Scopes was never the end

[khaosworks]

Georgia may shun 'evolution' in schools
Revised curriculum plan outrages science teachers
By MARY MacDONALD
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia students could graduate from high school without learning much about evolution, and may never even hear the word uttered in class.

New middle and high school science standards proposed by state Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox strike references to "evolution" and replace them with the term "biological changes over time," a revision critics say will further weaken learning in a critical subject.

Outraged teachers already have told the state it is undercutting the science education of young Georgians.

"Just like any major issue people need to deal with, you need to know the facts," said David Bechler, head of the biology department at Valdosta State University. A member of the committee that worked on the biology standards, Bechler said he was stunned to learn that evolution was not in the final proposal.

"Whether you believe in creationism or not, evolution should be known and understood by the public," he argued.

I wrote this in high school:

"If you think that the world around you is a simple mechanism handwaved into existence, then you condemn your Creator as being without imagination. Isn't it more awe-inspiring and wondrous to imagine that the Universe began with a huge outrush of energies, exploding outward at unimaginable speeds, space and time coming in being, turning non-existence into existence as it expanded, the laws of physics that would continue to govern all time evermore crystalizing with each passing moment... and all beginning with the words, 'Let there be light'?"

Comments

[biophile6.livejournal.com]

Beleive me, I am ALL OVER THIS. Letters have already gone to school presidents and former attorney generals.

What an embarrassment. In ten years of doing high end molecular biology outside of georgia I never met a single person schooled in georgia in that community.

Part of the reason is middle georgia itself, baptists, mercer, griffin bell, zell miller, and other southern "democrats" not standing up for themselves. Coming from Mercer I seem to be an anomaly to most northeasterners.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

"If you think that the world around you is a simple mechanism handwaved into existence, then you condemn your Creator as being without imagination. Isn't it more awe-inspiring and wondrous to imagine that the Universe began with a huge outrush of energies, exploding outward at unimaginable speeds, space and time coming in being, turning non-existence into existence as it expanded, the laws of physics that would continue to govern all time evermore crystalizing with each passing moment... and all beginning with the words, 'Let there be light'?"

*snarfed* into my quotes file.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

Or, perhaps more succinctly...

"Would you rather have a Creator that slacked off for six days, and rushed to get everything done on the seventh (fake dinosaur bones and all), or a Creator that can set off a single mighty explosion that gives rise to intelligent, tool using monkeys ten billion years later?"

Re: fake dinosaur bones and all

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Ah, YHVH, the Trickster God. Coyote's got nothing on this one. "I'll make mountains of scientific evidence about the Universe, and none of it will be true! The only truth in the entire Universe is in a book! But which translation of the book. HMMM!?"

[jackbishop.livejournal.com]

New middle and high school science standards proposed by state Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox strike references to "evolution" and replace them with the term "biological changes over time,"

Maybe my brain's gone all stupid, but I thought those were synonyms.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

But one term links in to all the vast literature, discussion, speculation, investigation, blah-blah-blah as to exactly *how* and *why* those "biological changes over time" actually occur... And the other quite possibly doesn't.

To know exactly how horrendous/innocent the change is, of course, once needs to see exactly what changes are being made in what context (Just like coming out with a new translation of the Bible, in fact...) Note that the statement as quoted does not actually say "...strike *ALL* references to 'evolution' and replace them..."

The first rule of science, and of theology: Check the facts, and your assumptions... and everything else!