Thursday, February 10, 2005

Cobb County, Georgia umm, theory = fact

In Cobb County, GA, schools were ordered to add an advisory label to text books which detail evolution, awhile back. It reads, "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered."
Every neutral observation of that label is true, save one: "Evolution is a theory, not a fact..." I'm not sure what ignorant idiot thought this was a smart statement, but whoever it was doesn't know the scientific definition of the word theory. This statement is a contradiction.

Theory - the general or abstract principles of a body of fact, a science, or an art (Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary)

Basically, when a scientist uses the word theory, that person is discussing fact or truth as proven repeatably and predictably by the scientific method (i.e., theory = fact). Technically, any high school graduate should know this. Certainly, the teachers and schools themselves do know this. Any member of any school district board is supposed to know this, especially if they making decisions regarding curriculum.

There's a reason why 70% of all Fundamentalist Christians that go to college leave their fundamentalism behind by the time they graduate! Education makes them smarter. lol My hypothesis is that the 30% that hold on to their beliefs may tend to be business grads. hehe Either way, there is no way to reconcile fundamentalism (of any religion) with reality.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The 77 year old MIL just last week was talking about religion. It all started when I told her about ( http://www.painfullycool.com/index.pl/reviews?wid=67&sid=1007&func=viewSubmission ) Pompei show. She believes the city was there but the dates have to be wrong. Her religious lecture from life long Catholic view.
1. Nothing happened before BC.
2. Adam and Eve were the first people on earth. The started a family to become all the people in the bible. But there wasn't any incest among offspring cause thats a sin.
3. there are no mummies pre-dating BC because nothing happed before BC. It all a trick by scientists and governments make you believe humans were on earth before BC or Adam and Eve. The scientist and government don't want you to have religon.
Evolution doesn't exist there is only Adam and Eve anything else is trickory.
I know it doesn't make any sense, but I am sure she isn't alone in the thought process.

fcsuper said...

Actually, I've kinda heard this before too, but it doesn't make any sense bibilically any more than it does in reality. BC means Before Christ. For staters, this isn't a biblical term. Beyond that, Adam and Eve weren't created in the same year that Christ was born. Unless she is mis-using the term BC to include the belief the Christ was the first creation ("The Word" mentioned in the Gospel of John), then in that case, the arguement is pointless because obviously nothing existed before that. I think it's a matter of MIL not thinking thangs through completely, maybe even misunderstanding what was being taught during religious lectures, and definately not understanding what the term "BC" means.