Re: Poll: Most Americans Want Strengths and Weaknesses of Darwinism
- From: el cid <elcidbivar@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:42:16 -0700 (PDT)
On Jul 13, 7:32 pm, wf3h <w...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jul 13, 6:46 pm, Jason Spaceman <notrea...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
From the article:
----------------------------------------------
(CNSNews.com) - A Zogby poll commissioned by the Seattle-based Discovery
Institute says more than three-quarters of Americans would like teachers to have
the freedom to discuss both the strengths and weaknesses of Darwinian evolution,
with an even higher number reported among Democrats.
According to the report, which was commissioned by the Discovery Institute
Center for Science and Culture, respondents were given the two following
statements:
Statement A: “Biology teachers should teach only Darwin’s theory of evolution
and the scientific evidence that supports it.”
Statement B: “Biology teachers should teach Darwin’s theory of evolution, but
also the scientific evidence against it.”
a 'have you stopped beating your wife' kind of question...there is, of
course, no evidence against evolution.
Really now, that's not full disclosure. Let's consider Haldane's
Dilemma. There are solutions to the problem as described
but legitimate controversy over the right solutions remain.
The operative question is really how and when to introduce
this into a school curriculum.
Firstly, HD really requires a prerequisite understanding of
population genetics. The best students probably get right
now is some superficial introduction to HW equilibrium.
We have to do better. This means more biology sooner,
and more mathematical biology. I'm good with that. It
also means more math sooner. I'm good with that too.
And of course, to be "fair and balanced", we have to
provide reasonable weighting to strengths and weaknesses.
This is going to require lots and lots of natural history.
And really, where else could one better expose the
strengths and weaknesses of a theory than in the
body of data that the theory is intended to fit. That
much biological natural history requires some reasonable
level of geology but we are clearly starting to see
problems in fitting all of this into the school day.
In fact, I don't think we can do this within the grade
1 - 12 system we have right now so let's simply
extend it to grades 1-14 with a basic requirement
of the equivalent of junior college with emphasis on
science and math. We'll have to fund it so it is free.
I guess we can try to work in some advanced placement
selections so some advanced students can qualify
for accelerated access to university. I'm sure it needs
some tweaking but overall I am in favor of the idea.
.
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