Fresh airing of evolution draws crowd

The Miami Herald ^ | January 9, 2008 | HANNAH SAMPSON

[King of Florida]

To hear some Floridians tell it Tuesday night, introducing the word ''evolution'' into state science-education standards would be a needed step into the 21st century.

Others at a meeting at Everglades High School in Miramar urged state education officials to give other theories of the origin of life equal space -- and let students decide what to believe.

''We don't teach science in Sunday school,'' said Ken Loukinen, president of the Atheists of Broward County. ``Please don't teach religion in science class.''

The public forum -- the fourth statewide and only one in South Florida -- was the last before the state Board of Education votes on new science standards Feb. 19. Approximately 80 people attended the meeting Tuesday night, with about 30 signing up to speak.

In the past few months, thousands have commented on the proposed standards on a state website, which is now closed to public remarks, and hundreds have turned out at meetings throughout Florida.

The proposed standards contain instructions on how evolution should be taught, beginning in kindergarten. The draft declares: ``Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence.''

Current state standards, approved in 1996, refer to ''biological change over time'' -- a description of evolution -- but contain no mention of the word itself.

Debate in Florida echoes that in Texas, which is preparing a similar revision of its science-education standards. And it also reflects a nationwide split: A Gallup Poll in June showed that 53 percent of Americans questioned believe in evolution, while 44 percent do not.

[weegee]

Astronomy was more important when it was used by societies everywhere to tell the passage of seasonal time and for navigation.

[js1138]

You work with editor-surveyor?

[spunkets]

"Astronomy was more important when it was used by societies everywhere to tell the passage of seasonal time and for navigation. "

Nah.

[WildcatClan]

I agree, and just as was asked by Tucker at post #12, why is it such a big deal that it be taught? What are the benefits of knowing this theory?

[js1138]

My gun has killed less people than Ted Kennedy's car.

And it's probably made less grammatical errors.

[thulldud]

"Real life" in this context means pharmaceutical research, or didn't you notice?

People do use the theory in other things, most notably politics (which is what the article is about), but that has never had much to do with reality.

[goodwithagun]

That is part of the joke. Wow! Two people in one day.

[taxcontrol]

Bloodletting is still recognized medical practice. Only today it is called therapeutic phlebotomy.

Look up Hemochromatosis http://womenshealth.about.com/od/commonhealthissues/a/ironoverload.htm

[js1138]

I have to assume that your version of the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t produce antibiotics.

[microgood]

I was trained as a philosopher using logic. You have to abandon all logic to believe this theory. We used to trash this theory on a regular basis in many different philosophy classes from a logical standpoint.

But to each his own.

I basically do not put much stock in historical sciences or those that predict the future (what wiped out the dinosaur, global warming, temperatures 100K years ago, etc). I like the ones that can be tested through trial and error or in real time.

[Non-Sequitur]

I heard a great joke the other day: I humans evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?

And the punchline is?

[js1138]

I think the punchline is that his gun has killed less monkeys than evolution.

[GovernmentShrinker]

There are some versions of ID that are indeed teachable theories. However, they are really only teachable at the graduate level. Without quite an advanced grasp of statistics/probability and biochemistry, they’re pretty unapproachable. On the other hand, I’m not sure what sort of teaching about evolution is possible at the kindergarten and early elementary levels. If they’re going to teach kids that bigger, more complex organisms came about gradually as smaller, simpler ones had babies that were slightly different from themselves, the only back-up they could really present at that level is “never mind how, just believe it because we said so” — i.e. not materially different from how fundamentalist-creationists teach creationism in Sunday School, and hardly laying the foundations for empirical scientific inquiry.

[Non-Sequitur]

I like the ones that can be tested through trial and error or in real time.

So you don't have much use for biology, physics, geology, astronomy, paleontology, stuff like that?

[RightWhale]

I humans evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?

That one has whiskers.

[woollyone]

The monkeys are still around, because their theory had to be perpetuated by someone!

[dbwz]

I was trained as a philosopher using logic. You have to abandon all logic to believe this theory.

I'm sorry, are you talking about evolution or ID?

[thulldud]

Actually, it produces designer molecules.

[spunkets]

Thanks. There’s a difference in purpose though, which is reflected in the names. One has a scientific purpose and the other has none.

[taxcontrol]

Actually, both have/had MEDICAL purposes as they were designed to treat medical conditions (real or otherwise).