Post by khyron1144 on May 23, 2004 11:42:27 GMT -5
This issue was brought up elsewhere, and I thought it's worthy of its own thread. This is x-posted from an earlier thread on my own forum, which was in response to a news item about Georgia removing the theory of evolution from its science curriculum.
The link to the story has expired since then.
here
I think they just shot their state's science education in the foot.
I hope this is corrected soon.
Anybody disagree?
This was the response from my friend Jerod on that other board:
And this was my reply to that:
That sounds close to the just a theory line of talk that some creationists use to try and force creationism into schools.
In science if something is worthy of being called a theory, then it's not just a theory. A theory takes the facts and experimental data and puts them together into a framework that explains how they do what they do and how they are what they are.
Take gravity for example.
Gravity's existence is a fact.
The notion that it is an atractive force between bodies with mass which is proportional to their respective masses is a theory.
That was from somebody on the beliefnet Creationism & Evolution boards. I really can't improve upon that, and it was something that I didn't really know until five minutes ago.
And here's a link to the petition to reverse these changes:
petition
Jerod's response:
My response:
That would kind of be good Jerod, but here's the thing:
The biological theory of evolution does not have to have anything to do with religion. Scientists (and educated lay persons) from a variety of religious backgrounds agree that it is the best explanation based on available evidence.
The link to the story has expired since then.
here
I think they just shot their state's science education in the foot.
I hope this is corrected soon.
Anybody disagree?
This was the response from my friend Jerod on that other board:
It is clear to me that people in Georgia just like making a big deal out of things that they need not worry about, like theories of evolution. Do they not know what a theory is?
And this was my reply to that:
That sounds close to the just a theory line of talk that some creationists use to try and force creationism into schools.
In science if something is worthy of being called a theory, then it's not just a theory. A theory takes the facts and experimental data and puts them together into a framework that explains how they do what they do and how they are what they are.
Take gravity for example.
Gravity's existence is a fact.
The notion that it is an atractive force between bodies with mass which is proportional to their respective masses is a theory.
Evolution will always be a theory for the same way that the atomic theory or the cell theory will always be a theory; because they all cannot be expressed mathematically, which is a requirement for a scientific law.
That was from somebody on the beliefnet Creationism & Evolution boards. I really can't improve upon that, and it was something that I didn't really know until five minutes ago.
And here's a link to the petition to reverse these changes:
petition
Jerod's response:
Well, what I'm saying, is that students need to be exposed to a variety of creation ideas. I'd like to see ideas from all cultures and beliefs, like the Shinto and Oceanic creation stories, not just Christian and Darwinist.
That's my opinion.
That's my opinion.
My response:
That would kind of be good Jerod, but here's the thing:
The biological theory of evolution does not have to have anything to do with religion. Scientists (and educated lay persons) from a variety of religious backgrounds agree that it is the best explanation based on available evidence.