LIKE YOU REALLY CARE

Vituperative Bloggery

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Kelly's "Fucktard Hillbillies" Lose

It's a Like You Really Care follow-up. About a month ago, Kelly discussed the war against teaching evolution. Looks like one battle was won by those that appreciate the scientific method over blind, preposterous faith:
A federal judge Thursday ordered a suburban Atlanta school system to remove stickers from its high school biology textbooks that call evolution "a theory, not a fact," saying the disclaimers are an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

-- snip --

"Science and religion are related and they're not mutually exclusive," school district attorney Linwood Gunn said. "This sticker was an effort to get past that conflict and to teach good science."

But the judge disagreed: "While evolution is subject to criticism, particularly with respect to the mechanism by which it occurred, the sticker misleads students regarding the significance and value of evolution in the scientific community."
To be nitpicky, I should point out that the sticker placed on the textbook was not a lie. However, it does exploit the little understood definition of the word theory. In the interest of time, I'm going to avoid the typical pretentiousness I often display and assume you know. (The sticker didn't say "hypothesis," which, yes, is a lie.)

I agree that the sticker singled out one single scientific theory for reasons that are not remotely scientific. This is a victory. My heart glistens with a smattering of hope.

Besides: "Evolution is a conscious process." –Charles Ludlam

UPDATE: I tend to use the word "however" too much, so I removed one.

1 Comments:

At 3:34 PM, Anonymous said...

Here's a new theory of mine: the mass extinction of 65 million years ago was helped along by huge early mammals eating young dinosaurs. I find it an attractive idea because it provides a nice metaphor for how we can reach the next rung on the evolutionary ladder of intellectual development. It's a David-'N-Goliath story. The Christian Right v. the Literally Right. From the above linked article: "Judging by the mammal's teeth and jaws, it did not chew its food, but swallowed the dinosaur in chunks." Bon appetite!

 

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