You Say You Want Evolution?

[Oak Kitten]

The NY Times reports that 2 conservatives who have been instrumental in promoting the teaching of "Intelligent Design" in the Kansas Public Schools have been ousted from the school board in primary elections by two moderate Republicans who favor reinstating the traditional curriculum emphasizing evolution. But that's not all - this is the best part - the towns from which the victorious candidates hail are Liberal and Independence, Kansas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/us/02cnd-kansas.html?hp&ex=1154577600&en=938d196883854b8d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Oak

[Rkitko]

That's fantastic! Kansas went batty with that board decision. Intelligent design is basically creationism in new clothes. Sad thing is, the intelligent design proponents are trying it again... They're calling intelligent design something new (the name escapes me at the moment) and will try again to get it passed in school curricula.

Intelligent design isn't science and shouldn't be taught in a science classroom. I wouldn't be opposed to it being a part of a philosophy of religion course or comparative religions. As for the proponents concerns that evolution is being taught as fact in science classes, certain concepts are indeed related to students as factual, though uncertainty is fully present in the classroom as well. Not over most of the major mechanisms of evolution, really, but it is and should be communicated that uncertainty is what drives science to be what it is. Theories cannot be proven, alternative hypotheses can be refuted so much that the theory has full validity. Also, I think a lot of people misunderstand what a scientist means when they say "theory." The definition is not the same as the colloquial "eh, it's just an idea they threw together yesterday..."

[DaveM]

At times I truly begin to wonder whether the brainwashing campaign run by fundies and others who can benefit from a stupid populace is not already well on its way to taking effect. In practically any other nation on earth, the outright crimes and deprivations of civil rights committed by our present government would have had a mob at the barricades long ago. Here, it seems, folks just yawn and soak up the latest dose of op-ed from the Fox Network, believing it to be unquestionable fact.

Maybe if the rotating blackouts start to last longer and spread wider, that'll start to push people over the edge. Perhaps the return of gas lines will do it. Maybe one day in some large city, the water will stop coming out of the tap. All of these can be and have been flashpoints for any number of countries. Could it happen here?

I fear it is more likely that Americans will simply take their Prozac and when someone tells them everything is ok, will simply nod in numb agreement.

[Rkitko]

I fear it is more likely that Americans will simply take their Prozac and when someone tells them everything is ok, will simply nod in numb agreement.
Or, as Aldous Huxley prophesized in his famous dystopic novel, we'll all be on "soma" holidays, nodding in numb agreement.

I read Brave New World and Nineteen Eight Four back to back when I was 18. I was never more paranoid in my life and I continue to see parallels between Huxley's and Orwell's fictional futures (in reality, a commentary on their own time) and our current society. The similarities are astounding and I'm sure they're the focus of some ambitious literary doctoral thesis. I just have yet to find it.

[Eva]

Evolution, evolution...
Are we still talking about humankind here?

Eva

[Robert the Bard]

This stuff directly affects me, and my daughter, as I live in Kansas. Nothing scared me more than having them pass that in the School Board, even though they totally ignored the Flying Spaghetti Monster theory, even though it was fully supported. The correlation of Pirates to Global Warming was quite alarming...:p Any way, hopefully they do revote that, and get it out of our schools. As far as I'm concerned religion has no place in our classrooms. It would be one thing if we were a 100% Christian nation, but we're not. Trying to force feed it to our children is wrong, and it's wrong on a lot of levels.

[ponytail]

It's ironic that people who deny the theory of evolution are the very ones whose knuckles drag on the ground when they walk...:rolleyes:

[Robert the Bard]

:eek: Yikes, but man does that ring true...:D

[DaveM]

Either "The Book Of Lists" or an issue of Omni Magazine featured a list of "100 things from '1984' that came true by 1984". Spooky, to say the least....and that was 22 years ago.

Will Durant noted in his "History of Civilization" (in a remark now being widely quoted as it is, of all things, a tagline for Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto") that: "Civilizations cannot be conquered from without unless they have first been destroyed from within". Words worth pondering, to say the least.

And yes, the authors of both "1984" and "Brave New World" designed their future dystopias merely by extending trends that were already well-established in the 1940s. George Orwell even got his title but merely reversing the last two digits in the year he completed the book, 1948.