Kansas Discovers Science
....namely, that it is the empirical, open-minded pursuit of knowledge, not the authoritarian imposition of ludicrous, pseudoscientific, crypto-religious dogma:
Just so. Science, after all, is the process of ascertaining truth - learning - through experimentation and observation. By these means do we verify natural laws, physical processes, how things work and don't work, and expand the store of human knowledge of the world around us and the cosmos beyond.
The study of origins, however, is different and unique in that it does not lend itself to either observation or experimentation. No human being was present at the events of Genesis 1 or the "Big Bang," and just as obviously we cannot reproduce the moment and circumstances where it all began. It is, in short, beyond the bounds of what could be called "hard" science and in the realm of speculation. As such, objectivity would seem to require as many theories as can plausibly explain the available "forensic" evidence be discussed and debated, and certainly given exposure in public school science curricula.
This was where the Kansas Board of Education erred six years ago. Rather than introducing some desperately-needed intellectual honesty by introducing ID theory as an alternative to its evolution counterpart, they went to the opposite extreme by trying replace one philosophical monopoly with another, lowering themselves to the same level of intolerant overreach as their obscenely arrogant, condescending counterparts.
Jayhawk educrats appear to have learned that lesson, and its implication - that ID/creationists have far less to fear from a knock-down drag-out origins discussion than evolutionists do, because, "Scientific theories that try to explain away the appearance of design as the result of 'chance and necessity' are not scientific at all, but, as John Paul put it, an abdication of human intelligence." And for this reason, evolutionists, "are running scared, and as the list of scientists and thinkers who dissent from Darwinism grows - the Discovery Institute lists hundreds of scientists who now regard it as an intellectually bankrupt theory - the evolutionists will increasingly mirror the intolerance they used to bemoan."
Except, perhaps, in Kansas, that is.
The Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 Tuesday to include greater criticism of evolution in its school science standards, but it decided to send the standards to an outside academic for review before taking a final vote.
The Kansas school system was ridiculed around the country in 1999 when the board deleted most references to evolution. The system later reversed course, but the language favored by the board Tuesday comes from advocates of intelligent design.
Just so. Science, after all, is the process of ascertaining truth - learning - through experimentation and observation. By these means do we verify natural laws, physical processes, how things work and don't work, and expand the store of human knowledge of the world around us and the cosmos beyond.
The study of origins, however, is different and unique in that it does not lend itself to either observation or experimentation. No human being was present at the events of Genesis 1 or the "Big Bang," and just as obviously we cannot reproduce the moment and circumstances where it all began. It is, in short, beyond the bounds of what could be called "hard" science and in the realm of speculation. As such, objectivity would seem to require as many theories as can plausibly explain the available "forensic" evidence be discussed and debated, and certainly given exposure in public school science curricula.
This was where the Kansas Board of Education erred six years ago. Rather than introducing some desperately-needed intellectual honesty by introducing ID theory as an alternative to its evolution counterpart, they went to the opposite extreme by trying replace one philosophical monopoly with another, lowering themselves to the same level of intolerant overreach as their obscenely arrogant, condescending counterparts.
Jayhawk educrats appear to have learned that lesson, and its implication - that ID/creationists have far less to fear from a knock-down drag-out origins discussion than evolutionists do, because, "Scientific theories that try to explain away the appearance of design as the result of 'chance and necessity' are not scientific at all, but, as John Paul put it, an abdication of human intelligence." And for this reason, evolutionists, "are running scared, and as the list of scientists and thinkers who dissent from Darwinism grows - the Discovery Institute lists hundreds of scientists who now regard it as an intellectually bankrupt theory - the evolutionists will increasingly mirror the intolerance they used to bemoan."
Except, perhaps, in Kansas, that is.
posted by JASmius at 6:35 PM
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