Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Intelligence...
Also, in Pennsylvania, sanity rules, as shown by these election results:
Hey, when all the churches agree to teach evolution in Sunday school, then maybe we can talk about teaching their myths in a science classroom. But, despite all the crap spewed by the ID crowd, the fact of evolution is pretty well established. In some places, the exact method isn't known -- but it happened, and it explains the rise of life, all the way from a drifting amino acid in a primordial sea up to the slightly less-intelligent creationism fan.
See, in science, the word "Theory" doesn't mean "wild guess." That would be an hypothesis. When an hypothesis is tested repeatedly, and evidence is gathered to prove it, it eventually becomes a theory, in the scientific sense. That doesn't mean that scientists understand every little mechanism that makes things work, but it does mean that the theory most likely explains how things behave or came to be.
Of course, you can always just say, "Hey, gravity is only a theory. No one knows how it works, right?" and then take a walk off a tall building, relying on some invisible being in the sky to catch you.
I mean, you can. But the results would be pretty messy. About as messy as the results of teaching fairy tales and myths in a science classroom. They don't belong there, and the people of Pennsylvania, for once, got that.
The Pennsylvanian school board that is attempting to introduce the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution was yesterday ousted in local elections by anti-creationist campaigners.Now, I'd quibble with the reporter's choice of words, "anti-creationist campaigners." I'd prefer to call them "pro-intelligence activists".
Hey, when all the churches agree to teach evolution in Sunday school, then maybe we can talk about teaching their myths in a science classroom. But, despite all the crap spewed by the ID crowd, the fact of evolution is pretty well established. In some places, the exact method isn't known -- but it happened, and it explains the rise of life, all the way from a drifting amino acid in a primordial sea up to the slightly less-intelligent creationism fan.
See, in science, the word "Theory" doesn't mean "wild guess." That would be an hypothesis. When an hypothesis is tested repeatedly, and evidence is gathered to prove it, it eventually becomes a theory, in the scientific sense. That doesn't mean that scientists understand every little mechanism that makes things work, but it does mean that the theory most likely explains how things behave or came to be.
Of course, you can always just say, "Hey, gravity is only a theory. No one knows how it works, right?" and then take a walk off a tall building, relying on some invisible being in the sky to catch you.
I mean, you can. But the results would be pretty messy. About as messy as the results of teaching fairy tales and myths in a science classroom. They don't belong there, and the people of Pennsylvania, for once, got that.
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