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Kansas Adopts New Science Standards

Posted by Zonk on from the in-line-with-the-rest-of-us dept.

porcupine8 writes "The Kansas State Board of Education has changed the state science standards once again, this time to take out language questioning evolution. This turnaround comes fast on the heels of the ouster given this past election to the ultra-conservative Board members who originally introduced the language. 'Science' has also been re-redefined as 'a human activity of systematically seeking natural explanations' (the word 'natural' had been previously stricken from the definition). If you'd like to see the new standards, a version showing all additions and deletions is available from the KS DOE's website (PDF)."

4 of 868 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Eternal Vigilance by RailGunner · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    He who laughs last is just a hand in the bush.

    Ozzy rules. \m/ \m/

  2. Re:In Soviet Kansas... by charlieo88 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Somebody actually wasted a point to mod my stupid joke down?

  3. Re:It can't be allegorical by radtea · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I submit to you that it's my belief that people with an a priori commitment to philosophical naturalism hang on to evolution fundamentally because they don't want to believe that there's a supernatural explanation.

    "Supernatural explanation" is an oxymoron.

    For X to explain Y, knowing X must increase the plausibility of Y. See Jayne's "How Does the Brain Do Plausible Reasoning" if you don't understand this, but as someone concerned with the problem of explanation I'm assuming you are already familiar with the major works in the field.

    For X to increase the plausibility of Y, X must be better known than Y. By definition the "supernatural" is unknowable. It cannot be seen, communicated with, or otherwise nailed down and studied in the lab. If it could it would be "merely natural."

    So to claim that you "explain" something by invoking something that is by definition unknowable (because everything knowable is natural) is to talk nonsense.

    If a thing is knowable it is natural. If a thing is not knowable, it is not an explanation.

    Ergo, there are no supernatural explanations. The term is without meaning.

    --
    Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
  4. Re:ID is totally scientific! Seriously! by Rei · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The parent is flamebait... how?

    --
    "Who the hell is Nietzche? It's a question stupid people are asking." -- Newscaster, "Jesus Christ Supercop"