Evolution Must Be Taught in Public Schools

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by sciencegirl94

Teachers should just say, scientist think it happened this way, you don't have to accept it...

I agree, to a point. It still leaves open the possibility of the teacher saying something like "these kooky scientists think this is what happened but those of us with the lord in our hearts know better".

This is interesting- I read it in National Geographic:
-45% of American adults do not believe in evolution.
-37% of them somehow believe in it- they say God created the Universe, but Evolution formed the shape of life.
-only 12% said that they believe in evolution, and that God did not take part in the creation of humans.

Which issue is that from?

[sciencegirl94]

Originally Posted by freeztar

I agree, to a point. It still leaves open the possibility of the teacher saying something like "these kooky scientists think this is what happened but those of us with the lord in our hearts know better".




Which issue is that from?

- Yes, you are right. But every issue can't be solved. And if it isn't taught...is that better, than hearing that from a teacher? I guess this is a very complicated question, there isn't a right and wrong solution. However teaching evolution is still better, than if kids don't even know about it.

- It's from 2004. November... I have it in Hungarian, I don't know the name of the article in English... But it should be something similar to "Is Darwing wrong?", or "Did Darwin make a mistake?"--

[modest]

Originally Posted by sciencegirl94

- It's from 2004. November... I have it in Hungarian, I don't know the name of the article in English... But it should be something similar to "Is Darwing wrong?", or "Did Darwin make a mistake?"--

The one with the lizard on the front - "Was Darwin Wrong"

I have it here...

Other people too, not just scriptural literalists, remain unpersuaded about evolution. According to a gallup poll drawn from more than 1,000 telephone interviews conducted in Feb. 2001, no less than 45% of responding US adults agreed that "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so." Evolution, by their lights, played no role in shaping us.

Only 37% of the polled Americans were satisfied with allowing room for both God and Darwin - that is, divine initiative to get things statted, evolution as the creative means. (This view, according to more than one papal pronouncement, is compatible with Roman Catholic dogma) Still, fewer Americans, only 12%, believed that humans evolved from other lifeforms without any involvrment of a god.

The most startling thing about these poll numbers is not that so many Americans reject evolution, but that the statistical breakdown hasn't changed much in two decades. Gallup interviewers posed exactly the same choices in 1982, 1993. 1997, and 1999. The creationist conviction - that God alone, and not evolution, produced humans - has never drawn less than 44%. In other words, nearly half the American populace prefers to believe that Charles Darwin was wrong where it mattered most.

Sorry 'bout any typos. This is really sad. Gallup is very trustworthy in their polls. I'm looking for a way to not believe this and I'm drawing a blank.

Very sad.

-modest

[freeztar]

Yeah, that's simply amazing and very hard to swallow.

Perhaps they only polled people in the bible belt.

[REASON]

Not shocked.

What do you think those polling numbers would look like if people regularly attended biology class every Sunday, with a dose of Darwin study on Wednesday nights?

Americans are indoctrinated into this mindset.

All the more reason to remain steadfast with science education and the teaching of evolution.

[modest]

Originally Posted by freeztar

Yeah, that's simply amazing and very hard to swallow.

Perhaps they only polled people in the bible belt.

Perhaps the poll went like this:

"Hi, this is Jim from your local church and/or place of worship. I have a couple questions for you, and remember, God is listening..."

That's all I can figure

-modest

[CraigD]

Welcome to hypography, sciencegirl!

Originally Posted by sciencegirl94

This is interesting- I read it in National Geographic:
-45% of American adults do not believe in evolution.
-37% of them somehow believe in it- they say God created the Universe, but Evolution formed the shape of life.
-only 12% said that they believe in evolution, and that God did not take part in the creation of humans.

Though minor differences with these statistics are found in different surveys, all of those with which I’m acquainted have similar results.

As shown by this 3/2007 article about a 8/2006 article illustrates, the fraction of people who accept Darwinian evolution vs. religious creation stories varies substantially from country to country (of the surveyed countries, only Turkey favored creation over evolution more than the US).

The article contains a lot of expert speculation about possible reasons for people’s beliefs, and about relics and biases of survey designs.

Personally, I feel the US’s unusually low rate of acceptance of evolution is largely due to its tradition of questioning authority. Combined with the usual lack of strong science education by most people in all countries, I believe this skepticism results in a tendency among Americans to favor intuitive conclusions. Religious creation stories are, I believe, more intuitively compelling than scientific theories, and thus favored.

[Rade]

Coming soon in 2008 to your city--click on "play":

The Playground for Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

'On the Formation of Homo sapiens by Intelligence' by Ben Stein.
...and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul [Genesis 2:7, King James].

The "dust to man" theory of human origins that has been "expelled" from the lexicon of scientific thinking--how did we miss the evidence , thank you Stein.

Advice to all teachers of biology, be a good scout, be prepared, see the movie. The war continues...it will never end.

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by Rade

Coming soon in 2008 to your city--click on "play":

The Playground for Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

'On the Formation of Homo sapiens by Intelligence' by Ben Stein.
...and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul [Genesis 2:7, King James].

The "dust to man" theory of human origins that has been "expelled" from the lexicon of scientific thinking--how did we miss the evidence , thank you Stein.

Advice to all teachers of biology, be a good scout, be prepared, see the movie. The war continues...it will never end.

The Playground for Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

It's all appeal to authority, strawman, and appeal to conspiracy. Much of what the argument entails is basically the Galileo Gambit. In essence, instead of supporting their own assertions, instead of showing where existing approaches are incorrect, they appeal to some ethereal censor who is preventing them from speaking.

I've got news for you. They have the floor. They've always had a method of expression, and an avenue for doing so. The reason it's not accepted is because it's wrong. If some scientist was shot down because he claimed there was no gravity, he'd be shot down due to contradictory evidence and lack of support for his claim, not some dogma about gravity itself.

It's fucking ludicrous, people. Prove you're right. Stop appealing to the aliens at area 52 crowd that the man is keeping you down. Prove you're right, and science ALWAYS listens. This is yet another example of increasing societal issue of sheeple belief systems, and it's just this type of hand waving unsupported crap that the religiots always seem to eat up. Unfortunate, really.

Just check out the preview. It'll reaffirm what I've posted here.


cdesign proponentsists, unite!

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Freddy

The National Academy of Sciences has released a new book advocating the teaching of Evolution in science courses in US schools and not the non-science ideas of Creationism and Intelligent Design. More than 60% of Republicans do not believe in Evolution, while about 60% of Democrats and Independents do not believe in Creationism.

Science and Society

This thread is an earlier discussion we've had on this topic: >> http://hypography.com/forums/social-...ieve+evolution

Not very encouraging I must say.