From: Sarah Berel-Harrop (sec@hal-pc.org)
Date: Wed Aug 20 2003 - 18:52:37 EDT
----- Original Message -----
From: "John W Burgeson" <jwburgeson@juno.com>
To: <hvantill@chartermi.net>
Cc: <ASA@calvin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 5:02 PM
Subject: Re: Student perceptions re evolution
> Howard asked: "So, for list discussion, what do you make of this poll
> result? "
Howard, does this gentleman ask the biology majors
as well? What do the majors say?
>
> What it says to me is that the ASA and like organizations have failed
> miserably in getting the ideas of faith/science across to our children
> and that ICR, AIG and the like are winning the race going away.
I am not sure this is the obvious conclusion. The
results do not necissarily reflect an antipathy toward
evolution, but rather an ignorance of prevailing trends
in biology.
Is this surprising? I don't know about all states,
but I am in Texas and I have grown up here. I
took freshman biology, where evolution was not
covered (but my teacher assured us that it was
*not* true that evolution promotes racism. She
was dissatisfied with several aspects of our textbooks.
I will never forget the day she drew the male
sexual organs on the board because the textbook
diagram was insufficient. She really didn't care
about how she wasn't supposed to teach. She
cared that what she taught was correct) and
AP biology, where it was. In Texas, then, and
I think now as well, you only need 2 years of
science. You can concievably not even take
biology. In that context, it is not surprising
that non-majors, who may not have even taken
the subject, would know very little about any
aspect of biology.
It would be interesting as a control to ask the
same question about other key concepts in
biology. I don't think of one offhand. But
you get the idea, is it lack of exposure to
biology or what? What is really going on?
> If anyone has a solution to the problem, speak up. Please.
Here is a review of "Pandas and People" that someone
sent me today. The author here sees a role for
evangelicals. It is long and I have not completed it.
The short story is that he sees a polarized minority,
a few people speaking up, and a great many who
either don't know what to do or don't realize the
significance of anti-evolutionism. He specifically
critiques ID, as Pandas is an ID supplemental biology
text.
http://www.nabt.org/sub/evolution/panda1.asp
Additionally, and I apologize in advance if this
breaks the list protocol in any way, tomorrow
is the deadline to submit written comments to
the Texas State Board of Education on the
biology textbooks or to sign up to speak at the
meeting on 09/10/03. There was an earlier
meeting in July and Discovery Institute participated.
Predictably, DI did not critique AP texts, however
they "graded" the basic texts for their coverage
of evolution using an "Icons of Evolution" -type
rubric.
Contact me off the list if you want more info
about this.
>
> John Burgeson (Burgy)
>
> www.burgy.50megs.com
>
>
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