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Evolution, scientific methods, and reason are losing in America's classrooms

Iasion

Member
Gday,

Dissent is not punished in science? Really? Have you seen Ben Stein's movie Expelled?

Yes.
Many of us have seen it.
And the claims made in it were found to be FALSE - what a surprise !

Furthermore -
When PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins went to see "Expelled" - guess what happened?

PZ Myers was EXPELLED from the movie - they wouldn't let him see it ! They EXPELLED someone who they feared might DISSENT from the movie!

HAHAHAHAHA...

And - even more funny - they did not recognise Dawkins, and he was let in.

EXPELLED! : Pharyngula


Iasion
 

rusra02

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Gday,



Yes.
Many of us have seen it.
And the claims made in it were found to be FALSE - what a surprise !

Furthermore -
When PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins went to see "Expelled" - guess what happened?

PZ Myers was EXPELLED from the movie - they wouldn't let him see it ! They EXPELLED someone who they feared might DISSENT from the movie!

HAHAHAHAHA...

And - even more funny - they did not recognise Dawkins, and he was let in.

EXPELLED! : Pharyngula


Iasion
Pretty much the response I expected from ToE proponents.
 

nevaya

Member
I wouldn't mind if children were exposed to the history of religion, even creationism. And while evolution remains a theory, so are many other scientific discoveries, but I don't think it would be wise do discontinue educating our youth. Teach them everything, just don't impose a belief. Religion is history and science is theory.
 

ImmortalFlame

Woke gremlin
I wouldn't mind if children were exposed to the history of religion, even creationism. And while evolution remains a theory, so are many other scientific discoveries, but I don't think it would be wise do discontinue educating our youth. Teach them everything, just don't impose a belief. Religion is history and science is theory.

Theories always remain theories - they never become anything else, and theory is as high as any explanatory framework in science can become.

I agree with you that teaching comparative religion in schools would be a good idea, but the problem is that creationism specifically isn't just a religious ideology. It is a religious movement that is attempting to force its way into science classrooms, claim that religious beliefs have scientific validity and discredit or devalue the actual scientific facts of evolution.
 

nevaya

Member
Theories always remain theories - they never become anything else, and theory is as high as any explanatory framework in science can become.

I agree with you that teaching comparative religion in schools would be a good idea, but the problem is that creationism specifically isn't just a religious ideology. It is a religious movement that is attempting to force its way into science classrooms, claim that religious beliefs have scientific validity and discredit or devalue the actual scientific facts of evolution.
I must agree, if schools are to teach creationism, I think it belongs in the catagory of Mythological History.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
I wouldn't mind if children were exposed to the history of religion, even creationism. And while evolution remains a theory, so are many other scientific discoveries, but I don't think it would be wise do discontinue educating our youth. Teach them everything, just don't impose a belief. Religion is history and science is theory.
Just a quick correction.

Science regards evolution as a fact. Same as with gravity. Where the theory part comes in as an explanation of how that fact operates. Same as with gravity.
 

nevaya

Member
Just a quick correction.

Science regards evolution as a fact. Same as with gravity. Where the theory part comes in as an explanation of how that fact operates. Same as with gravity.
I must dissagree as I am a current student of a highly regaurded university and maybe my professors are misleading, but evolution no matter how evident is still considered a theory because Science never states that it has proven a fact no matter how convincing it may be.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
I must dissagree as I am a current student of a highly regaurded university and maybe my professors are misleading, but evolution no matter how evident is still considered a theory because Science never states that it has proven a fact no matter how convincing it may be.

That is nit-picking. For all practical purposes Biological Evolution, like most theories, is as factual as facts may possibly come.
 

FlyingTeaPot

Irrational Rationalist. Educated Fool.
Oh, come on! Even India teaches evolution in all public classrooms. Since when did the US have to catch up with India?! :facepalm:
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
I must dissagree as I am a current student of a highly regaurded university and maybe my professors are misleading, but evolution no matter how evident is still considered a theory because Science never states that it has proven a fact no matter how convincing it may be.
For one thing science shies from using the word "fact" because the scientific meaning of "fact" is rarely understood by outsiders, and to use it would give the wrong impression to such people. Most outsiders regard a fact to be an immutable, and unchanging circumstance. Scientists however look at it a bit differently. G. K. Chesterson said it well when he wrote "In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms."

And sometimes the absence of the word is because there's simply no need for it. Ever here a prof. use expressions like "the fact of genetic inheritance" or "the fact of optical refraction"? Of course not. Often the descriptive text is enough to let the reader know the subject is not speculative or theoretical but a "fact" because when concepts ARE speculative or theoretical they're labeled as such. In the presentation of unqualified scientific information the default implication is one of "fact."
 
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McBell

Admiral Obvious
Pretty much the response I expected from ToE proponents.
Of course it is.
Truth is consistent.

When you engage in the out right lies of Expelled you can pretty much bet the truth will sound the same over and over.

Problem is that you are not interested in the truth.
Nope, you are only interested in the lies that give you your warm fuzzies.
Sad, really.
 
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