School vouchers that give students public tax dollars to attend private or parochial schools are creationism's new Trojan Horse. In schools across the country, millions of dollars in public money is funding the teaching of creationism, and this public money is even finding its way to the Creation Museum.
Working with MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry Show, I exposed over 300 schools in nine states and the District of Columbia teaching creationism, and receiving tens of millions of dollars, maybe even hundreds of millions, in public money, through these voucher programs.
Three of the most egregious schools MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry Show highlighted were:
Voucher advocates argue our students will get a better education in these private schools. That is not true. Teaching our students creationism is wrong. American citizens must stand up and demand that their state governments stop funding creationism with public money. We must advocate against the passage of voucher programs in states like Tennessee and Texas who are considering creating voucher programs. We must teach evidence based science and not fund voucher schools which will fail our students.
Zack Kopplin is a student at Rice University and is one of the leading voices against teaching creationism.
Follow Zack Kopplin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/zackkopplin
Determining which of these is the truth has no bearing on physics or chemistry, or any fields related to physics or chemistry.
We don't need to know that God created the Lizard, or that the lizard evolved from the fish, to understand how the lizard works. Creationism and Darwinism have almost no bearing on biology.
In short: both Darwinism and creationism are religious dogma masquerading as bad science.
So the only acceptable position for schools that receive public funding is that neither should be taught.
You make it sound like those changes happened last week instead of taking millions of years.
There is no 'reason' other than genetic variability in large populations allowing adaptations to changing environmental and competitive pressures.
There is no equivalent to radioisotope dating or 'molecular clocks' in religion to establish dates and trace the rates of speciation. Are biological systems complex? Of course. Are there still questions that need to be answered? Naturally. Regardless, evolution through natural selection is the best description of what we see in the present world and in the fossil record - until such time as someone can come up with a better model.
Seriously though, I'm not questioning the validity of the evolutionary model as much as I'm wondering about its relevance to the present functioning of biological systems. I would suggest teaching how the nervous system works in elementary and high school(as well as other systems, obviously), then explore where it came from in college.
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
FTR, I do know that a theory to a scientist is quite a bit stronger than a theory to a non-scientist. It's been tested and retested and retested and it stands. For the theory to be TOTALLY valid it has to be open to being proven wrong. That's why Creationism isn't valid science, there's no opening to prove it wrong. There has to be such an opening for Darwin's theory, I just don't know what it is.
You can't teach people who are not interested in learning, and in particular, teaching is highly unlikely to have any impact on somebody whose beliefs are absolute and is only looking for snippets of "facts" to justify or rationalize their beliefs.
Children don't need to be confused by being taught that Creationism, a fantasy, is as valid and solid as say, geography or math.
~~~It hasn't been. Creationism is unfalsifiable, which is why it is not science. The problem with creationism is not that is hasn't been disprove, it is that is has never been proven in the first place. Creationism has absolutely zero supporting evidence and is based entirely on the premise that you first accept the Christian God and the Bible as accurate. It's religion.
"This does not suppose evolution has been proven only that because of the powers of observation, evolution MAY be proven."
~~~You need to read more. Try searching "evolution" in Google Scholar. Lots of evidence.
"In other words, evolution (monkey to man) is true because it is testable not because it has been proven."
~~~This just proves your lack of understanding of evolution. Only people who don't understand evolution think it means humans evolved from monkeys. Humans and primates share a common ancestor. It's like Canadians and Americans. We both came from British people (overly generalized of course).
cont (1/2)
"So if Creationism is not provable, how can you assert it is dis-provable?"
~~~Basic logic and the scientific method. First, basic logic. When making a claim, the burden of proof lies with the party making the positive claim. Thus, those who espouse creationism are required to provided supporting evidence. The default position is to not accept creationism without compelling evidence. Second, the scientific method. Hypothesizes and theories in science require supporting positive evidence. Attempting to merely poke holes in evolution does not provide positive evidence for creationism. You need to familiarize yourself with the scientific method.
"Evolution explains how goo became man, but not how nothing became goo. That is the real impossibility."
~~~Again, this demonstrates you're limited understanding of what the theory of evolution actual says. Nowhere does the current theory of evolution attempt to explain how life began. That's abiogenesis. Criticizing evolution for this is a strawman argument and does not have a logical basis.
If an underprivileged student receives a voucher, and his or her parents want them to attend a school that teaches Creationism, would you deny them the opportunity to attend that school? You are pushing against private, Christian institutions who are not going to deny the existence of Creationism, they are going to deny these students who could benefit so greatly from the voucher system. That, not the teaching of an archaic ideology, would be the real shame worth writing articles about.
To restate my earlier point, the voucher system, especially in Louisiana is a band aid on a mortal wound, but at least it creates a chance in the short term for our young people to receive a quality education, albeit in some cases including Creationism, until a viable, long term solution for fixing the public school situation in Louisiana can be agreed upon.
So vouchers aren't even a "short term solution." They just create problems.
Teaching Creationism is like teaching children in Biology class that the Easter Bunny is real.
No?
http://creationistvouchers.com/2012/12/01/utah/