This is what worries me about Florida's drive to teach religion in schools

[jmowreader]

Let's cut the shit and get right to the heart of the matter: The fundamentalist nuts in Florida are trying, very hard, to throw decades of accepted science, that being the Theory of Evolution, out of their schools and to replace it with the first page of the Bible.

And, of course we laugh about how primitive Florida is, and how Evolution obviously passed them by because, after all, they DID re-elect Jeb Bush...

Stop.

This shit is coming to a school near you.

Florida's public school system is huge. It's right up there with Texas and California. They buy a lot of textbooks, and textbooks are expensive to create but they have to be cheap enough for lowest-bidder government agencies to purchase. No textbook company can afford to create two versions of their science textbook--the Florida version and one for states that still teach science. Nor can they afford to blow off the Florida market, so the only economically-viable way to go would be to create a book that meets Florida's standards, then tell the rest of the nation "sorry, that's all there is, you HAVE to teach intelligent design because we can't afford to put out two different books."

So we basically have three choices:

* hope like hell that no out-of-Florida university will accept a Florida "Biblical science" high school diploma as valid, which would probably end the "evolution is just one of a number of competing theories" crap right away. This is the one that will probably work.
* hope even harder that no textbook publisher will go along with Florida's mad scheme, but you know that will never happen.
* or accept that your kids will learn that evolution is a hoax because, after all, some legislator in Florida never saw a monkey turn into a man.

So what's it going to be, then?

[El Pinko]

1. Evolution is not a theory. It is proven fact.

Darwin's origin of species is theory, but the process of evolution has been documented on microscopic organisms beyond a shadow of a doubt. It is fact.

Because it is fact, the bible bumpers try to call it "adaptation". But the fact is that organisms do evolve, which makes the human race's ascent from lower primate forms a near-certainty.

Teaching that evolution is "just a theory" is unacceptable, as is teaching religious doctrine in schools.

Could it be that there was an "intelligent designer"? Sure, but since there is absolutely no scientific evidence to support it, it should not be taught in science classes.

PERIOD.

[spoony]

2. I think the problem is how "theory" is defined

The creationists want it to be called theory as if that were some sort of mark against it, when in strict fact it is a theory. "Theory" is, as a DUer put it in another thread, the highest level of scientific knowledge.

edit: found the exact quote, from baldguy:

"A theory is a set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or natural phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena. Theories are the highest level of science."