Devolution
The state government of Georgia has proposed guidelines that would remove the word "evolution" from their high-school biology classes. They're even removing the word "long" from references to "Earth's long history." This is happening even though Georgia students have incredibly high failure rates in science -- probably because what they're being taught isn't, er, science. Professors at universities say their first-year students are arriving for the first day of class barely knowing what fossils are.
Here's the icing on the cake. In a story in today's New York Times, Keith Delaplane, a professor of entomology at the University of Georgia, defends Georgia's embrace of creationism. He says "the wholesale rejection of alternative theories of evolution is unscientific":
"My opinion is that the very nature of science is openness to alternative explanations, even if those explanations go against the current majority," said Professor Delaplane, a proponent of intelligent-design theory, which questions the primacy of evolution's role in natural selection. "They deserve at least a fair hearing in the classroom, and right now they're being laughed out of the arena."
He's wrong. Creationism has enjoyed an absolutely fabulous hearing in the classroom: It was the dominant teaching on Earth's history for hundreds of years or even millenia, if you include pre-Christian concepts of creation. Indeed, Darwin's theory of evolution is the new theory, historically speaking.
Posted by Clive Thompson at January 30, 2004 06:52 PM
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Karl Popper knew how to deal with this ... People.
They want their bliefs to be considered on the same ground of scientific theories yet they do not admit the application of scientific method on those beliefs. (In one world with Popper they are not confutable, hence thy are not scientific)
Their only strenght is in rethoric, which is gainig an enormous power nowadays. Think about it, we know so many things but so many people are left without instruments to gain all this knowledge. They are, in a way, at least as much ignorant as the average medioeval peasant, even if they can read and write. All this people are the perfect target for emphatic messages rather than logical arguments.
Strictly speaking Rethoric is the art of using language effectively and persuasively, and can both be used to deliver reasonable or foolish ideas. But it is so much more useful on crap!
Well, all this is a bit confused, but I hope you get the message...Despite the lack of rethoric!
Posted by: Mario at February 2, 2004 5:00 AM
Good point. I read some statistics scientific illiteracy a while ago; the study argued that despite the increasing prominence of science in modern media, populations aren't keeping pace -- scientific literacy isn't growing.
Posted by: Clive at February 2, 2004 4:38 PM
Sigh... This is nothing new, unfortunately. I went to a public high school in Georgia that was meant to be the best one in that area of the state. My AP Bio teacher took us to an intelligent design presentation and, as a graduation present, gave us a book on the "theory." I'm pretty sure she didn't even mention evolution. In an AP class! It was no surprise to me, six years later, when a friend from high school who by then was a first-year med student asked me if I "believed we came from monkeys."
Posted by: Mary at February 3, 2004 12:37 PM
Wow! That is quite a story, and I only wish I were more surprised by it. An AP class, even.
Posted by: Clive at February 3, 2004 12:51 PM
The smartest cultures know that we are devolving. According to the Hindus we are living in the epoch of Kali, where men crawl about on 4 legs like beasts and all goodness and splendour have become debased.
I have a smart-alec comeback on my blog if you care, T. Clive v3.0
Posted by: Erik Weissengruber at February 6, 2004 6:39 PM
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Karl Popper knew how to deal with this ... People.
They want their bliefs to be considered on the same ground of scientific theories yet they do not admit the application of scientific method on those beliefs. (In one world with Popper they are not confutable, hence thy are not scientific)
Their only strenght is in rethoric, which is gainig an enormous power nowadays. Think about it, we know so many things but so many people are left without instruments to gain all this knowledge. They are, in a way, at least as much ignorant as the average medioeval peasant, even if they can read and write. All this people are the perfect target for emphatic messages rather than logical arguments.
Strictly speaking Rethoric is the art of using language effectively and persuasively, and can both be used to deliver reasonable or foolish ideas. But it is so much more useful on crap!
Well, all this is a bit confused, but I hope you get the message...Despite the lack of rethoric!
Posted by: Mario at February 2, 2004 5:00 AM
Good point. I read some statistics scientific illiteracy a while ago; the study argued that despite the increasing prominence of science in modern media, populations aren't keeping pace -- scientific literacy isn't growing.
Posted by: Clive at February 2, 2004 4:38 PM
Sigh... This is nothing new, unfortunately. I went to a public high school in Georgia that was meant to be the best one in that area of the state. My AP Bio teacher took us to an intelligent design presentation and, as a graduation present, gave us a book on the "theory." I'm pretty sure she didn't even mention evolution. In an AP class! It was no surprise to me, six years later, when a friend from high school who by then was a first-year med student asked me if I "believed we came from monkeys."
Posted by: Mary at February 3, 2004 12:37 PM
Wow! That is quite a story, and I only wish I were more surprised by it. An AP class, even.
Posted by: Clive at February 3, 2004 12:51 PM
The smartest cultures know that we are devolving. According to the Hindus we are living in the epoch of Kali, where men crawl about on 4 legs like beasts and all goodness and splendour have become debased.
I have a smart-alec comeback on my blog if you care, T. Clive v3.0
Posted by: Erik Weissengruber at February 6, 2004 6:39 PM