The state Board of Education approved science standards for public schools Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.

What a wonderful example of projecting your prejudices and shortcomings onto other people and groups.

I can just see the new roadsigns at the borders:

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A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

9/11 created a bad atmosphere for science. Things will turn around. Evolution is true and factual, backed by a fossil record with amazingly few gaps.

JIM COLYER http://www.jimcolyer.com

There is a question that pops up out of all of this.

Intelligent design is presented as a ligitimate scientific theory and an alternative to Darwinism, but a close look at the arguments show they dont pass scientific muster. So why are scientist worried? Some answers here:


http://www.livescience.com/othernews...D_science.html

I hope things will turn around... I have the fear that since there has been one win they are going to steamroller the rest.

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Realization: What are you going to do today?

Scientists are worried because funding, legislation and the education of the next generation are in the hands of non-scientists. The results: an ignorant society, a return to hard core religion and the US as a second rate power will affect you whether you learned about evolution or had a 45 minute study period.

It is, IMHO a legitamite concern. The US is (fundamentally - pun intended) a religious country. Five hundred years from now it might be the 1960s that were the abberation and not the rule.

John

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"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel."

--Ambrose Bierce

http://threelittleboxes.com

If we had nothing to worry about this wouldn't have come this far. The fact is the general populace can be quite ignorant. The reason we need to teach and re-teach the same basic priniples of science to start class in every year from ~grade 7 up through first year college chemistry and biology, is because scientific theory and arguments can be hard for non-scientifically minded to understand. Putting the onus on the IDers to prove they are scientific hasn't worked yet, pointing out that there's no science in the idea hasn't worked either. In some ways it will be up to the scientific community to get scared, stay scared and speak out to keep this from going further.

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The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
--Isaac Asimov

hey Hugh...

I'd like to take the liberty of qualifying the word "ignorant". i presume you mean "uninformed" rather than "unintelligent". I only bring this up because colloquially, I've seen it used in both places.

But I agree - it's amazing that we have to go through the basics of science time after time after time and yet by the time they have a BA in whatever most people still don't get it. however, i feel that part of the problem (at least) falls on the educational system and the advantage that coorporate america derives from a clueless public. After all, these are the same people who can keep up with the minutiae of hollywood, the statistics of 700+ MLB players, every conspiracy theorey and the correct pronunciation and syntax of Imperial Klingoneese. We're not talking idiots here, just misguided people.

And part of the blame needs to fall squarely in science's lap for its presentation of the sciences as something impossibly hard instead of something we can all understand. It's not rocket science (except when it is).

John

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"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel."

--Ambrose Bierce

http://threelittleboxes.com

I just blogged about this.

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Phil Plait
The Bad Astronomer
http://www.badastronomy.com
badastro@badastronomy.com

Great word - minutiae

Minutiae refers to any small or otherwise incidental detail. (Wikipedia)

For those of us not so learned.

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Realization: What are you going to do today?

This is nothing less than an attack upon us all by the American Taliban.

It is a Newton thing: Once an ignorance is in place, it remains in place unless acted upon by an external education.

Anyone who hasn't heard about the nylonase enzyme should really take a look at this link, the last bit is quite illuminating.

Ignorance is bliss, and there is no more blissfull place than Kansas.


Ahhh ahhh Kansas, Kansas! (past state promotional add, if you lived here, you'd know.)

The Dover school board ID crowd is gone at least. All of them were defeated in yesterday's elections.

Dave Mitsky

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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Ironically, a major Vatican representative says "the Genesis description of how God created the universe and Darwin's theory of evolution were "perfectly compatible".

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"As truth is gathered, I rearrange,
Inside out, outside in - Perpetual change." - A British rock band

You'll all have to forgive me that I lay the blame for this travesty squarely at the feet of religion itself. The ongoing, persistant belief in supreme, transcendental or otherworldly influences on the world around us, Christian, Muslim, or whatever, is the very cancer that allows this kind of symptom to continue coming back. Intelligent Design and Creationism are the sores on the body of a humanity inflicted with religious herpes. You keep healing the wounds, but the disease persists, and cannot truly be cured.

I'm sorry, but I willingly say this knowing I'm going to offend, but you won't be rid of this kind of backwards and barbaric thinking until you purge humanity of its neolithic spiritual baggage.

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

This is an issue and now a decision that disturbs a great number of us here at BAUT. Since we are taking the time to express our feelings here on the board, we should also *each* take some time soon to compose and send a letter to the Kansas board of education. I'm sure they are already getting many letters, but they need to get more. Please think about sending a letter, and asking your friends to do so too. I'll be taking some time to do so myself today.

Jim, just out of curiosity, why do you think there is a connection with 9/11? In my opinion, this started way before then and I have not noticed any change in the public attitude to science, either for better or worse.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

Swift, I'd actually tend to agree with Jim Colyer's assessment. I agree that the anti-science crowd have always been there, but until 9/11, they were relatively powerless.

Since 9/11, they've opportunistically wrapped themselves in the US flag. "Not a patriot" was a very hard accusation to politically counter. Thankfully, folks are starting to see this accusation for the bovine waste matter it is.

But make no mistake, science has lost ground since 9/11.

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[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

This Kansas school board "redefined science?" This seems like a pretty incredible step to take, given their lack of any connection to the scientific community. Defining scientific terms seems to me to be a pretty exacting science in itself. However, I'd guess that if they think evolution is iffy since it's "only a theory," they might not understand what the term "science" means either.

My bold...
Might? MIGHT? I don't think there is any question about it.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)