Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘evolution’

Something Damian Penny wrote the other day came back to me just now: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

Damian was, of course, referring to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial. However, I think the quote is a good one, and it popped into my head when I read about today’s ruling against teaching creationism in schools:

A federal judge on Tuesday banned the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution by Pennsylvania’s Dover Area School District, saying the practice violated the constitutional ban on teaching religion in public schools.

[ . . . ]

The school district was sued by a group of 11 parents who claimed teaching intelligent design was unconstitutional and unscientific and had no place in high school biology classrooms.

Before you jump down my throat, I’m in no way implying that Holocaust denial is comparable to creationism. What I am saying, however, is that there’s a clear difference between fact and invention – as in the case of Holocaust denial – which I think we all recognize fairly easily. What many people fail to recognize, however, is that we must also make a clear distinction between fact and belief.

Evolution is a scientific fact. Creationism (repackaged as “intelligent design” or whatever you rename it) is a belief. It is based on faith, not evidence, and cannot be proven for the simple reason that it cannot be disproven.

Today’s ruling banned the teaching of creationism because it violates the separation of church and state. I think the real reason it ought to be banned from science curricula is because it isn’t science. After all, there is no constitutional ban on teaching Holocaust denial in history class, and yet I’m sure we would all call for the dismissal of any teacher who tried, simply on the grounds that it’s wrong.

I have no objection to the teaching of creationist theory in a course about religion, humanities, or cultural studies. But high school biology teachers who teach creationism as scientific fact are muddling fact and belief. People are entitled to hold a belief, but when teaching science, they need to stick to facts.

And so, to restate Damian’s point, everyone is entitled to his own beliefs, but not his own facts.

A school district in Wisconsin will teach creationism in classes, claiming that it’s just as valid a theory as evolution:

Members of Grantsburg’s school board believed that a state law governing the teaching of evolution was too restrictive. The science curriculum “should not be totally inclusive of just one scientific theory,” said Joni Burgin, superintendent of the district of 1,000 students in northwest Wisconsin.

One of the key problems with many religions is their inability to accept natural facts and explain them. The Catholic Church maintained the Earth was flat long after it was proved that it was round, and that the sun revolved around the Earth long after the opposite was proved to be true. Millions of people today equate science and faith, believing them to be simply “alternate theories” of the same event.

This discounts the whole basis of science: proof, verifiable data, and a willingness to change theories in the face of new evidence. None of these are present in faith, which is a personal matter that has no place in public schools.

I think part of the problem in the evolution versus creationism debate is the word “theory” in scientific circles. A scientific “theory” is not just a guess. Science uses the term “theory” on the assumption that there is no such thing as fact, because new evidence could always emerge. But a theory is as rock-solid as it gets in science; it’s a conclusion drawn after experiments and supporting research. This leads many religious people to falsely assume that a scientific theory has equal validity to a faith-based one.

Personally, I don’t believe that these Wisconsin students will never understand that. I was educated in a religious school where creationism was taught over evolution, and I got over it. That doesn’t mean it’s right to mislead and falsely educate students just because of politics. Especially in public schools. It’s one thing for students to be taught that many people believe in creationism. It’s quite another for them to be taught that it’s as valid a theory as evolution. The politicos who made this decision should be ashamed of themselves.

Concordia students turned out in record numbers to give the moderate “Evolution” a resounding victory by more than double the number of votes over the radical leftist “Clean Slate” in this year’s CSU election. The tally was 2,260 votes for Evolution, compared to 1,097 for Clean Slate and less than 300 for each of the remaining slates.

More than half of council’s seats went to moderate candidates as well (although note that this year’s president, Sabine Freisinger, was elected to council, as well as a few of her buddies.)

All in all, this is a very clear message from Concordia students about what sort of union they want running their school next year. And it can only mean good things for the future and reputation of Concordia.

Update: It seems that the actual numbers will be slightly different, due to what the Link refers to as “misplaced tally sheets”. Updated numbers will be announced Monday, but the CEO says they will not affect the results.

Also, the first threats from the sore-loser leftists are starting to crawl out of the woodwork, for example, this comment on the Link’s site. They can’t be happy about losing the election, but I would have hoped they’d at least be more graceful about it.

Concordia’s CSU elections are being held tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Those of you who have been following my blog know all about the problems that the CSU has been causing at Concordia these past few years. I can only hope that this year is the one where enough students turn out to toss the professional shit-disturbers out on their butts where they belong, and elect some real leadership.

The two main slates in contention are Evolution, supported by a broad base of students opposed to the current CSU, and the ironically-named Clean Slate, made up entirely of buddies of the current and past few CSUs. A few other slates, Renaissance Concordia and New Vision among them, are also on the ballot, which may threaten to split the opposition, thus handing yet another victory to Clean Slate.

Will enough students turn out to vote in order to overcome the Left’s committed support from the pro-Palestinian and anti-capitalism crowd? Or will this same group get right back into power? Right now, it’s up to the undergraduate students at Concordia. So if you’re reading this, and you’re a Concordia student, make sure to vote!