Why Evolution Should Be Taught

by hamilcarr 360 Replies latest jw friends

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  funkyderek

  yknot:

  I find it quite interesting that one theory 'should' be taught but the other theory 'should not'.

  Why? This is normal practice. In geography, the theory that the earth is round should be taught, the theory that it is flat should not. In history, the theory that the Holocaust was a real event should be taught, the theory that it is a fiction invented by Jews should not.

  Absolutes and ultimatiums rarely suceed.

  But facts are absolute. Pretending they are not is something that adults can do for themselves, but is it really how you want your children being taught?

  Evolution is found in most public school textbook in America, already.

  It should of course be in all of them (the biology ones anyway) being as it is the foundation of modern biology.

  The fact is many science teachers choose not to teach the chapter.

  It's shocking enough that the key to understanding biology is relegated to a single chapter, more so that teachers refuse to teach it.

  A student is welcomed to read the chapter independently.

  To teach themselves, in other words. Would you be happy if a maths teacher left out the chapter on algebra, or a French teacher the chapter on irregular verbs as long as the student was free "to read the chapter independently"?

  If you feel like teaching your children either theories by all means such is your right as a parent.

  Sure, but one of the main purposes of public education is so that ignorant parents don't get to pass on their ignorance to their children. If the school system becomes complicit in teaching lies to impressionable young people - or even refusing to teach them important truths - what hope is there for the future?
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  Junction-Guy

  Evolution is a theory, no one was around a billion years ago, nobody passed it on in literature, it is only a theory, and it is part of a more extensive agenda.
  
  People survived the holocaust--eyewitnesses
  
  People can fly into space and see that the world is round, the only foolproof way to know if evolution is correct is to go back in time and that is impossible. Evolution is just a theory.
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  Deputy Dog

  Science is based largely on falsifiability.

  So, what tests would you propose to falsify evolution?
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  yknot

  I said 'in most' because I am unable to give an absolute (it probably is in every state textbook)

  Evolution is a theory, its facts are subject to interpretation and debate, just as creationism.

  If you have an issue with either theory being taught or not taught in you local public school, address your school's board.

  Science has a few concrete ideas but many open ended variables.
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  funkyderek

  Junction-Guy:

  Evolution is a theory, no one was around a billion years ago, nobody passed it on in literature, it is only a theory, and it is part of a more extensive agenda.
  
  People survived the holocaust--eyewitnesses

  So, once the last of those Holocaust witnesses dies, then suddenly the Holocaust becomes just a theory? (There are of course already claims that it is part of an agenda.) Are there no other ways we can determine what happened, or is eyewitness testimony the only way we have of gaining knowledge?

  People can fly into space and see that the world is round, the only foolproof way to know if evolution is correct is to go back in time and that is impossible. Evolution is just a theory

  Unsurprisingly, that's completely wrong. Evolution is an observable fact and has been observed to occur both in the real world and under laboratory conditions. Its occurrence conforms so closely to the predictions of the neo-Darwinian model that there are no scientists doing any useful work in the life sciences who deny this theory. The evidence that evolution has occurred on a large scale in the past even when humans weren't closely watching is written in the DNA of every living thing on earth. It is supported by literal mountains of evidence from the fossil record, and by an abundance of meticulously recorded data in a wide variety of scientific fields. The audacity of someone as willfully ignorant as you trumpeting your ignorance as if it was equivalent to or even greater than the hard-won knowledge of tens of thousands of dedicated scientists should make you hang your head in shame.
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  Galileo

  "So, what tests would you propose to falsify evolution?" I don't have to propose any. Better minds than mine have been doing so for over a hundred years. It's why it is one of the most well established theories in modern science. It is more proven than the theory of gravity.
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  Junction-Guy

  So what's your agenda?
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  BurnTheShips

  So what's your agenda?

  Your agenda is obvious. "Don't teach any science that contradicts my interpretation of a religious text"
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  funkyderek

  Deputy Dog:

  So, what tests would you propose to falsify evolution?

  • J. B. S. Haldane's "Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian" comes to mind, but any life form in an inappropriate stratum of rock would do.
  • A single example of demonstrably irreducible complexity in any biological system.
  • A single (moderately long) sequence of DNA that appeared in organisms from different clades but not on all organisms within a clade.
  • Diseases not mutating to become resistant to the most common forms of treatment.
  • Bacteria in a petri dish not adapting to a change in environment under controlled conditions.

  That should keep you busy for a while - or it would if you were really interested in trying to falsify the theory, rather than just declaring it false.

  [Edited because I mis-attributed the Haldane quote to W. D. Hamilton. D'oh!]
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  Junction-Guy

  I have one agenda, and that is to expose the WTS. If people want to believe in evolution, then that is their choice. I don't believe in evolution.