I think a good start would for High Schools to have a Philosophy of Science and Religion course where those subjects such as ID could be discussed in their proper context. Just keep the discussion out of the science classroom. Obviously those responsible for being the guiding light for education in Kansas are sorely ignorant and ill desrving of their positions.
At least some solace can be taken in that the truly bright kids will overcome the stupidity of their parents, teachers, and governmental leaders in Kansas and will simply leave the pitiful State at the first opportunity. After they have been gone for a number of years, some will return mostly due to the simple fact that as bad as Kansas appears to be, there are a whole lot of other places worse off-you just have to pick your poison.
Wow-I currently live in Kansas, but I get a warm and fuzzy from being born in England and getting my first degree in New York. This thread was over with when belief and evolution were used in the same sentence...shame on Kansas...the new slogan should be:
With regards to the current round of arguments involving the evolutionary theory, the crux of the problem appears to be that the religious side fails to understand that while the scientific method is a tool that can be used by all, you cannot invoke a supernatural presence to defend a position. The tools of science cannot be used to help answer questions of God's existence or actions.
Of interest is the book The encyclopedia of Evolution by Richard Milner (1990, ISBN 0-8160-1472-8). On page 436 is the entry under Theory, Scientific, "Truth" and Uncertainty. The last two paragraphs read:
"If he could not prove with certainty that evolution was true, how could Darwin expect any thinking person to adopt his theory? The answer is simply that it is productive; it works. Applying it produced a torrent of discoveries, insights, new information. Connections arose to bridge formerly diverse disciplines: comparative psychology, geology, botany, palenotology. Working scientists found it solved many puzzles; and formerly inexplicable phenomena made sense within a coherent larger picture.
Darwin wtote a friend in 1861, "the change of species cannot be directly proved, and...the doctrine must sink or swim according as it groups and explains [disparate] phenomena."
The idiots at the Board of Education in Kansas that voted for these standards were elected by even more dim-witted idiots. They are in these positions based on their popularity and not by academic qualification. To even raise this issue is reflective of the need for some serious remedial education in the scientific method on the part of those Board members who are intent on putting intelligent design in the science classroom.
Science has nothing to say about the supernatural or God or an intelligent designer one way or another. I would bet that absolutely none of them have ever read Darwin's Origin of the Species or Descent of Man. And those that did probably haven't figured out that a lot has happened since the 1800's.
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I think a good start would for High Schools to have a Philosophy of Science and Religion course where those subjects such as ID could be discussed in their proper context. Just keep the discussion out of the science classroom. Obviously those responsible for being the guiding light for education in Kansas are sorely ignorant and ill desrving of their positions.
At least some solace can be taken in that the truly bright kids will overcome the stupidity of their parents, teachers, and governmental leaders in Kansas and will simply leave the pitiful State at the first opportunity. After they have been gone for a number of years, some will return mostly due to the simple fact that as bad as Kansas appears to be, there are a whole lot of other places worse off-you just have to pick your poison.
Wow-I currently live in Kansas, but I get a warm and fuzzy from being born in England and getting my first degree in New York. This thread was over with when belief and evolution were used in the same sentence...shame on Kansas...the new slogan should be:
Kansas, just as ignorant as you thought it was...
With regards to the current round of arguments involving the evolutionary theory, the crux of the problem appears to be that the religious side fails to understand that while the scientific method is a tool that can be used by all, you cannot invoke a supernatural presence to defend a position. The tools of science cannot be used to help answer questions of God's existence or actions. Of interest is the book The encyclopedia of Evolution by Richard Milner (1990, ISBN 0-8160-1472-8). On page 436 is the entry under Theory, Scientific, "Truth" and Uncertainty. The last two paragraphs read: "If he could not prove with certainty that evolution was true, how could Darwin expect any thinking person to adopt his theory? The answer is simply that it is productive; it works. Applying it produced a torrent of discoveries, insights, new information. Connections arose to bridge formerly diverse disciplines: comparative psychology, geology, botany, palenotology. Working scientists found it solved many puzzles; and formerly inexplicable phenomena made sense within a coherent larger picture. Darwin wtote a friend in 1861, "the change of species cannot be directly proved, and...the doctrine must sink or swim according as it groups and explains [disparate] phenomena."
The idiots at the Board of Education in Kansas that voted for these standards were elected by even more dim-witted idiots. They are in these positions based on their popularity and not by academic qualification. To even raise this issue is reflective of the need for some serious remedial education in the scientific method on the part of those Board members who are intent on putting intelligent design in the science classroom. Science has nothing to say about the supernatural or God or an intelligent designer one way or another. I would bet that absolutely none of them have ever read Darwin's Origin of the Species or Descent of Man. And those that did probably haven't figured out that a lot has happened since the 1800's.