Don't worry, you'll be dead before the real grim meathook future hits. Maybe.

I mean, you're retired and have no kids, you're almost off the grid.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

I think he might be worried that by the time he gets his all ages permits, he's going to need to change the name to the Homunculus Lounge, since the kids will have no idea what DNA is.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

I'd like to see a trendline. I bet in the 1940s and 1950s you'd see even more young-earth creationists, maybe up to 30 or 40%.

But after a low in the 1970s it might be climbing back up. All due to efforts by creationists to look like science, plus cutbacks in education resulting in less qualified teachers.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

I doubt it's cutbacks in education steering people away, but rather the amazing amount of bullshit teachers have to go through these days.

Most people don't realize how much of a teacher's job is now taken up by paperwork, bureaucracy, and attempts to not get sued.

People don't go into teaching for the money (and those who do generally suck at it), so when the teachers aren't allowed to teach the better ones start looking for other employment.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Aw, I thought that said "Beakman" for a second.

Those 320 teachers should be rounded at and screamed at by the Aphex thing from the "Come To Daddy" video until they stop believing in their ludicrous medieval god.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

My theory is God only spontaneously created stupid people.

The ones who could conceive of something more complex he let figure it out on their own.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Saw something interesting today - in Germany, pupils are taught around 9-11 the importance of the bone marrow register. As a result, they have the largest bone marrow register of any European country and the lowest per capita death via leukemia.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

If I was teaching science, I'd be discussing creationism in class too, not because I think its valid but because it a topical issue and the best place do have that discussion would be as part of teaching evolution.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

So if you were teaching science ... you wouldn't stick to science.

I am glad you are not teaching science.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

I suppose you think that discussing ethics would be out of place in a science classroom too

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Not at all. Discussing the ethical implications of scientific research, for instance, would be completely appropriate -- in a way that discussion of myths simply cannot be.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Science, Philosophy and Religion (and their respective histories) are intertwined. Teaching one without any regard for the others is part of the problem with western thinking. Compartmentalization and reductionism allows for doublethink.

Or do you believe science can be properly taught without regard for the history and philosophy of science either? Religion and myths have their place in scientific discourse, going back to Aristotle at the very least. One needs to examine the reasoning that justifies the scientific method, and how things were done before, so that one can appreciate jsut how wrong creationism is.
Encourage kids to think, not swallow materia.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

The best place to have that discussion is as part of teaching the scientific method: "Here's what happens when you decide what results you want before you consider any data. And that whole hypothesis and experiment thing? Forget about it."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

When I am approached my creationists trying to "witness" to me, I blame their opposition to evolution for the sorry state of vaccine production and immunology, telling them that we are decades behind and asking them what their church will do to make up for it.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

"It's God's will."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

I always find these interesting since my girlfriend has her degrees in both biology and secondary education with a teaching license from the state of Kansas. Of course, she found out not long after starting her student teaching that she hates it and we moved to San Francisco not long after.

Still, as biologists from one of the states that has been the most vocal about their insistence on forcing bullshit on kids I can't help but feel like we could be doing a little bit more to help.

Then again, fuck that. There's no way in hell I'm going back to the cesspit of a state.

While this is indeed a problem it's also nice to know that it probably only really affects the asshats who believe in this shit to begin with.

(Reply to this) (Thread)