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Creationism comes to school

pupdog

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After a protracted argument over allowing "Of Pandas and People", a book of Creationist anti-evolution BS, the Dover, PA school board voted 6 to 3 to include "Intelligent Design" in the biology curiculum. The Board member leading the march to ignorance, William Buckingham, reportedly "challenged people's literacy, knowledge of American history and patriotism" throughout a public meeting a few weeks ago.

see story for more details.
 
Why is the US the only country in the western world where this does happen?
 
Great. It's about time that someone teaches the children the real way that the world was formed: Marduk slew Tiamat whose body became the earth and sky, respectively.

Yeah. It's about time the truth be known and kids can decide for themselves what is true and what is not.
 
And how do they teach ID without religion? Is this in a same course of how Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny came to be?

My six year old thinks it's silly that some magical being snapped its fingers and poof there was earth etc. Would he question his judgement if ID was taught at school? What is he supposed to think of the teachers? That they are lying to him?

This is ridiculous.
 
I think the evidence of what their up to is the desire to inject ID into the biology lessons. Even if it is a valid avenue of study, with a place in a curriculum, it is not part of biology. If they want it on an equal footing then it would be a separate subject alongside all science subjects.

How does someone who advocates intellectual surrender in the face of complexity get to be on a school board anyway?

I had a science teacher at school who always felt the need to point out he 'couldn't believe this as he was christian' when talking about plate tectonics or evolution. I could say I would have been able respect him if he chose another subject to teach, but I'd be lying as he'd still have been an incompetent ass.
 
Unfortunately, 2 of the 3 anti-ignorance board members have resigned, leaving only 1 non-lunatic in the asylum.

You might have thought that such idiocy only was extant in some third world country, like Arkansas, but it's been spreading. Prions, maybe? Plus, there are advocates beginning to make noises in a few other countries.

No child left behind? Nearly every single politician waffles on this issue.
 
I wonder if they will be required to teach problems and controversies with ID "theory". If I were a biology teacher in this area, I would use this to devote even more time to teaching the strengths of evolutionary theory. Heck, the school board (in my view) would be mandating that I discuss the weaknesses of Intelligent Design.
 
pupdog said:
After a protracted argument over allowing "Of Pandas and People", a book of Creationist anti-evolution BS, the Dover, PA school board voted 6 to 3 to include "Intelligent Design" in the biology curiculum. The Board member leading the march to ignorance, William Buckingham, reportedly "challenged people's literacy, knowledge of American history and patriotism" throughout a public meeting a few weeks ago.

see story for more details.
Click to expand...
There is something rotten in Dover, PA. The rot is called: Lack of higher education.
 
JSFolk said:
I wonder if they will be required to teach problems and controversies with ID "theory".
Click to expand...
Problems with ID? For it to have problems, it would have to have claims that are contradicted by the evidence. Since there aren't any real claims in ID, that's not possible.
 
Of course ID really makes claims--they claim that natural selection can't explain modern biodiversity, therefore their "explanation" is the correct one. Embedded in this is a claim that there is a dichotomy: either evolutionary theory is correct, or else ID is the correct model for everything that evolutionary theory addresses. They make even more claims that can be investigated, such as ID is not motivated by religion; teaching ID in schools can satisfy the entire spectrum of creationists (big tent theory); and, most laughably, the practice of science can and should include a supernatural element. For that matter, we have some proponents of ID claiming that there is evidence in nature for this view, yet the Pope Of ID, Phillip Johnson, said about ID, "...there cannot conceivably be evidence for it" (in Dembski & Kusiner, 2001, "Signs of Intelligence".
 
And now this:
Dover, PA, makes the news for being the first school district in the nation to require inclusion of ID in the curriculum. And the bozo who pushed for it finally gave out the name of the firm that promised him legal support--Thomas More Law center, who have championed such issues as "promoting public morality."
Even the Discovery Institute claims not to "endorse or support what the Dover School District has done."
Eugenie Scott remarked that, as JSFOLK noticed, the regulation seems to require teaching the flaws of ID.

For more details, here and here are later stories.
 
Oh great, so let's promote discrimination and tell everybody that the only way to be moral is to be religious.

When are these asinine middle aged ways of thinking going to ever change?

What will it take to show that lack of education is one of the surest ways to stump development?

There are many countries where children grow up without scientific teachings, and those are the ones that are the most angry at the rest of the world because they can't believe how evil the rest of the world is since it does not have the same religion they do. Same thing in the middle ages, where advancements stagnated.

http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_14313.shtml

Bush will like everybody to read about his religion as they tour now. Yes folks, the Grand Canyon was made in Noah's Flood. Yes, there is plenty of evidence for it, a whole book of evidence.
 
Not so much middle aged, more dark aged.

Pass the lobotomy knife, I think it's easier their way.
 
How would this effect the education in the US in the long run?


You can hope it doesn't turn into a 'only god knows/should know' mentality.:eek:
 
AWPrime said:
Why is the US the only country in the western world where this does happen?
Click to expand...

... There are a couple of state schools in the UK where this is an issue, though. They're part-funded by some chap called Reg Vardy, who is a fundamentalist garage owner. I mean, Christian.

Now, I think I'm right in saying that they are indeed state schools - these special City Technology Colleges. Not a very happy state of affairs.
 
AWPrime said:
How would this effect the education in the US in the long run?
Click to expand...
What makes you think we're not already severely affected by this nonsense?
 
AWPrime said:
Hopefull denial?
Click to expand...

I'm ashamed to admit I take comfort in the elitist view:
Only a very small fraction of the population is capable of pushing progress forward, and if given the ability to do so, they will. (This small fraction is the people who have the intelligence, AND the imagination AND the drive)

This percentage will have access to the internet, and will be used to ignoring what other (less elite) people say. As for the rest, does it really matter what they think? They are the load, not the engine.

(I do not count myself elite - I lack the drive)
 
RamblingOnwards said:
This percentage will have access to the internet, and will be used to ignoring what other (less elite) people say. As for the rest, does it really matter what they think? They are the load, not the engine.
Click to expand...

Would that that were true. One only need look at the politicization of science to see the consequences of ignorance. Developing new stem cell lines is verbotten in the U.S. because of religious belief. Funds, insanely, go to research projects to investigate the medical efficacy of prayer...
 
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