Evolution debacle (5-7)

Yesterday at one point I had MSNBC's "Connected Coast to Coast" on as background noise in the living room. At the end of it Ron Reagan went on a rampage about the Kansas school board giving credence to creationism or "intelligent design". Not surprisingly I got up this morning and came across it on the show's webpage when browsing MSNBC.

The state of Kansas is poised to vacate the Age of Reason. If all goes according to brain-addled plan, the Kansas school board will soon vote to water down the state’s public school science curriculum, minimizing Darwinian evolution and giving credence to a half-baked, non-scientific notion variously called “creationism” or “intelligent design.”

We dealt with the issue recently on our show and I got a little steamed, as I’m prone to do when faced with shameless lies told at the expense of innocent children. Evolution, of course, has mountains of evidence on its side—the fossil record; genetics; observations of rapidly mutating species in nature in the lab, as well as some compelling new computer models. I challenged our creationist guest to provide similar evidence for his point of view. He couldn’t... because there isn’t any. But it got me thinking: education that ignores the facts could be a lot more fun.

For instance, generations of school kids have been taught that George Washington and his troops defeated the British after crossing the Delaware River in wooden rowboats. Plenty of scholarship backs that up. But we don’t have any of the actual boats, do we? Who’s to say that Washington didn’t ditch the watercraft and instead cross the river on the backs of specially trained dinosaurs? No evidence for that - but in Kansas, we don’t need no stinkin’ evidence.

How about math? The diameter of a circle equals twice the radius? Nah, in my new new math, the diameter of a circle equals time to order out for pizza. Doesn’t sound like mathematical science to you? Yeah... and what’s your point?

All that’s necessary for ignorance to triumph is that people who know better step aside and get out of its way. We might want to consider that as we sit back twiddling our thumbs and playing politics while Kansas spirals into the Dark Ages, dragging its unwitting children with it.

It was a subject they had earlier in the week apparently, and a little further down the page there were brief comments by viewers, which I always enjoy reading. When I see a newspaper the first thing I do is open it to the opinions section. There were two responses that caught me the most:

I do have one question of the pastor who is your guest. Would he be willing to let evolution be taught as a viable explanation of creation in his church's Sunday school? I doubt it. Why not? Because Sunday school is not the appropriate venue for science. Likewise, schools are not an appropriate venue for religion.
--Michelle Duncan, OKC, Okla.

A theory is not simply an idea, an educated guess. In order for a theory to BE a bonafide theory, there has to be scientific evidence to give it weight. There is data and scientific evidence to support the theory of evolution. Creationism, or intelligent design, is an IDEA based on hopeful theology, rather than a theory based on scientific evidence. If our schools are going to teach creationism (and misrepresent it as a scientific theory) then they should also teach Hindu creationism, Native American creationism, Voodoo, Buddhist, Babylonian, Egyptian, Shinto, Hebrew, etc. Pink flying horses, elephants and great turtles carrying the universe, serpents in the Garden of Eden. If we teach one, we should teach them all.
--Jacki Gansch, Columbus, Ohio

The whole matter, a "backwards slide to the dark ages" as I've heard people call the danger posed by the eminence of creationism and/or ID (depending on if you consider them two separate ideas), got me wondering: Where would "they" go next if education standards returned to the so-called " dark ages" (i.e. greater dominance of mythological superstitions than today) at "their" behest?

[sarcasm alert]

Would there next be a push for the banning of all surgical medical procedures and medications because humans are "playing god" by using them? "If you're going to die then you're meant to die", "Why prolong your glorious trip to paradise?" being the rationale. You're born with or contract a malignant disease? Too bad. "God's will". No cure for you!