Utterly Meaningless

This looks like a first rate article; one reason why my kids will be strongly encouraged to master the physical sciences – what better cure for stupid could there be?

One-third of Americans think evolution is “definitely false

That is frightening.

“And now, as the United States struggles to maintain its undisputed position as world leader in science and technology”

We aren’t producing math and science majors anymore. We import grad students from other countries, they graduate here. Then get work visas after they graduate and then stay and work for American corporations while everyone acts as if it’s our wonderful K-12 public education system that all this springs forth from.

“The age of nonpartisan science is gone.”

When was the age of nonpartisan science? I seem to have missed out on that. I wasn’t taught evolution in high school because my state had an “equal time” clause requiring biology teachers to give equal time to creationism if they chose to teach evolution. That wasn’t overturned by the Supreme Court until the late 80s.

“47% of kids who do go to college to take a year of science”
And I got science credits in college too. None of them taught me HOW to think about the controversial issues; they only taught science as a collection of trivia facts to be memorized and regurgitated. It wasn’t until I took a course in philosophy, biomedical ethics, that I started really thinking about many of the issues I was hearing in the news during the day.

“But if you say that genetic predisposition is ‘probabilistic,’ you’ve just lost 90% of the people.”

We know so little math that not only are we not familiar with the concepts but we don’t even comprehend the vocabulary, “number theory,”, “analysis,” “probability” I just did a blog entry on a Russian textbook from the 60s for 8th graders. It’s nothing like we see in American geometry texts. Meanwhile everyone yammers away about how they teach “conceptual” physics without any math. Nary a post from an engineer or physicist appears to challenge them on this. Today most people seem to think that the whole point of math is to be able to make change.

“We in the scientific community have to treat them seriously, talk to them, and make our arguments. This is a great opportunity for us.”

I agree. People who oppose evolution are scoffed, mocked, and otherwise ignored, or simply dismissed by calling them ignorant fundamentalists. It’s easier to mock someone’s belief and hope that fear of being publically mocked supresses dissenting opinions rather than to face the arguments head on. Talk.origins is a wonderful place.

Or, from another viewpoint — People who understand evolution are scoffed, mocked, and otherwise ignored, or simply dismissed by calling them ignorant or aetheists. It’s easier to mock someone’s serious study and hope that fear of being publically mocked supresses dissenting opinions rather than to face the arguments head on.

I just blogged this here — where, upon informed and critical thought, I argue PLoS is more free, more public, more real education than any made-up, high-fashion, high-cost cultural magic trick School stages as education. 😉