Controversial.
EDIT: I’ve been accused of disparaging women, and some folks have missed the parody of this.
So. I present you the video it’s parodying; A question put to contestants in the Miss America 2011 – “Should evolution be taught in schools?”
You accuse me of disparaging women, I bring you fifteen minutes of video that will make you cry for the state of humanity. Let this be a lesson ;-)
This is a joke, right, I don’t believe this. Is this real ? No, it can’t be true.
Relax, man, it’s a brilliant parody. It could be considered trolling as well.
I had this same reaction when I first saw the Banana Man video, but that one was, incredibly, real.
Oh yeah. I remember this from June.
Is it just me, or is Miss Vermont the hottest of the bunch? I suppose it’s really shallow of me, but she has this big, functioning brain that she’s flaunting in public.
Totally.
“math? no, I do not believe in math, and I don’t think we should encourage it”
Thats right kids, When someone offers you math, just say no.
Math is the street name of a new class A drug, right?
I dunno. This comes off as just as much anti-woman as it does anti-Biblical. Most Miss America contestants are actually quite smart, but the ones that make the stupid comments get all the attention.
There should be more discussion of how religious thinking is at war with math itself, and how math has the predictive ability that prophecy lacks. We can all think of examples in physics of concepts that existed as calculations.before the technology existed to verify their existence in nature.
I actually cringed watching this. Unreasonable Faith can make this same point in a thousand different ways without disparaging women.
“The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.” St. Augustine
I think you’ve missed the point. This video is an almost verbatim parody of a real video called “Should Evolution be taught in schools?”, which asked the question of Miss America contestants. Neither disparages women, though they both rip into the concept of beauty pageants fairly nicely.
Miss Connecticut rules in the real video, by the way :-)
I agree. I’m a feminist in many ways, but I’m not so oversensitive I can’t take a joke. Lighten up.
Also feminist, knew straight away it was meant to be a parody, took no offense because besides being female, these women are practically a different species to me. Besides Miss Vermont maybe. Anyway…yeah, lighten up. Geez.
OK, I stand partially corrected. Some of the women are indeed Dumb Doras. Most of the Miss America contests I recall from bygone years had women who were excellent students, because that was part of the criteria for competing. What this shows me is the inroads fundamentalism has made into popular culture, and I suspect that the type of woman who competes in the contest has changed, too. It’s my understanding that most of them hire coaches and spend a ton of money to compete. That’s going to rule out the grad student who has to spend a lot of time in the lab.
If you didn’t know the religious makeup of the judge panel, how would you answer? It’s not an honesty contest, it’s a diplomacy contest.
How does women being hilarious disparage women? Are these really the Miss (enter state) ladies? They totally get the joke.
There are numbers everywhere. On phones. On houses. On microwaves.
That was definitely the best one
The answers in this video are basically the answers given by the real miss america contestants to the question, should evolution be taught in schools.
If you have to explain the joke… sigh
People should be able to learn math if they want to, but then they would be the kind of people who know math.
lol
Watch this and be befuddled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkBmhM0R2A0
Holy Mother of Spock. I tried to watch the video that served as the source material for the parody; if another person said “Everyone should be able to make up their own minds,” I was going to throw my computer to the ground. Really? How about teaching people different “theories” of electricity and then letting them parade around with a toaster whilst drawing their bathwater? How about we throw out physics and chemistry, too? After all, it’s all “opinion,” right?
Indeed. I believe you’ve got the measure of postmodern anti-intellectualism, sir.
One thing schools should teach is the difference between a theory and a hypothesis.
Did anyone keep count of how many of the Miss America candidates didn’t “believe in evolution” and/or thought that both schools of thought should be taught?
This is the big problem. We use hypothesis, theory (or law, if you are discussing physics) and fact with specific definitions in science. But in common language, they are a continuation of “so-so, good and pretty good”.
Stephen Jay Gould wrote a great article in 1981 about the fact and theory of evolution that really crystallized it for me. That was at the height of the Creationist movement (before the ID effort).
Stephen J. Gould, ” Evolution as Fact and Theory”; Discover, May 1981.
This article has a good summary of excellent articles from that time period:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-fact.html
Preaching to the choir, I know. But it’s a good sermon!
– How about we throw out physics and chemistry, too? –
And don’t forget earth science, where they teach you about how old Earth is, plate techtonics, where weather comes from, etc. etc. etc. It’s funny… fundies damn evolution, but rarely damn earth science!
mebbe evolution needs a different name
The real video is quite telling. Although all the answers are given by hot women in their early 20s (that’s fun, huh) you get a good cross-section of what the average American with a high school education believes. I’d have to say it sounds about right. Knowing this, I’d also have to say that if a school is in a community where people believe science is something to be discarded when you don’t feel like believing it, then introducing stories through time with different religions and peoples is important. So is introducing how to think critically. It sounds ambitious for a science class, but without the multi-disciplinary approach you are going to lose all the kids whose church and parents have hardened them against learning contradictory information and they will be quick to dismiss real science as theory.
My favorites are the ones who think “kids should be taught all aspects of every subject!” hmm, Aristotilian chemistry? Medeival medical theories? All theories on civil rights? Let the students decide! It’s a free country! America, funk yeah!
Yeah…Hitler had a viewpoint too – why can’t we teach that as an equally valid approach to politics, and let the kids make up their minds.
Beauty is skin deep. Stoopid goes all the way down to the bone.
It is my opinion that we should, you know, teach alchemy, because, duh, who doesn’t want more GOLD amiright?…healing with crystals, cause their vibrations are like quantum physics and stuff, that babies come from throwing severed genitals into the sea, cause I totally believe in saving myself for marriage but anyway sex is just ew, kinda icky…and the benefits of child sacrifice to Ba’al. Just ’cause. I mean, like, according to the constitution, all opinions are created equal. Hard, evidence-based science is really just another, like, opinion in my, you know, opinion. *simper*
– This is a joke, right, I don’t believe this. Is this real ? No, it can’t be true.–
Leo, when I saw the REAL video, I thought the same thing!!! Frightening…
No wonder Americans went belly up during the last mortgage crash! The question could also be “Do you think Science should be taught in school?” That would be a way of weeding out the bible thumpers and the knowledge seekers. Or, ask if they believe in Science. If they say no, ask them if they’ve ever taken a pill or gone to a doctor or hospital. Evolution, Science & Technology are the real things that keep our society going. Sorry to prick the bubble of religiosity, but Americans need to get real before they become a third world theocratic gov’t. Oh, that’s right, they seem to be heading there now.
I think that some of the problem lies in the fact that a lot of Americans don’t look outside the borders of America. Many Americans have never even been to another country, and most have only gone to all-inclusive resorts if they have done so. Some people live in areas of the country where they may not even know anyone who has gone abroad, and local/rural news stations do a terrible job of covering world news. These Americans really have no idea that the rest of the world sees them as crazy fundie xtians; they probably even think that the rest of the world is just like them.
frightening.
Math, it’s so shold be thaught.
It’s so important in our lives.
Parody videos are entertaining.