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New Science Standards Approved in Florida
anonymous_echidna writes "Florida has voted to accept the new K-12 science curriculum standards amidst a storm of controversy around the teaching of evolution, which had up until now been the scientific concept that dare not speak its name. There was a compromise made at the last minute, which was to call evolution a 'scientific theory', rather than a fact. While some lament that the change displays the woeful ignorance of science and scientific terminology, the good news is that the new curriculum emphasizes teaching the meaning of scientific terms and the scientific method in earlier grades."
....and it seems the US is the happiest nation in the world.
When people call theories facts, they are saying "I know" when they should be saying "I think, maybe I believe, but I don't know."
I am not a christian, or even religous. I have come to the conclusion that science has basically become a new religion. If you question anything in science, you get a bunch of zealots who attack you equally as much as if you questioned a religion. I am sure you many of those types of replies to this post. That is not to say that evolution did not happen, but I am saying that is has not been "proven" and should not be taught as a FACT.
I feel that teaching our children that theories (even well evidenced ones) are facts causes some long term problems. If our children believe that theories are facts, then there is little reason to question them. Also, later in life, if we discover that some of these facts are wrong, then it will cause them to question science as a whole (or, at least it should). We have already disproven enough "facts" that it weakens many scientific arguements.
We (as a whole) have also tried to over simplfy evolution. A lot of people that I have talked to (including some high school and college students) thought that evolution was "linear" so it made "perfect" sense. When I explained that evolution was not linear, they became much more confused and seemed to question (well, at first, they just questioned me) science.
For example, they did not realize some of the weird anomolies that evolution supports. They thought that algea became fish, which became amphebians, which became lizards, until we finally evolved into humans.
When I explained to them that the evolution of whales, they did not believe me and thought that I was "making things up". Basically, whales evolved from fish, into amphebians, into mammals.... Then they "evolved" back into "fish", and then into whales (and dolphins, porpuses, ectcetra).
Personally, as a child, I was very upset to find out that a lot of the "facts" I was taught were in fact, incorrect. I also find that science seems to have become more a religion that an observation and peer reviewed system. For exmample: To me (and I am alone here, I know), when I studied the big bang theory (which was taught to me as a fact) my world crumbled when I realized that it did not mathmatically make sense.
Even more to my horror, is later when I discovered (they came out much later) the "dark matter" and "dark energy" theories. And instead of just addmitting that the theory was wrong, we made a new theory (dark matter) to try to "fix" the theory and claimed that we cannot see over %75 percent of the (equally distruted) matter in space because it is "naturally camaflauged". Since "dark matter" holds all of existance together, I call it the "super glue of the universe"...
Later, we realized that the universe now expanding (at an alarming rate) faster than it should based on the dark matter theory. So, instead of just admitting that maybe we were wrong and look for a different theory altogether, science has created another theory to "fix" the old broken one. This theory is that "dark energy" (which is also "natrually camaflagued") is ripping the universe apart. Combined with dark matter, this accounts for over %95 of all the matter in existance.
That is right, scienctist (tend to) scoff at religion, but believe that the universe is being ripped apart by some undetecable "dark energy". They (tend to) fault people who have blind faith in anything... except for thier own "scientific" beliefs.
.
references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_evolution
Anyone who tries to sum up something as complex as a religion in a sentence like that is ignorant.
/.ers bashing on religion).
Someone said (I believe it was later than this post) that creationists should not be allowed to comment on evolution because they don't understand it. What about the other way around? Obviously the parent has not spent a lot of time getting to understand any religion, and should keep his two cents to himself.
The simple fact of the matter is that no one knows if they have the correct answer. Which means that all major philosophies should be taught. I know that everyone likes to say "teh fundies r dumb" but you have no more proof that there isn't a superior being who created the universe than they have for it. You can make valid arguments for either one, and the only way to not see either case is to blind yourself with tenacity, and/or arrogantly thinking that you know everything.
Which is why both creationism and evolution (for lack of a better title) should be taught. Because we don't know how this world came about, and the only way we ever will find out for certain is if it turns out that there is a god and he decides to inform us. Other than that there is no clear answer and everyone should be more tolerant of everyone else's "guess."
Oh, and there is no reason why both can't be true. Evolution makes sense from either standpoint. IMO, evolution makes a stronger case for a divine creator. But I won't elaborate, This isn't what this topic is about (although inevitably every discussion on this topic at slashdot turns to
Examine the following formula:
F = (G * m1 * m2) / d^2
Where
m1 = mass of first body
m2 - mass of 2nd body
d^2 = Distance between two bodies centre of mass squared.
G = Einstein's Gravitational constant
This only predicts the attractive force between two bodies (m1, m2), if you try and apply it to three bodies you have to approximate two of the bodies into one. Sometimes this works well but sometimes it falls down.
The other main issue is the value of G. 6.67 * 10^-11 is an awful number that Einstein hated. This was one of reasons why he spent the entire rest of his life searching for something better in the form of a Grand Theory of Everything. Unfortunately he never found it.
My point after all this Physics rambling is that everything is a theory and should be taught accordingly. You should teach that the most important skill is to question everything, especially with regard to science. Nothing is set in stone when it comes to science and our understanding of the universe since we view everything from a very narrow perspective.
I think that Darwin's theory of evolution is far more likely to explain how we came to be on this earth than any junk involving Adam and Eve. The entire Bible is a series of metaphors to try and illustrate how we should live our lives. We should very soon be at a state when we can ditch all religions and just act in a humane manor for humanities sake alone. At least, I hope we should since the bible is getting very old now and although the morals of the stories have not changed the actual settings are becoming less and less relevant with each passing decade.
I dont read
EVERY description of how things work in science is a theory.
I am a scientist. Contrary to you, I know exactly what the words at my disposal mean.
Only an absurd, insulting liar like yourself would call a tautology a "theory".
We're all born with nothing.
If you die in debt, you're ahead.
Evolution as the origin of life is a theory. It can't be reproduced under controlled circumstances using the Scientific Method. Any of you who believe Evolution as fact have made a leap of faith and are in essence practicing your own religion. The most sophisticated person would understand the difference between fact and theory. They would also accept Evolution and religion at the same time since they do not contradict each other. Or at least TOLERATE the other. Many of you people have to stop being haters and learn to tolerate.
Somebody is daring to question or challenge Evolution? That must mean they are trying to force their religious views on everyone! Come on. If Evolution is such a solid scientific theory, shouldn't people have a little more faith in it? Dear Chicken Littles, the sky is not falling.
Liberalismo es pecado.
my problem with evolution is that it excludes the possibility of an external force guiding changes as well as all the evidence is based on the assumption that between snapshots we have from the past there were multiple small changes that if found would show one species giving birth to something not of it's species, but that's just an assumption. Some superior being would leave just about the same evidence if they took their time and created different species in a series over a similar period of time. If we applied the sames process that are used to support current evolution theory to architecture, we would have mud huts giving birth to our current sky scrapers
So, we should call off the search for Exterritorial life? We shouldn't never have bother looking at trying to split the atom because there was no evidence that it could be split, many years ago there was not even any evidence that compounds could be separated. In Math and physics we require a proof to exclude something, and there is certainly no proof there is no Exterritorial life and scary thing is that you probably believe if UFOs and can't see the hypocrisies.
Evolution is a Theory and the forces that want so hard to disbelieve that there could ever possible be a god want it to be the only theory.
It's just like western medicine when faced with eastern healing.
There is no proof that, there is no relationship, etc.... and now they are staring to realize that just because they can't see a relationship doesn't mean there isn't one. Modern science still can't explain why things like acupuncture and Reflexology work and many many are so blinded by their own religion/belief that they rule out that anything that they can't see and explain can't possible work. More and more studies have shown that traditional eastern treatments can be as effective in some cases as many accepted western treatments, but many still want to disbelieve anything that goes against their own belief.
There chances of evolution bring single cells to the present day man are much smaller than the chance of trees naturally falling such as to form a cabin, but when faced with a cabin in the middle of the woods without any signs of a human most still would make a theory about how someone created it and then left but they won't even concede that there is a possibility that some other force than chance created us.