There is a recent article on CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/11/08/evolution.debate.ap/ )that talks about the Kansas state education board now trying to undermine Evolution completely. Not only have they replaced teaching science with teaching "Intelligent Design", but they are apparently trying to swing students minds specifically against evolution in particular, and science in general.
"In addition, the board rewrote the definition of "science", so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena."
In other words, rather than exploring, looking for answers, and thinking their way through problems, according to their methods, anything that isn't immediately understood will simply be written off as "God's Plan". I think that puts us back a few hundred years doesn't it?
Soon, I expect the Center for Disease Control will have to abandon scientific research to find cures for disease, and instead will be resorting to voodoo to chase away evil spirits as their best hope for ensuring the health of the American people against all the new diseases that are coming each year.
Well perhaps voodoo is unfair. I take that back. Maybe I should have said they will be praying for health rather than developing methods to cure disease. Yes, that is more fair. After all, voodoo is primitive and based on pure superstition. But prayer is based on religion and is therefore much more reliable.
Sorry if my sarcasm offends anyone, but this is too much. We are going in the wrong direction here. As I said in my longer post that discusses Creationism, Intelligent Design, and Evolution(scroll further down), we have already slipped to 49th place in the world for education. This means that virtually every other developed nation is ahead of us. In the international community, we are now the ones that "take the short bus".
Don't get me wrong. I am not anti-God at all. I do believe in God as a creator of the universe. (I cannot think of another better explanation for how and why the big bang happened the way it did.) Also Einstein and Newton were both religious men. Einstein once said, "I want to know God's mind. Everything else is just details."
Religion doesn't have to try to eliminate science to survive. But religious leaders see their territory shrinking, and they would rather see it expand. They want more power. More control. More people completely under their influence. Make no mistake. That is a large part of what this is about. And so they are pursuing political avenues to get that. They have taken Kansas. Kansas started down the slippery slope 7 years ago. And now they are strengthening their grip, by trying to undermine ALL science of ALL kinds.
And Kansas is not the only state. Pennsylvania has adopted this too, (a judge there is just about to rule on a complaint against it in Dover), and Ohio is considering it, and Indiana, and Michigan, and so is Utah, where they call it "Divine Design". Some states like California are trying to fight the ID and Creationist groups that are seeking to take over there. But in August, President Bush officially endorsed ID as the future direction for all schools across America.
Terrific. Just wonderful.
How embarassing. Right now the world is laughing at us. But it could turn into pity at some point if we allow ourselves to continue to abandon modern science in our education. If this continues on this track, one day, perhaps when our children are grown, we may see missionaries coming here to America from the more developed countries like Korea and China and India. And they may come to try to teach us, and help bring us up to world standards. And they may have TV commercials begging their viewers to adopt a poor American child to give them food to eat, or to donate money to building schools and hospitals here for the under-privileged Americans. And everyone will look at us as an object lesson in what can happen if you let it.
Their political leaders will address their people and say things like, "Look at America. They used to be the best country in the world! They used to lead us ALL! Now look at them. We used to buy their goods because they were advanced and high quality. They were actually the first country to land a man on the moon, if you can believe it! But now we only do business with them because of their cheap uneducated labor pool. If we're not careful, That could happen to us!"
We used to be the leader of the world. A shining example of what a great country could accomplish. Now will we be become a different kind of example for the world?
A lesson in humility, perhaps?
For more information on this, see:
http://www.ncseweb.org/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/17/AR2005111701304.html
Of course the White House is not big on the theory of evolution. GWB's resemblance to a chimpanzee is just coincidental.
ReplyDeleteSo very true! Good one, Robert!
ReplyDeleteha-ha!
ReplyDeleteI wonder, Val, what's the mood towards evolution/ID in your texan neighbourhood?
Good question, Igor.
ReplyDeleteJust as Toronto is different from the rest of Canada, Dallas is different from the rest of Texas.
Dallas has a few Texans in it, but it's mostly people who have moved here from other places. From California, New York, Chicago, Toronto, St. Louis, Colorado, South Africa - whatever.
A lot from California, actually.
But still there are the original Texans here and they are a religious lot. For them, when I bring up the subject, they look and me and frown and say, "But I thought evolution was just a scientific theory. It was never proven or accepted. It was just one man's theory. The Bible tells what happened." They don't see ID as a religious agenda - they see it as a scientific theory, because it conflicts with Creationism. The theory that most people feel is just not credible at all anymore is more the standard accepted understanding here.
They tend to believe the very word-for-word statements in the Bible. They honestly, actually think that every word in the Bible came from God's mouth.
But then one person said to me recently "All churches origionally came from the Church of England. That was the original church. The Catholic Church also came out of the Church of England."
As you can see, there is some misinformation here. Please see my article on "Where The Bible Came From"
Thanks
v