Monday, June 30, 2014

When is a science teacher NOT a science teacher? When this is the "science" that they teach.

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So essentially the argument used here is that since there have been advances in science which disagree with some of Darwin's hypothesis that the entire discipline should be rejected and a return to biblical explanations for life embraced.

And since when is the "true calling" of scientists to master nature for the benefit of mankind?

I thought their calling was to examine and explore facts in order to better understand the reality in which we live.

As for scientists rejecting Darwin, according to the Smithsonian magazine nothing could be further from the truth:  

Perhaps because of that remarkable success, "evolution," or "Darwinism," can sometimes seem like a done deal, and the man himself something of an alabaster monument to wisdom and the dispassionate pursuit of scientific truth. But Darwin recognized that his work was just the beginning. "In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches," he wrote in Origin. 

Since then, even the most unanticipated discoveries in the life sciences have supported or extended Darwin's central ideas—all life is related, species change over time in response to natural selection, and new forms replace those that came before. "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution," the pioneering geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky titled a famous essay in 1973. He could not have been more right—evolution is quite simply the way biology works, the central organizing principle of life on earth. 

In the 150 years since Darwin published Origin, those "important researches" have produced results he could never have anticipated. Three fields in particular—geology, genetics and paleoanthropology—illustrate both the gaps in Darwin's own knowledge and the power of his ideas to make sense of what came after him. Darwin would have been amazed, for example, to learn that the continents are in constant, crawling motion. The term "genetics" wasn't even coined until 1905, long after Darwin's death in 1882. And though the first fossil recognized as an ancient human—dubbed Neanderthal Man—was discovered in Germany just before Origin was published, he could not have known about the broad and varied family tree of ancestral humans. Yet his original theory has encompassed all these surprises and more. 

Darwin never claimed to have provided all of the answers but the template that he did provide has helped just about every scientific discipline imaginable make incredible  discoveries that benefit mankind in incalculable ways.

We owe Charles Darwin a huge debt of gratitude for his invaluable assistance with breakthroughs in anthropology, biology, zoology, ichthyology, ornithology, genealogy, medical advancements, you name it and it was probably benefited in some way by the work of Charles Robert Darwin.

And EVERY science class in America should make it a priority to teach that to their students.

8 comments:

  1. Leland2:23 AM

    "And EVERY science class in America should make it a priority to teach that to their students."

    But they won't as long as the fundies have big mouths. I look forward to the day when natural selection makes THEM extinct.

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  2. Anonymous3:29 AM

    aaaaiiiieeeee...owwwww....the stupid hurts!!!!

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  3. Anonymous3:29 AM

    Im my school district public school, middle school, for which I pay 12000 in taxes to help support, scuence teachers don't need a science degree. They can have as business degree. Just teach the curriculum. Math teachers are lit majors , etc etc. I believe in public education but this is getting scary.

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    Replies
    1. Teachers are underpaid, working in difficult, sometimes hostile conditions. Those with degrees in math & science can find interesting well- paid jobs elsewhere.

      Delete
  4. Ailsa4:50 AM

    It appears this book is Biology God's Living Creation (A Beka Book Science Series, C93) used extensively by homeschoolers and can be found, among other places, on Amazon.

    Among my favorite one star reviews: "This book should be considered child abuse. Nothing but lies and bias opinions. Last time I checked children don't go to get an education based on other peoples opinions. "Most creationalists think that the dinosaurs probably went extinct due to the hostile enviroment created by the sin of humans". I'm sorry, what?"

    There are, unfortunately, also 5 star reviews.

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  5. Anonymous5:29 AM

    The "true calling" of scientists is to master nature for the benefit of mankind? That sounds dangerously close to dominionist ideology. This from people who don't seem to have the first f*cking clue what the scientific method means and how it is used.

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  6. F U McCain5:36 AM

    That book is scary. I imagine it is a home school text - I can't see that in public education.

    As for the notion that Darwin didn't have it all figured out. ..

    Well, duh and so what?

    Science is always evolving (oh, The irony!).

    Knowledge is gradually gained by trial and experimentation, by time and corroboration. Then that knowledge is used to ask NEW questions, New experiments, etc. And so on.

    They all "stand on the shoulders of giants".

    No matter what you accomplish in science, you will never know everything, period.

    And, for what it's worth, we absolutely learn from our mistakes and failures (unless you're a Palin)- probably more than from our victories.

    Makes me think of the inventor of Post Its. As the story goes, he was tying to create something that would NEVER come off - a super glue to end them all, I suppose.

    And look what he got - an adhesive that removed incredibly easily. He could have trashed the whole thing but he began to think in a different direction -

    And Post Its are a billion dollar product.

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  7. Anonymous7:24 AM

    Teaching science is hard because, darn it, you have to think. Quoting from the Bible is easy because its the 'word of the Lord' thought up and written down by bronze-age men.

    ReplyDelete

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