- Jul 25, 2002
- 10,053
- 0
- 71
Ooh Ohh, Agh Agh, Ooh Ooh, Agh Agh . . .
Primitive culture that worships Sticks and Rocks continues to baffle the Scientific Community.
<CLIP>
The Kansas Board of Education approved new science standards for teachers in public schools Tuesday that question Charles Darwin's teachings on evolution and hand a victory to advocates of "intelligent design."
The board's 6-4 vote reverses a 2001 decision that affirmed Darwin's theory of natural selection. That vote came two years after most references to the theory were removed from state standards, making Kansas the butt of jokes by scientists and late-night comedians.
Advocates for intelligent design (ID) helped write the new standards, which challenge Darwin's 1859 theory. Scientists have long considered the theory ? which explains how species evolve through survival of the fittest, passing new and better traits to their offspring ? as proven reality. But ID advocates say the world is so complex that new species can be explained only as the product of an intelligent creator or designer.
Scientists dismiss that as a quasi-religious argument.
The Kansas standards don't overtly promote intelligent design, but they challenge Darwin and change the state's definition of "science," no longer limiting it to a search for natural explanations of phenomena.
"It's a shame," says Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, "because if these standards are actually introduced into the curriculum and shape how biology students will be trained for the next several years, those kids are in for a big shock when they go to college, because they're going to learn that what they had been taught by their teachers in high schools is a lot of rubbish."
Primitive culture that worships Sticks and Rocks continues to baffle the Scientific Community.
<CLIP>
The Kansas Board of Education approved new science standards for teachers in public schools Tuesday that question Charles Darwin's teachings on evolution and hand a victory to advocates of "intelligent design."
The board's 6-4 vote reverses a 2001 decision that affirmed Darwin's theory of natural selection. That vote came two years after most references to the theory were removed from state standards, making Kansas the butt of jokes by scientists and late-night comedians.
Advocates for intelligent design (ID) helped write the new standards, which challenge Darwin's 1859 theory. Scientists have long considered the theory ? which explains how species evolve through survival of the fittest, passing new and better traits to their offspring ? as proven reality. But ID advocates say the world is so complex that new species can be explained only as the product of an intelligent creator or designer.
Scientists dismiss that as a quasi-religious argument.
The Kansas standards don't overtly promote intelligent design, but they challenge Darwin and change the state's definition of "science," no longer limiting it to a search for natural explanations of phenomena.
"It's a shame," says Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, "because if these standards are actually introduced into the curriculum and shape how biology students will be trained for the next several years, those kids are in for a big shock when they go to college, because they're going to learn that what they had been taught by their teachers in high schools is a lot of rubbish."
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