Head explodes again
The Texas Board of Education will vote this week on a new science curriculum designed to challenge the guiding principle of evolution, a step that could influence what is taught in biology classes across the nation.
The proposed curriculum change would prompt teachers to raise doubts that all life on Earth is descended from common ancestry. Texas is such a huge textbook market that many publishers write to the state’s standards, then market those books nationwide.
via Texas School Board Set to Vote on Challenge to Evolution WSJ.com.
Do I even have to say it?
Lachlan O’Dea
Someone with a Voice
Trish
Richard B.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Re-read the article, and remove these two sentences:
and
Is there anything wrong with pointing out the gaps in the theory of evolution? We are still a long way from describing the origin of humanity, and while I agree that creationism has no place in schools, I do think we tend to present a lot of information as a 100% truth without discussing any of the related unknowns.
I know that isn’t what they are trying to do in Texas, but I think the argument could have been much more persuasive had the ideas in above 2 sentences been left out of the proposal.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Instead of answering the question as you posed it let me say this: I’m pretty much with Karl Popper on my philosophy of science. I would be delighted to have schools emphasize in their science curricula that all scientific knowledge is not objective fact, but rather is our most useful understanding in each case–that these things represent not how the universe is in any objective sense, but rather that they represent our best model so far.
In that light, I’d be fine with evolutionary theory being taught in that kind of context. Calling out evolution specifically as something that’s somehow different from the rest of our scientific body of knowledge, as is proposed here, is a completely different thing.
And, of course, we all know that what’s happening there isn’t really about misunderstanding scientific theory as 100% truth–it’s about creationists trying to find ways to sneak their BS into science curricula.