{"id":29369,"date":"2013-01-29T14:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T21:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?p=29369"},"modified":"2013-01-29T06:38:46","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T13:38:46","slug":"creationally-unintelligent-a-review-of-the-needs-for-scientific-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/01\/creationally-unintelligent-a-review-of-the-needs-for-scientific-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Creationally Unintelligent? A Review of the Needs for Scientific Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

How well do you know your evolutionary process? Could you tell me the difference between the process of Microevolution and Macroevolution? Despite what it seems most evangelicals think, it\u2019s worth knowing basic knowledge of science, especially when it comes to our theological issues. Our schools should be acting as buildings which hold the arguments for both, from the pros to the cons. Sadly, the bias is there, and science education standards are at an all-time low. And it\u2019s likely because of this that we have events like this fiasco relating to Louisiana Senator Walsworth and his case relating to questioning how evolution is proved:<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nThe problem isn\u2019t that Walsworth was wrong in his choice to question pro-evolution legislation; the problem is a lack of understanding of evolution on a whole. Bad Astronomer<\/em> writer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/blogs\/bad_astronomy\/2013\/01\/23\/creationist_louisiana_legislators_show_contempt_and_cluelessness_about_science.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Phil Plait clarifies<\/a> the misunderstanding that happened here.<\/p>\n<blockquote>Just to cover two huge points: Evolution on a scale like that takes millions and billions of years, and evolution isn\u2019t a blueprint such that one organism evolves toward some predestined other organism. Humans are not inevitable; we just happen to be one of many million of species along an evolutionary tree, and we\u2019re not the endpoint.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis is a mistake on Walsworth\u2019s part. But it does beg the question: How thorough is the senator\u2019s scientific knowledge?<\/p>\nIf my guesses are correct, the senator\u2019s knowledge is fairly shallow. The senator comes from a background of sales and business, not that of biology and chemistry.<\/p>\nThe issue exists partly in the larger culture. No one asked for Walsworth to become an expert in scientific matters (even though he was in charge of the laws handling this issue. Plait is correct for judging Walsworth\u2019s lack of education of this topic.<\/p>\nIn his book <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_World_Is_Flat\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">The World is Flat 1.0<\/a><\/em>, journalist Thomas Friedman noted a diminishing amount of students entering into the engineering science field. Why? Because people see little value in the scientific field. Since the end of the Space Age, Americans have slowly lost interest in the scientific, instead focusing on the liberal arts and the humanities (please note I do not want to diminish the value of these areas. We simply see a significant decrease in science education, which must be responded to.)<\/p>\nWe then also find that too many of our leaders are less knowledgeable in basic scientific topics (like evolution 101 or physics), and thus will make incorrect decisions about the subject. I\u2019m willing to agree with Plait (who uses the case of Senator Walsworth to condemn the Creationists altogether) that our leaders require more education. But even more so, we require an openness of ideas, which will let the truth (whether it be Theistic Evolution, Old-Earth, or Young-Earth Creationism) to stand on its own two feet.<\/p>\nAs Christians, we must not neglect the sciences. There is much value to this realm, for it is a place we we can \u201cthink God\u2019s thoughts after him\u201d (to use astronomer Johannes Kepler\u2019s colloquialism).<\/p>\nAnd it is because of that, that we should be able to choose to follow through and learn from the best. If we, God\u2019s people, have the Truth, then what do we need to fear? We can hear all of the arguments, and still return to what is true, what is good, and what is actually there.<\/p>\nThe truth is, it\u2019s never as simple as that. <a href=\"http:\/\/anniemurphypaul.com\/2013\/01\/a-course-on-evolution-that-opens-minds\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Here\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0a case, presented by Time<\/em> writer Annie Murphy Paul, where evolution is presented in an effective manner which the students are told to analyze the results themselves instead of the lectures. The innovative lecture techniques garnered the teacher a direct award from Science Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>[The Students], Choosing their own set of observations and measurements to make of skull casts of chimpanzees in different stages of development, as well as adult skulls of Homo sapiens, Homo erectus, Australopithecus afarensis and Ardipithecus ramidus, the students reexamine a common misunderstanding of evolution: that humans evolved from chimpanzees. \u2018I want students to be engaged in conversation, instead of dogma, about evolution,\u2019 Price says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI applaud Professor Price for allowing students to learn and test the theories on their own and see the cases for the evidence. Sadly, the evidence itself here was likely still biased, but I wish that one could extend Price\u2019s philosophy could extend to the other teachers, in hopes of actually allowing the evidence to speak on its own.<\/p>\nIt is this mindset that the educational environment needs to present. Despite Bill Nye\u2019s claims of \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gHbYJfwFgOU\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Creationism being dangerous<\/a>,\u201d there is no more danger in learning to judge claims than there are anywhere else. Man must learn to do this, lest he be led to believe that the debate is far less complex than it actually is.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How well do you know your evolutionary process? Could you tell me the difference between the process of Microevolution and Macroevolution? Despite what it seems most evangelicals think, it\u2019s worth knowing basic knowledge of science, especially when it comes to our theological issues. Our schools should be acting as buildings which hold the arguments for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1336,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1484],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-culture","category-ofthemoment"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Creationally Unintelligent? A Review of the Needs for Scientific Education<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How well do you know your evolutionary process? Could you tell me the difference between the process of Microevolution and Macroevolution? 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Despite what it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/01\/creationally-unintelligent-a-review-of-the-needs-for-scientific-education\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ and Pop Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-29T21:00:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-29T13:38:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/files\/2013\/01\/creation.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christopher Hutton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christopher Hutton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/01\/creationally-unintelligent-a-review-of-the-needs-for-scientific-education\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/01\/creationally-unintelligent-a-review-of-the-needs-for-scientific-education\/\",\"name\":\"Creationally Unintelligent? 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