{"id":56,"date":"2006-10-03T07:36:08","date_gmt":"2006-10-03T11:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=56"},"modified":"2008-08-05T10:50:39","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T14:50:39","slug":"waging-war-on-science-in-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=56","title":{"rendered":"Waging war on science in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is a great column about how Intelligent Design can and does hamper science education in America<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I recently addressed a group of French engineering graduate students who were visiting Washington from the prestigious School of Mines in Paris. After encouraging them to teach biotechnology in French high schools, I expected the standard queries on teaching methods or training. Instead, a bright young student asked bluntly: “How can you teach biotechnology in this country when you don’t even accept evolution?”<\/p>\n

I wanted to disagree, but the kid had a point. Proponents of “intelligent design” in the United States are waging a war against teaching science as scientists understand it.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

These trends can only worsen if students come to regard evolution as questionable or controversial. Thirty-seven percent of the high school Advanced Placement biology examination tests knowledge of evolution, evolutionary biology and heredity, according to the College Board. Students who do not thoroughly understand evolution cannot hope to succeed on this exam; they will be handicapped in competitive science courses in college and the careers that may follow.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Non-scientific viewpoints deserve respect. But to combat the spread of HIV\/AIDS, bio-warfare and pandemic diseases, to discover lifesaving cures and life-improving breakthroughs, tomorrow’s biologists must be equipped with scientifically based knowledge today.<\/p>\n

Nations that value open inquiry and use scientific criteria in education, research and industry will outperform those that do not. If we are to continue to be leaders in the global economy, we must teach science, not religion, in the science classroom.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is a great column about how Intelligent Design can and does hamper science education in America. I recently addressed a group of French engineering graduate students who were visiting Washington from the prestigious School of Mines in Paris. After … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-U","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1214,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1214","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":0},"title":"Details on Pasco school board races","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In a \"know your candidates\" feature at the St. Petersburg Times website, school board candidates were asked several questions, one of them being: \"Should schools teach creationism in science?\" District 3 candidates said: Cynthia Armstrong \"I do not believe that creationism has a place in the science curriculum.\" Mike Ryan\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1214#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":317,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=317","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":1},"title":"Last night’s science standards meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Orlando Sentinel reports that several people attended last night's meeting in Orlando about the new draft science standards with the objective of promoting intelligent design and complaining about evolution. But several people who spoke Thursday urged state Department of Education officials to allow schools to teach intelligent design and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":319,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=319","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":2},"title":"Polk County on alert","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I had posted before about a Polk County school board member, Kay Fields, who expressed an interest in intelligent design. Well, the situation just got a whole lot worse. The local newspaper there, the Lakeland Ledger, asked the other board members for their opinions and revealed that a majority seem\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=10","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":3},"title":"Volusia joins the fray","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I have to admit to being shocked over how much intelligent design is cropping up in Florida school board races. I would think candidates would want to avoid that albatross what with all the times intelligent design has gone down in flames lately. Citrus, Escambia ... and now Volusia county\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":318,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=318","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":4},"title":"Latest news story","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"TV station Bay News 9 ran a piece on the state science standards, choosing to make the story a dueling quotes war between FCS member Johnathan Smith and Polk County school board member Kay Fields. \"To me, just showing evolution is not fair to the students,\" Fields said. \"I am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":717,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=717","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":5},"title":"Adventures in N.C.","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Just documenting a few tidbits here in the event you haven't heard about them yet. From North Carolina we have: Brunswick school board to consider creationism teaching The Brunswick County school board is looking for a way for creationism to be taught in the classroom side by side with evolution.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=717#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}