Not Again!

South Carolina school board said no to analyzing evolution. This is all well and good, and people may think scientists will be happy about this, and many may be, but there are a few problems.

"...Senator Mike Fair, R-Greenville, has said [the proposal] was intended to introduce students to challenges to evolutionary theory." This is a lie. This is not the intent of any of these proposals, if it were there would be similar proposals related to gravity, black holes, (molecular) bonding theory, etc. Further, such a noble goal would have the full support of scientists who are actually quite fond of challenging existing ideas. The real intent of these porposals is to preach in a science classroom.

Also, the board vote was 10-6 against. This indicates a pretty strong support, and nothing a fundi election can't turn around. That people belive in creationist ideas is fine. Even a majority. That they would have the gall to try and strike out against science, one of the most objective branches of learning, is rather appaling. If someone is suffering acute pain in their abdomen, their liberal arts educated spouse doesn't try and diagnose the problem and then break out a kitchen knife and a lighter when they decide it must be appendicitus, so why the hell do these same people think they are remotely qualified to say what science is?

There are controversies and difference of opinions in science and it seems like it would be a good idea to get people thinking by bringing them up, but it is not really possible. There are no high school science students with the knowledge base (including technical awareness, detailed understanding of existing theory, and the rational experience to successfully extend said knowledge to unknown problems) to even begin to comprehend true scientific controversy. There are damned few high school science teachers with the chops to do so. High school science is there to give a base upon which to build. Politicians seem to want to weaken that base so that people become even less capable of intelligent decisions. Anyone who supports bills like these at any level is either a moron or an evil power-hungry jerk.