Comments on: Florida still inching toward doom

By: EmRodi

EmRodi — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:19:18 +0000

I find this hilarious, because I live in Florida and I’m JUST about to take an astronomy exam. Now there’s no way I can fail with how many options are open to me. xDD

Seriously though, this is pretty awful.

By: LoganKF

LoganKF — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:06:41 +0000

Being a resident of Florida, I emailed my representative and registered my disapproval. In looking up info on the bill I found that he is one of its co-sponsors. Wonderful.

By: LaCreption

LaCreption — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:05:53 +0000

@russon 28 Mar 2008 at 3:15 pm

Excellent point. Reminds me of how many times I read ‘according to’ in school. That is, the Dutch variant ‘volgens’. It was used in many questions.

Biology in class is not about pushing non proven theories as a truth in order to defy religion. It is about scientific models that until now seem to fit extremely well everywhere within the scientific and -more important maybe- technological boundaries. Nobody should believe ‘evolution’, but before claiming it is rubbish one should at least understand the basics at first. This is also the most typical with ’skeptical’ creationists: they don’t have a clue what they are talking about. They fight their own straw men, fight obsolete ideas, insist that ‘evolution’ was invented to fight their faith and so on.

The single most important thing an individual has to learn is to question things. Over and over. Agree on that one, regarding not just accepting theories, even the theory of evolution. However, creationists are not promoting questioning. They demand that their dogmas are not questioned by anybody or anything. The odd thing with ID is that some creationists actually have been questioning their dogmas, were not satisfied with the results, and came with a god who likes 3DsMax in his spare time. What a coincidence and how convenient. He probably uses Internet too. No, he probably invented the thing.

Gods resume is exciting. First he was thunder, lightning and solar eclipses. Then he was a furious warmonger. Then he became a noble protective lord. Now he is an engineer. 20 years from he will have invented nanofactoring. 20 years later and god will be a quantum mechanics entity existing of quarks.

By: Jake

Jake — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:35:09 +0000

As a student in a Florida high school, I plan to have some fun with my science teacher once this bill is passed.

By: russ

russ — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:15:45 +0000

This whole controversy is so silly. You are not testing the kids on what they believe, you are testing them on their knowledge of the material. Simply put at the top of the test “According to the Theory of Evolution…” The answer that the Earth is 6 thousand years old is then wrong because that is not what the theory states, it is their own personal belief.

I’ve learned about the Many World’s theory in my quantum class, and I’ve been tested on it. That doesn’t mean that I believe there is a near infinite number of universes out there, nor is that a requisite to getting a good grade on the test.

I think a better example would be if I went to a religious studies class and for every question involving god or gods I put down “I do not believe that a god exists.” Obviously that would be wrong. The whole point of the class is for me to learn about those religions.

By: Adam S

Adam S — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:08:46 +0000

So when a Florida religious bill passes committee, we just calmly describe it and say it passed the committee, but when an Oklahoma religious bill passes committee, we make a big deal about it and claim it has already been passed. (HB 2211 in Oklahoma was sent to the Senate Rules Committee where it has a decent chance to die.)

By: MarcH

MarcH — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:13:57 +0000

and if radiometric dating doesnt convince; look up. Most that light started its trip before the solar system existed.

All of which is supported by hundreds of different experiments by hundreds of researchers in hundreds of different ways.

A great parallel to this whole evolution debate is the introduction of the concept of the big bang. It was scary and felt a bit religious (being a beginning and all), but it fit the facts.

No matter who’s side the observational data seems to support, science will plod on and force people to accept the truth.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
(broken clocks and all that)