View Full Version : Kansas repeals science guidelines questioning evolution
POSTED: 10:22 a.m. EST, February 14, 2007
TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) -- Kansas has repealed public school science guidelines questioning the theory of evolution that brought the state international ridicule, but educators aren't sure how long it will be before the decision is overturned.
The State Board of Education approved new, evolution-friendly science standards with a 6-4 vote Tuesday, replacing ones that questioned the theory and had the support of "intelligent design" advocates.
Article (http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/02/14/evolution.debate.ap/)
It's very sad that science is being determined by politics, no matter which way it falls. This really should not even be a controversy. Evolution is fully accepted by the scientific community, and until another theory gains scientific acceptance (should that happen), it's the best we've got in terms of science. I think we should just let science be determined by scientists and leave politicans to decide issues they have some actual knowledge about.
Sarah
02-16-2007, 01:40 AM
I went to high school in Kansas, before they threw out evolution completely, and I remember in one of my science classes my teacher had to teach evolution. He made a huge deal about how he didn't want to, he didn't believe in evolution, but he had to teach it to us anyway. Of course he presented in a dubious, almost sarcastic manner. Luckily I have a very intelligent well-read dad who told me all I needed to know about evolution. Even at that age, I was shocked that a science teacher would manage to turn a science class into a sermon.
Marzipan
02-16-2007, 06:28 AM
The Kansas school board made me very embarrassed to discuss US education with people from other countries. I'm so glad they're coming around.
Because I'm sick and trying to keep my mind off of it, I'm going to return to this. ;)
He made a huge deal about how he didn't want to, he didn't believe in evolution, but he had to teach it to us anyway.
I think part of the problem with that kind of viewpoint is that it is conflating science with Truth, when they are not the same thing, any more than theology is Truth. Evolution isn't something you believe in or don't believe in. It's a scientific explanation based on evidence. That doesn't mean it's right, but it also don't mean that you can just dismiss it as science because you don't "believe" it. Having scientific objections based on the evidence is one thing, but honestly most of the objections given to evolution have been disproven over and over. But you can't just decide that evolution isn't science because you don't like it, because it follows all of the conventions of science, whereas ID and creationism don't. You can certainly decide it isn't truth, and believe that the evidence in the world does not explain the truth about the universe, but that's different from dismissing it as science, which there is no basis for.
I don't know why people are so reluctant to just say that they don't believe that science reveals the truth about the world. That is a completely valid sentiment, and most societies throughout human history would agree that there is more to the world than what we can perceive or measure. But the problem there then lays with the nature of science itself, and the idea that science is synonymous with truth, and not with evolutionary theory, which is very, very good science (which doesn't mean that it's the truth about human origins in anything other than a scientific sense).
I definitely wouldn't want my children to be taught that science is Truth, in the sense that nothing exists outside of what science can investigate, or that a scientific explanation is the fullest explanation for something we can have. I think that, ironically, when people start insisting that science conform to their ideologies or theologies, regardless of the evidence, all they are doing is reinforcing the idea that science is Truth and that other ways of knowing (revelation, intuition, etc.) are inferior to scientific knowledge.