Let's take a step to the right

[Grundy]

Two stories this week on schools incorporating changes into course content:

Texas school system (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2886945) required sex-education book changed regarding marriage partners.

Wisconsin school (http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/11/06/evolution.schools.ap/index.html) system is adding Creationism into class curriculum as alternative to evolution.

[Figtoria]

:ooer:

Scary as hell....

[Boom]

I don't understand why we don't teach kids the truth. That we all live on the back of a turtle. The turtle made us cuz he was lonely.

[Gwylenna]

Boom we need to start a quiet campaign to get all the people who share your turtle theory onto school boards across the nation. Then once enough of your turtlists are in office have them start influencing decisions to include Turtle theory, give it five years and we can have it taught in most schools.

[Murrie]

lol ya think thats scary, i work in Cobb county Georgia, their history text books have a sticker that says Evolution is not the only theory. I guess the religious folks in georgia thought that A. the word "theory" in "Theory of Evolution" didnt indicate enough or their children too stupid to understand that it wasnt completely and totally the truth, and B. they couldnt do a good enough job parenting to teach their children their religion...

It is in the courts at the moment, and strangely Cobb county is one of the better places to live with some of the best schools in the state. Sadly the occasional nutty idea get passed and makes me roll my eyes in disbelief...

[Allison]

Lol, Murrie. I just looked at that: 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.
That cracks me up. :laugh: It would be really funny to see a ruling that said, Okay, you can have your sticker, but you have to be fair and have a sticker for every theory discussed in the book.

[Murrie]

saner minds might prevail! its being challenged in court currently since it is nothing more than the religious folks desire to be even more lazy as parents and have the schools teach their kids their religious beliefs...

Id love to see your sticker for everytheory idea... except that it would be hard to carry around any text books given the number of stickers each would have...

[Boom]

The Turtle is not a theory. Its a Turtle. We live on his back. If we didn't, the whole world would be falling through space and we would be desperately trying to hang on. The fact that we don't feel like we are falling, and we don't have to hang on, proves beyond a doubt that the earth rests on the back of the Turtle.

[Murrie]

Dude i so can not wait for our turtle to make it to the great space turtle mating grounds and then we will find out the truth about the big bang theory!

[]LoL[Harm]

Everyone knows we didn't come from apes, that's absurd! Men came from dust and women came from a rib pulled from the mans chest! ;)

Personally I don't think we exist at all and this is just some whacked out dream that an extremely bored super-consciousness is having. :)

[Tammarion]

Maybe its a MMORPG! Nerf Harm! :D

[Noleader]

Dude i so can not wait for our turtle to make it to the great space turtle mating grounds and then we will find out the truth about the big bang theory!
I hope our turtle is the male or it might get a little packed...

[Roscoes_C&W]

Why is evolution even in school? There's more important things to study than evolution and creationism. Just get rid of it all and eliminate the confusion and the arguments. Done deal.

[]LoL[Harm]

Evolutionary study with ties to how creatures adapt to their changing environments is a necessary topic if you wish to learn about biology.

[Roscoes_C&W]

You can cover all that stuff without mentioning human beings and monkies.

[Murrie]

yea cause theres no reason to study either human or monkeys biology...

Evolution, IE the altering of an animals genetic make up over time to better suit its environment, is fairly easy to demonstrate; some animals evolve in as short a timespan as a generation. It is a valid theory that is necessary to understanding not only the past but the future as well.

[Noleader]

That is what I really hate about the way evolution is taught in school... Kids are basicly told me came from Monkeys and then they wonder why the monkeys did not become human too.

The thing that most teachers f-up on is telling it like that. We came from creatures that at some point resembled monkeys but in no way were monkeys

[Murrie]

yea saying we came from monkeys isnt even close. we had a common ansestor way way back, but we didnt come from monkeys... (well maybe, they could find that missing link any day now :P)

[Boom]

We came from the same creatures that monkeys came from. We are more like cousins then decendants. When they thought we came from monkeys, they could never find the "missing link" between us and the monkeys. That's because there was no missing like because we didn't come from the monkeys. Now, with DNA and stuff, they have identified the creature that is a common ancestor to us and the monkeys. It has been extinct for millions of years. The DNA proves that we are both related to this prehistoric creature.

Its all part of the Turtle's plan.

[PoxTheSmall]

I don't understand how Lucy (the earliest human remains uncovered was called Lucy) is discounted with the whole Creationism thing. I mean, wouldn't Lucy feel scorned?

[Figtoria]

I agree that evolution is taught very poorly. The whole "being descended from monkeys" thing is very widely believed.

And people don't understand the concept of "natural selection" either. There were people in my first year Physical Anthro course who thought that (for example) a giraffe who stretches his neck to get the higher leaves would have children with longer necks because of that physical change.

Of course (to use a very simplified example), what actually happens is that giraffes with longer necks evolved because more longer necked giraffes survived and reproduced because they had more leaves to eat. I think that example gives people a better feeling for the process of natural selection and the time span involved.

I love evolution. It's so cool.

[Roscoes_C&W]

I thought Patrick Ewing was the missing link?

[Hammer]

Hell, just use bacteria and antibiotics. Evolution in a couple of decades.