Well, “it looks like the Kansas State Board of Education is gearing up to revise state science education standards to try to make the theory of evolution look weak”:http:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/stories\/061205\/sta_20050612013.shtml. The subcommittee that held the hearings has made this recommendation, and the board is set to vote on the proposal to revise the standards. The subcommittee members have also pulled off their sheepish guise and revealed their true fundamentalist wolfishness, proclaiming in press releases and newsletters that evolution is a theory in crisis, that evolutionists are in panic mode, and that the “fairy tale” of evolution is coming to an end.<\/p>\n
\nThis incident makes many points. The first is that you can’t always trust those at the top to make the right decision. This board, entrusted by the public to set guidance for schools on how to best educate students, has failed. They are willing to weaken the principles of the scientific method, which as a process has given us so much insight into nature, to advance a political or religious agenda. <\/p>\n
\nThe second is that, much as in Galileo’s time, America seems to be reacting at the state and local levels much as the provinces of Italy responded to the Protestant reformation: looking to the Vatican for guidance, as the Vatican pronounced strict enforcement of doctrine and the routing of heretics. Couched in the language of skepticism, these state board subcommittee members appear to be promoting inquiry through doubt. Underneath this thin veil is the reality: they hold a point of view, based not in scientific evidence but in spiritual belief, and they wish to force the public school system to advance that belief in favor of teaching that scientific truth is based on evidence, not the lack of evidence. We live in times when the President says that his faith informs his policy [1], which means that a narrow interpretation of a many-times-translated text may, in the face of modern understanding, set us back centuries in ethics and progress.<\/p>\n
\nWell, that for now is a close on this Kansas issue. I only hope that teachers see it as their civic duty to disobey the proclamations of this biased state body and teach the scientific method, and the theories born from that method, rather than teaching that gaps are the foundation of science.<\/p>\n
\nI’ll close this entry with a reading from the Book of Costello:<\/p>\n
\n
\n“Monkey to Man”
\nby Elvis Costello<\/p>\n
\nA long time ago, our point of view<\/p>\n
Was broadcast by Mr. Bartholomew<\/p>\n
And now the world is full of sorrow and pain<\/p>\n
And it’s time for us to speak up again<\/p>\n
\nYou’re slack and sorry<\/p>\n
Such an arrogant brood<\/p>\n
The only purpose you serve is to bring us our food<\/p>\n
We sit here staring at your pomp and pout<\/p>\n
Outside the bars we use for keeping you out<\/p>\n
\nYou’ve taken everything that you wanted<\/p>\n
Broke it up and plundered it and hunted<\/p>\n
Ever since we said it<\/p>\n
You went and took the credit<\/p>\n
It’s been headed this way since the world began<\/p>\n
When a vicious creature took the jump from Monkey to Man<\/p>\n
\nMonkey to Man<\/p>\n
\nEvery time man struggles and fails<\/p>\n
He makes up some kind of fairytales<\/p>\n
After all of the misery that he has caused<\/p>\n
He denies he’s descended from the dinosaurs<\/p>\n
\nPoints up to heaven with cathedral spires<\/p>\n
All the time indulging in his base desires<\/p>\n
Ever since we said it<\/p>\n
He went and took the credit<\/p>\n
It’s been headed this way since the world began<\/p>\n
When a vicious creature took the jump from Monkey to Man<\/p>\n
\nMonkey to Man<\/p>\n
\nBig and useless as he has become<\/p>\n
With his crying statues and his flying bomb<\/p>\n
Goes ’round acting like the chosen one<\/p>\n
Excuse us if we treat him like our idiot cousin<\/p>\n
\nHe hangs up flowers and bells and rhymes<\/p>\n
Hoping to hell someone’s forgiven his crimes<\/p>\n
Fills up the air with his pride and praise<\/p>\n
He’s a big disgrace to our beastly ways<\/p>\n
\nIn the fashionable nightclubs and finer precincts<\/p>\n
Man uses words to dress up his vile instincts<\/p>\n
Ever since we said it<\/p>\n
He went and took the credit<\/p>\n
It’s been headed this way since the world began<\/p>\n
When a vicious creature took the jump from Monkey to Man
\n<\/i><\/p>\n
.. [1] I recall learning in my “60’s and Beyond” high school class that one of the challenges John F. Kennedy faced in his bid for president was that he was a Catholic. The opposition tried to sow the belief that Kennedy would, as a faithful Catholic, be forced to answer to the Vatican and the Pope for any policy decisions he made, thus compromising his ability to lead. How odd that 40 years later we as a nation seem to swoon at the idea that the President’s faith informs his policy (does he answer to God?), and that he shuns periodicals reporting current events. What an odd reversal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, “it looks like the Kansas State Board of Education is gearing up to revise state science education standards to try to make the theory of evolution look weak”:http:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/stories\/061205\/sta_20050612013.shtml. The subcommittee that held the hearings has made this recommendation, and the board is set to vote on the proposal to revise the standards. The subcommittee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,8,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-education","7":"category-politics","8":"category-science","9":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}