now how long it actually took God to create the heavens and the Earth. We know that a day to an Earthling is 24 hours, and a day to a Venusian is 5832 hours long, and a day to a Jupiterian is only 9.9 hours long. Can't we easily see that a day to God may not be 24 hours long? Can't we easily see that a story told to people 5000 years ago, cannot be as scientifically exacting as we need it to be in this age of information? Can't we all just keep our religious beliefs, or lack of them, to ourselves and those interested in discussing them? I think that school is not the place that I want my children learning about God. I want my kids to have the same opportunity for learning that I did and not have anyone elses religious beliefs get in their way.
4 comments:
Slow down there Scoot! Evolution has NOT been removed from the Kansas curriculum. Intelligent Design has been added to the current teaching of evolution.
I think there are some major problems with Darwin's Theory, but like you, I don't see why Intelligent Design has to be the answer... Can't they just discuss Darwin's theory on it's own scientific merits and lack thereof? That discussion could include all other theories including Intelligent Design.
i.e.
What coincidental mutation would be lucky enough to create a lens, an optical nerve, and a part of the brain to interpret it? And how would each part be created slowly over time but still cause enough benefit to be "naturally selected"?
Did aliens plant it in our DNA? Were optical nerves already there, but connected to our genitals, where the really important stuff happens? Was it God's Intelligent Design?
Anyway, just wanted to clear up that evolution will still be taught in Kansas along with Intelligent Design, hog breeding, wheat dynamics, and advanced sheep castration techniques. As if Bubba Bill Clinton didn't make the world think we were hick enough! (had to throw one in for a full response to your blog :)
OK, just got a little hot there. You know how I get sometimes. What time did I post this?
ID is theology masking as science. Teaching ID in science is essentially teaching that science doesn't matter. Epistemologically, the argument is that because we cannot know, for sure, that evolution is correct, we have to present ID to be fair and balanced. However, if we can't rely on the scientific method and our perception of the objective world as being "true", well, then, we might as well chuck all this technology and just say we prefer to live in the Dark Ages.
Don't get me wrong, there should be rigorous debate in all levels of education about how we got here and whether it was by God's hand, random chance or alien beings, but, to teach our children that ID is a legitimate scientific counter argument to Darwin's Theory of Evolution condones lying to our kids. That is not cool.
And, btw, the proponents in Kansas of ID happen to be fundamentalist Christians who believe the Holy Bible literally describes the creation of the world and its inhabitants. It is with a wink and a nod that they profess to be interested in making sure that our childrens' science curriculum is complete. Their plan is to use ID as a ruse to teach the Christian view of creation as if it is objectively true. What about the Navajo creation story or the Hindu version? If all arguments are of the same weight then why aren't we teaching those in science class also?
Hmmmmm.
testing.
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