Here we go again!
Kansas has moved into the Intelligent Design crowd. So when are school board elections? The Pennsylvania school board members which approved ID were all thrown out in the elections last night. At the same point Kansas is encouraging it. I thought they learned from the last time they did this and were all voted out?
I think the ID issues highlights a very interesting debate about science in our society. How can we educate the masses about the basic principles of the scientific method? I also am irritated that evolution is the only theory under attack. We have about an equal amounts of evidence for plate tectonics as we do for evolution. It seems contradictory to try and throw out one theory when most of our theories have equal evidence.
Other than being embarrassing and a probable economic drain on Kansas, what effect will this have?
ReplyDeleteAre people going to stop evolving because they don't believe in evolution? I don't have enough of a background in science to know, so I am asking sincerely: What does knowing that my 2,000,000 descendant was an ape tell me?
It seems this is what the religious right wants to fight over: knowing I'll be okay after I physically perish VERSUS knowing I'm an ape.
I understand that there arguments undercut the very basis of science, but are we going to revert to the Dark Ages based off of one ruling? Thomas, didn't you argue against the "slippery slope" as a sound philosophical argument.
Kansas isn't outlawing evolution, this isn't the Scopes Monkey Trial, and I'm probably just masking my own cognitive dissonance so that I'm able to sleep at night.
No time for the 704 things I want to say here.
ReplyDelete73) Good theology first requires good science, and evolutionary theory is good science.
"In the domain of inanimate and animate nature, the evolution of science and its applications give rise to new questions. The better the Church's knowledge is of their essential aspects, the more she will understand their impact." -John Paul II
435) Anyone who wants to really thoroughly understand evolutionary theory should probably be required to study creationist claims. There is no better source for puzzles in this area of science, and rebuking these criticisms requires a solid understanding of evolutionary theory. Of course, it's essential to study the responses as well.
696) Maybe this will leave our students better prepared. They'll get to discuss evolutionary theory in government as well as biology!
Perhaps it is a significant symptom of lobbing efforts that the new legislature that replaced the ID one is now reconsidering the same idea. A vocal lobbying power does not neccisarily equal a voting bloc.
ReplyDeleteI still don't understand why people who feel that evolution disagrees with their religion don't just accept and come to grips with it. Say: "Bear in mind son, that science doesn't agree with these beliefs, like miracles, etc. It is an academic rather than a religious understanding of the world."
But I'm preaching to the choir.