Has school destroyed your creativity and self-confidence? I'm working on a book called Recovering From School, to help you heal the damage caused. Join the Patreon or Newsletter to be notified about updates. Paid Patreon members will get early draft previews, as well as a free digital copy when it's done.
School Survival > News >
Texas: From saved to doomed in just 6 hours!
Well, that was fast.
Texas Board of Education creationist Barbara Cargill today proposed an amendment to the science standards saying that teachers have to tell their students there are different estimates for the age of the Universe. This is not even a veiled attempt to attack the Big Bang model of the Universe, which clearly, and through multiple lines of evidence, indicates the Universe is 13.7 +/- 0.12 billion years old.
So Ms. Cargill is right, if she means that "different estimates" range from 13.58 to 13.82 (given one standard deviation) billion years old.
But she doesn't mean that at all, does she? If you read her website, you'll see she's an out-and-out creationist. She has a large number of, um, factual errors on her site that are clearly right out of the Creationist Obscurational Handbook.
Anyway, her antiscience amendment passed 11 - 3.
So tomorrow that will go to the final vote on whether it will be added to the standards or not. With such a majority voting to pass it along, it looks like it will pass, and Texas students will get their chance to learn that the Universe is 6000 years old, and when they try to get a job or do anything later in life, they will be routinely laughed at.
That's great, Texas! Keep on keepin' on.
Posted by: Puchiko
Source Article
Where to next? Pick one!
- Check out the Alternatives to School section
- Join our Patreon
- Sign up for our newsletter
Posted in: News on March 27, 2009 @ 12:00 AM
If you like what we're doing here, you can become a Patron and sign up for our newsletter!
Methinks it's slightly hypocritical to bash the idea of adding 'some people think otherwise'. Why not? Let the students decide for themselves. Or what, you'd rather prefer they never even hear of creationism? How is that better than creationists trying to make sure they never hear of evolution?
i agree with soulriser, i think students should be able to see both sides.
HOWEVER one should note that a lot of RELIGIOUS beliefs of creationism do NOT actually CONTRADICT the ideas of evolution. most religions believe that the universe is billions of years old, even if humans weren't here that long. just because the CHRISTIAN view of creationism is debatable doesn't mean people should oust the idea altogether.
Why the **** is believing in creationism bad?
Well, my science teacher did the whole big bang thing and then "there's other views, especially religious ones". No problem.
This however, is kinda more than that. It doesn't do a big bang+everything else, it's big bang+biblical view. That's the problem: the Bible is only relevant to Judaism and Christianity. So I view this as interference of the church with education.
Sigh.. I expected this of Texas..
I'm a Christian, I believe in Creationism. The field of science is complicated, and really all we've managed to learn after thousands of years are a few concrete facts. I really think that schools, instead of teaching a one-sided view to things (heck thats all they ever do) should ask the students to do research themselves and then present their own, unique view on how the world was created. Nobody really knows on how old the universe is, so why not just let the actually workers here present their own views? Schools shouldn't force their own view on anything to students. Just my thoughts.:)
The way I see it is a blend of both creationism and what ever else. Its probably different from all you peeps, but its my personal view. Just like you all have probably have your own views. I just wish other people would stop being so judgemental on other people's lives. With all this arguing, I'm surprised that kids these days(Including myself) have learned anything at all.