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Scientific Illiteracy and the Partisan Takeover of Biology
National Center for Science Education ^ | 18 April 2006 | Staff

Posted on 04/19/2006 3:57:51 AM PDT by PatrickHenry

A new article in PLoS Biology (April 18, 2006) discusses the state of scientific literacy in the United States, with especial attention to the survey research of Jon D. Miller, who directs the Center for Biomedical Communications at Northwestern University Medical School.

To measure public acceptance of the concept of evolution, Miller has been asking adults if "human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals" since 1985. He and his colleagues purposefully avoid using the now politically charged word "evolution" in order to determine whether people accept the basics of evolutionary theory. Over the past 20 years, the proportion of Americans who reject this concept has declined (from 48% to 39%), as has the proportion who accept it (45% to 40%). Confusion, on the other hand, has increased considerably, with those expressing uncertainty increasing from 7% in 1985 to 21% in 2005.
In international surveys, the article reports, "[n]o other country has so many people who are absolutely committed to rejecting the concept of evolution," quoting Miller as saying, "We are truly out on a limb by ourselves."

The "partisan takeover" of the title refers to the embrace of antievolutionism by what the article describes as "the right-wing fundamentalist faction of the Republican Party," noting, "In the 1990s, the state Republican platforms in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Missouri, and Texas all included demands for teaching creation science." NCSE is currently aware of eight state Republican parties that have antievolutionism embedded in their official platforms or policies: those of Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas. Four of them -- those of Alaska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas -- call for teaching forms of creationism in addition to evolution; the remaining three call only for referring the decision whether to teach such "alternatives" to local school districts.

A sidebar to the article, entitled "Evolution under Attack," discusses the role of NCSE and its executive director Eugenie C. Scott in defending the teaching of evolution. Scott explained the current spate of antievolution activity as due in part to the rise of state science standards: "for the first time in many states, school districts are faced with the prospect of needing to teach evolution. ... If you don't want evolution to be taught, you need to attack the standards." Commenting on the decision in Kitzmiller v. Dover [Kitzmiller et al. v Dover Area School District et al.], Scott told PLoS Biology, "Intelligent design may be dead as a legal strategy but that does not mean it is dead as a popular social movement," urging and educators to continue to resist to the onslaught of the antievolution movement. "It's got legs," she quipped. "It will evolve."


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: biology; creationuts; crevolist; evomania; religiousevos; science; scienceeducation; scientificliteracy
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To: Elsie
you can look at the 'data' EITHER way and STILL make the same Evo claim!

You are completely, utterly, absolutely, unconscionably, unspeakably, and mind-numbingly WRONG.

And if that isn't clear, let me state again: WRONG.

There's a clue in the way the examplars in the chart are labeled, starting with 'A' for the earliest and coming forward in time.

Time--on earth, at least--is indeed unidirectional; perhaps it is different on the strange little solipsistic planet you appear to inhabit.

But you are absolutely correct to reject the concept you hold of the theory of evolution, for it is painfully clear that your concept of ToE bears absolutely no similarity to the ToE of science. If you honestly believe, as you have stated, that "you can look at the 'data' EITHER way and STILL make the same Evo claim," then your simple choice is surely:

[1] Take the time to actually find out what the theory of evolution is, and replace your appalling ingorance with a dose of education, or

[2] Leave it alone altogether. You can always amuse yourself, as you did earlier on this thread, by really cheap, nasty and offensive shots of calling folks Nazis (something I regularly encounter from liberals, who have no conception of how ugly and demeaning that is to millions of people who suffered at the hands of real Nazis).

1,181 posted on 04/25/2006 8:48:06 AM PDT by ToryHeartland
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To: andysandmikesmom
I've seen plenty of your posts on these threads, and you're always polite and considerate. I dislike rudeness in general, but it REALLY irks me when people get belligerent and abrasive ("Don't like it? Move to China!") to nice folks like yourself.

Also, inconsistency of principle is a form of hypocrisy. You can't oppose abortion on the principle that it's wrong to kill children and then support a parent's right to kill their child in some other way. I guess to some people, it's NOT about the principles, but about being on a side. As a libertarian, I see that a lot from certain people who think I should abandon my principles for the sake of a "side".

1,182 posted on 04/25/2006 9:01:26 AM PDT by LibertarianSchmoe
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To: CarolinaGuitarman
I don't understand the anti-medicine attitudes of some people.

They don't seem to be so much against medicine as they are against science and in favor of quackery.

Exactly the same personality type proliferates on the Left, involving belief in pyramid power, ESP, junk science, quack medicine.

Competent doctors will always educate their patients as to the risks of treatment and the probability of success. Quacks always promise certainty (with the escape clause that you have to really, really believe).

1,183 posted on 04/25/2006 9:03:44 AM PDT by js1138 (somewhere, some time ago, something happened, but whatever it was that happened wasn't evolution)
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To: Liberal Classic
That's why we hear things on these threads like "oh, you scientists think you know everything!" and stuff like that.

What gets me is the "no-win" situation they love to present. On the one hand, scientists think they know everything. In my experience, only one type of book has ever been presented as "infallible", and it ain't a science book. On the other hand, they (scientists) are always correcting themselves, so how can you trust anything they claim?

More inconsistency.

1,184 posted on 04/25/2006 9:22:39 AM PDT by LibertarianSchmoe
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To: LibertarianSchmoe

Thanks for your kind words..I do try to remain civil when I can, tho its very tempting sometimes to lash out and call people names,or say really, really nasty things...but then I figure, heck, I am then reducing myself to a lower level, and I dont really want to do that...(and in addition, I might get myself banned)

I also agree with you about taking sides...holding oneself to their own principles can be difficult, when your 'side', thinks you should abandon those principles, just to give support to them, even tho you may disagree completely with their stand on their 'pet' project...


1,185 posted on 04/25/2006 9:26:12 AM PDT by andysandmikesmom
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To: LibertarianSchmoe
"What gets me is the "no-win" situation they love to present."

Exactly. When a scientist makes a firm position on a subject, they get ridiculed for being arrogant. When they present their claims as conditional and tentative, it shows that they don't know anything. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's a very convenient rhetorical stance, making every possible statement by your opponent suspect a priori.
1,186 posted on 04/25/2006 9:32:39 AM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman ("There is grandeur in this view of life....")
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To: editor-surveyor; js1138; Junior; andysandmikesmom
Thatcherite: "I asked him if Western soldiers on duty in Iraq should have field hospitals offering the best care modern medicine can summon up for those injured in battle?"

Editor-surveyor: And I answered that I have no objection to trauma surgery, but that was not the answer that you desired. It's the witchcraft to which I object; the prescription of deadly poisons to mask symptoms, thus accelerating death, when effective natural substances without side effects are available (of course you can't make money off of natural substances).

Thatcherite: "He never did answer"

Editor: I've never met an honest evolutionist; you're no exception.

Well, here is the question I asked. Maybe everyone else will get a different response to the one I get when I click on "View Replies". I think actually we can all see here who is honest, and who has been demonstrated to be an utterly shameless liar.

You can tell when editor-surveyor is lying. The posts where he lies are signed with his name.

The weird thing about this is that I assumed initially I must be wrong. I went and found that question of mine expecting to find Editor-Surveyor's response. I was completely ready to frame my apology for having maligned him. What on earth is going on in Editor-Surveyor's mind when he writes his post? Did he think that I wouldn't check? Does he think that as long as he is "witnessing" honesty doesn't matter, because after all he is only lying to an evolutionist... [shakes head in wonderment]

1,187 posted on 04/25/2006 9:51:49 AM PDT by Thatcherite (Miraculous explanations are just spasmodic omphalism)
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To: CarolinaGuitarman
Damned if you do, damned if you don't

Interesting choice of words. And deliberate, I'm sure!

1,188 posted on 04/25/2006 9:52:34 AM PDT by LibertarianSchmoe
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To: Thatcherite

I'm still waiting for him to explain why he wants to consign our wounded troops to hell for the sin of denying God's healing power. He certainly wouldn't allow this to happen to his own children.


1,189 posted on 04/25/2006 9:57:50 AM PDT by js1138 (somewhere, some time ago, something happened, but whatever it was that happened wasn't evolution)
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To: Thatcherite; editor-surveyor; js1138; Junior; andysandmikesmom
I'm very surprised at how many ID advocates are also believers of faith-healing. I mean, one of those has no evidential support, while the other...

Oh, wait....nevermind.

1,190 posted on 04/25/2006 10:02:53 AM PDT by LibertarianSchmoe
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To: LibertarianSchmoe

I fully support any adult's right to practice faith healing on himself.

In the case of Jim Hensen I regret the result, but still, it was his right.


1,191 posted on 04/25/2006 10:05:40 AM PDT by js1138 (somewhere, some time ago, something happened, but whatever it was that happened wasn't evolution)
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To: Thatcherite

Watcha wanna bet he drops off this thread or ignores you from here on out?


1,192 posted on 04/25/2006 10:39:08 AM PDT by Junior (Identical fecal matter, alternate diurnal period)
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To: Junior; editor-surveyor
Watcha wanna bet he drops off this thread or ignores you from here on out?

And then in another few months when I remind him of it he'll be able to invent a reply that he gave, and accuse me of lying again. ;)

1,193 posted on 04/25/2006 11:12:19 AM PDT by Thatcherite (Miraculous explanations are just spasmodic omphalism)
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To: Junior; js1138; andysandmikesmom

I bet he doesn't even know who Jenner, Lister, Banting, Ross, and Fleming were.


1,194 posted on 04/25/2006 11:16:35 AM PDT by Thatcherite (Miraculous explanations are just spasmodic omphalism)
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To: AndrewC; ToryHeartland
"Natural languages (excluding deliberately-crafted artifacts such as Esperanto) undergo constant evolution in words, meanings and structures which may be analogous, in many particulars, to the processes described by biological evolution."

I think if you consider the above sentence carefully you will see that Toryheartland is referring to the evolutionary change in words as a process that is analogous to the processes in biological evolution. It is the morphology, the words and sentence structure, that is undergoing change just as the morphology of biological organisms undergo change. The meaning of the words is not the process but the target of the process.

1,195 posted on 04/25/2006 11:17:22 AM PDT by b_sharp
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To: Elsie

mu.

nonsensical complaint.
If you consider it, you will possible stumble upon why that complaint is so very silly.


1,196 posted on 04/25/2006 11:17:22 AM PDT by King Prout (The UN 1967 Outer Space Treaty is bad for America and bad for humanity - DUMP IT.)
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To: ToryHeartland

How curious, sagebrush. ;)


1,197 posted on 04/25/2006 11:21:39 AM PDT by Thatcherite (Miraculous explanations are just spasmodic omphalism)
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To: Thatcherite

Jenner was an athlete in the 70s, Lister invented mouthwash, Banting was a purveyor of crepe paper, Ross sewed the first American flag, and Fleming wrote all those 007 novels...


1,198 posted on 04/25/2006 11:25:28 AM PDT by Junior (Identical fecal matter, alternate diurnal period)
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To: Junior

"and Fleming wrote all those 007 novels..."

And could do a mean double axle.


1,199 posted on 04/25/2006 11:28:50 AM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman ("There is grandeur in this view of life....")
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To: Doctor Stochastic
"The goal of language isn't to change things like Latin into French." I hope you are agreeing with me because that is exactly what I was saying.
1,200 posted on 04/25/2006 11:36:07 AM PDT by b_sharp
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