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Author Topic:   evolution vs......
contracycle
Inactive Member


Message 76 of 82 (44293)
06-26-2003 6:23 AM


Another thought - as a cynic, I think a lot pf people are alienated form science by the way it is taught. Hence I would recommend some pop science to get the motor running... cut your teeth on reputable science written for a "lay" audience. There are quite a number of these and you may well find them more approachable than a formal textbook. But, please come back to the textbooks later!
If you are INTERESTED, you need little more than that IMO. Feed your monkey.
[This message has been edited by contracycle, 06-26-2003]

  
Rrhain
Member
Posts: 6351
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Joined: 05-03-2003


Message 77 of 82 (44309)
06-26-2003 7:58 AM
Reply to: Message 38 by mike the wiz
06-24-2003 9:26 PM


mike the wiz responds to me:
quote:
well i dont recall being 'touchy' or 'feely' or saying that i was
Weren't you the one talking about "equal representation"?
You're acting as if the reason creationism is not taken seriously within scientific circles is because scientists are all scared or have some sort of personal vendetta against it.
quote:
and if you want to have a by jove class full of one siders all supporting each other good for you
Since when is science an endeavour of "supporting each other"?
Have you ever tried to get published? It's extremely difficult. You submit your work to people who do everything they can to tear it to shreds and find things wrong with it. What haven't you supported this claim of yours? Why haven't you taken this into account? Where do you deal with this latest discovery?
And when you do get past this gauntlet which is peer review, it is still not over for even more people will read your work and write their own papers that tear down what you spent so long and worked so hard to build.
In science, if you destroy the dominant paradigm, they hand you the Nobel Prize.
quote:
but i think kids should not be taught what to think but how to think,
Precisely.
And creationism does not come with a methodology. It is simply an "accept it because this book says it's true" statement.
Tell us, how would you conduct an experiment in biology class to demonstration creation ex nihilo? There are plenty of experiments you can do to show evolution happening right in front of your nose. I've described a couple of them. You can take bacteria that are lac- and watch them evolve into lac+ bacteria. Even better, you can do a double-evolution experiment showing the beginnings of an "arms race" whereby you take K-type bacteria and T4 phage and watch the bacteria mutate to K/4 bacteria to ward off the phage and then the phage mutate to T4h phage to get past the bacteria's defenses.
We can take the kids to the local museum of natural history where we can have them touch actual fossils. When they get to college level, we can actually show them how to do radiometric dating of strata.
Science is all hands on.
How do you propose to demonstrate "let there be light"?
quote:
creation is self evident to many
Irrelevant.
The sun goes around the earth is self-evident to many, too.
Should we teach a geocentric solar system just to give "equal representation"?
quote:
and even if the teaching is there just to be laughed at then fine,
No, not fine.
It is not fine to laugh at someone's beliefs.
It most certainly is not fine to waste time in class to cover a topic where the only point is to show that it is wrong without it showing how the process by which we showed it to be wrong leads us to a more accurate system.
quote:
as long as the kids get the chance, the problem is scientists think they own science
Who else would? Your tax attorney? Do you really think that a person who has never seen the inside of a physics laboratory in 20 years is qualified to teach students about the wave nature of light and then segue into the particle nature of light and show how the two natures are dealt with in modern photon theory?
Yes, scientists own science because the people who do science are scientists.
You don't go to your tax attorney for information about heart disease, even though he's a smart guy. You don't ask the woman who fixes your car and can tell just by listening that the timing of the spark plugs is off (and by how much) whether or not now is a good time to buy T-bills.
The thing is, anybody can join the club. All you have to do is follow the scientific method: Observe, hypothesize, test, analyse, repeat. That's all you have to do. There is no magic involved. All it takes is the discipline to stick it through and start at the beginning.
There is no royal road to science, but there is no toll, either.
quote:
wheras ofcourse God does as he invented it.
And who are you to say how god did it?
quote:
the evos are far too scared of creationists to let them into their club!
Yeah, right.
So why is Fermat such an important name in mathematics even though he wasn't a professional mathematician? Why are so many discoveries in astronomy made by amateurs with no more sophisticated equipment than a good reflector and a geosynchronous mount?
Simple: Anybody can do science.
But the catch is, it has to be science.
There was a girl in the fourth grade who got written up in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the premiere medical journal in the United States, regarding a study on "therapeutic touch" and how there does not seem to be any evidence for its existence.
Fourth grade. That would put her at about 9 years old.
If she can do it, why can't you?
------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

This message is a reply to:
 Message 38 by mike the wiz, posted 06-24-2003 9:26 PM mike the wiz has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 80 by nator, posted 06-26-2003 6:35 PM Rrhain has not replied

  
Rrhain
Member
Posts: 6351
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Joined: 05-03-2003


Message 78 of 82 (44313)
06-26-2003 8:09 AM
Reply to: Message 72 by mike the wiz
06-25-2003 7:06 PM


mike the wiz writes:
quote:
i must tell you i got an f in science gcse as i find some things like 'natural selection' hard terms ,and all that chemical stuff lol. i have always struggled with science
OK, I'm going to be blunt here:
If you admit that you have no aptitude in science, what makes you think you are in any position to make any sort of statement about its findings?
This has nothing to do with the arguments from authority or anything like that. It is a simple question:
If you know nothing about a topic, how can you possibly have a valid opinion about it?
I've got an object sitting on my bathroom vanity.
Tell me something about it.
Why do you think you're having a hard time coming up with something as simple as its color?
------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

This message is a reply to:
 Message 72 by mike the wiz, posted 06-25-2003 7:06 PM mike the wiz has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 79 by mike the wiz, posted 06-26-2003 10:44 AM Rrhain has replied

  
mike the wiz
Member
Posts: 4755
From: u.k
Joined: 05-24-2003


Message 79 of 82 (44333)
06-26-2003 10:44 AM
Reply to: Message 78 by Rrhain
06-26-2003 8:09 AM


'If you admit that you have no aptitude in science, what makes you think you are in any position to make any sort of statement about its findings?'
well when i took the exam i was 16 and totally uninterested but like a lot of people i have heard a lot about evolution ,as i said before i dont admitt to being a scientist and i reckon a lot of people here are not scientists,if you dont think i have the right to an opinion then ignore me

This message is a reply to:
 Message 78 by Rrhain, posted 06-26-2003 8:09 AM Rrhain has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 81 by nator, posted 06-26-2003 6:38 PM mike the wiz has not replied
 Message 82 by Rrhain, posted 06-27-2003 12:45 AM mike the wiz has not replied

  
nator
Member (Idle past 2196 days)
Posts: 12961
From: Ann Arbor
Joined: 12-09-2001


Message 80 of 82 (44378)
06-26-2003 6:35 PM
Reply to: Message 77 by Rrhain
06-26-2003 7:58 AM


quote:
There was a girl in the fourth grade who got written up in the Journal of the American Medical Association , the premiere medical journal in the United States, regarding a study on "therapeutic touch" and how there does not seem to be any evidence for its existence.
Fourth grade. That would put her at about 9 years old.
If she can do it, why can't you?
Ahh, wonderful Emily Rosa. She's my hero and gives me hope for our future.
I followed this story as it was developing and WOW, were the nurses who submitted to Emily's tests pissed off. See, they had never agreed to submit to "real" tests of their ability; Emily got in under their radar because she was a little girl, but then her results ended up in frigging JAMA!!
I love her!

This message is a reply to:
 Message 77 by Rrhain, posted 06-26-2003 7:58 AM Rrhain has not replied

  
nator
Member (Idle past 2196 days)
Posts: 12961
From: Ann Arbor
Joined: 12-09-2001


Message 81 of 82 (44379)
06-26-2003 6:38 PM
Reply to: Message 79 by mike the wiz
06-26-2003 10:44 AM


quote:
well when i took the exam i was 16 and totally uninterested but like a lot of people i have heard a lot about evolution ,as i said before i dont admitt to being a scientist and i reckon a lot of people here are not scientists,if you dont think i have the right to an opinion then ignore me
You have every right to your opinion, but we also have every right, as this is a public debate forum, to point out where your opinion is wrong and suggest to you how you might become better informed.
C'mon, mike, you are obviously very interested in science and Biology. All you need to do is read up a little bit and become better informed.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 79 by mike the wiz, posted 06-26-2003 10:44 AM mike the wiz has not replied

  
Rrhain
Member
Posts: 6351
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Joined: 05-03-2003


Message 82 of 82 (44405)
06-27-2003 12:45 AM
Reply to: Message 79 by mike the wiz
06-26-2003 10:44 AM


mike the wiz responds to me:
quote:
quote:
If you admit that you have no aptitude in science, what makes you think you are in any position to make any sort of statement about its findings?
well when i took the exam i was 16 and totally uninterested
And how long has it been since then?
And what have you done to get more cognizant of the current state of the science?
quote:
but like a lot of people i have heard a lot about evolution
That's not good enough. "Hearing about it" doesn't mean you understand what you've heard. What have you done to seriously study the subject? What books have you read? What articles have you read? What experiments have you carried out? What data have you analysed?
It takes much more to become educated in a subject than just "hearing about it."
quote:
as i said before i dont admitt to being a scientist and i reckon a lot of people here are not scientists
The question still remains:
If you admit that you do not have the requisite familiarity with the topic, what makes you think you have anything useful to say?
quote:
if you dont think i have the right to an opinion then ignore me
Oh, you have every right to your opinion.
But that doesn't mean your opinion is worth anything.
------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

This message is a reply to:
 Message 79 by mike the wiz, posted 06-26-2003 10:44 AM mike the wiz has not replied

  
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