Kansas Challenges Definition of Science

nysus writes "Anti-evolutionists have made classrooms in Kansas a key battleground in America's culture war. Again. The New York Times reports they are proposing to change the definition of science in Kansas: 'instead of "seeking natural explanations for what we observe around us," the new standards would describe it as a "continuing investigation that uses observation, hypothesis testing, measurement, experimentation, logical argument and theory building to lead to more adequate explanations of natural phenomena."'" From the article: "In the first of three daylong hearings being referred to here as a direct descendant of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, a parade of Ph.D.'s testified Thursday about the flaws they saw in mainstream science's explanation of the origins of life. It was one part biology lesson, one part political theater, and the biggest stage yet for the emerging movement known as intelligent design, which posits that life's complexity cannot be explained without a supernatural creator."

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HHGttG Reference

[Log from Blammo]

The Intelligent Design proponents had better be careful, or they might end up proving God out of existence.

"I refuse to prove that I exist" says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing."

"Oh," says man, "but the Babel Fish is a dead give-away, isn't it? It proves You exist, and so therefore You don't. Q.E.D."

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that," says God, who promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

Re:Intelligent Navel Theory

[david.given]

Wait. You mean, the universe was outsourced?

You know, this explains a lot of things...

Intelligent designer ?

[protolith]

what intelligent designer would design us so that we used the same tube for both respiration and eating?

Yea, and who put a sewer line in a recreational area!?

Re:What Science Really is...

[Shaper_pmp]

I dispute that - I think it'll be a great example of evolution.

The rest of the educated world will carry on learning evolution and other current best scientific theories. Our society and culture will advance, our technology will progress and we and our children will prosper in an atmosphere of rationality and freedom.

Kansas will devolve into a state where new ideas are banned, technology regresses and anything that contradicts the "Big Beard In The Sky" theory is first repressed, then outlawed. The people will grow up stupid and ignorant, to raise even more stupid and ignorant kids. Eventually the vicious cycle will spiral on down, until the populace is exclusively composed of barely-intelligent hominids, eventually losing the powers of speech and fire.

At this point we'll stop recognising them as human, and we can hunt and kill them for food. Eventually Homo Kansasians will effectively die out in the wild, out-competed by more intellectual wild animals or hunted into extinction by Homo Sapiens. Oh, alright, some small bedraggled breeding colonies might survive in zoos, and may eventually be Uplifted to normal human cognition again, but as a wild species they'll be extinct.

Voilá. Evolution in action.

Bumper Sticker

[sharp-bang]

When Evolution Is Outlawed
Only Outlaws Will Evolve