Yesterday the New York Times ran a story about Darwin, global warming, yadda yadda. And what do you know? Tim Moore was a feature of the story:
Critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation’s classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools.
In Kentucky, a bill recently introduced in the Legislature would encourage teachers to discuss “the advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories,” including “evolution, the origins of life, global warming and human cloning.”
The bill, which has yet to be voted on, is patterned on even more aggressive efforts in other states to fuse such issues.
-SNIP-
State Representative Tim Moore, a Republican who introduced the bill in the Kentucky Legislature, said he was motivated not by religion but by what he saw as a distortion of scientific knowledge.
“Our kids are being presented theories as though they are facts,” he said. “And with global warming especially, there has become a politically correct viewpoint among educational elites that is very different from sound science.”
Click here to read the entire piece.
14 responses so far ↓
1 Common Man // Mar 5, 2010 at 10:45 am
Perhaps Mr. Moore and others who question the teaching of “theories” don’t really know what that word means in phrases like “Theory of Evolution.” It doesn’t mean that someone is merely positing that idea without proof.
2 kentondem1 // Mar 5, 2010 at 3:03 pm
I also have a theory.
Mr. Moore and others like him are Idiots.
3 UK Alumni // Mar 5, 2010 at 3:49 pm
My son said his High School science teacher consistently refers in the classroom to Evolution as the ‘Philosophy of Evolution’.
I don’t know what to think.
4 Thomas Oberdan // Mar 7, 2010 at 8:23 am
In science, ‘theory’ just means a highly abstract, universal claim posited to explain phenomena. Some theories are undisputed, like ‘Number Theory’ (or elementary arithmetic). And both evolutionary theory and the idea that global warming is caused by human activity are considered to have successfully explained a wide range of phenomena for which there is no other plausible explanation. So, despite what neo-Neanderthal’s like Mr. Moore say, calling a scientific belief a ‘theory’ in no way detracts from its credibility. Too bad those who would tell us how to teach science don’t seem to know any themselves!!!
5 Student // Mar 7, 2010 at 1:50 pm
I actually agree with Mr. Moore. Evolution is a theory. So is creation. I believe that teachers should be encouraged to present both to their student. I’m not saying that they should have to, but our students should be allowed to believe what they want. So, I believe that those who are completely opposed to Mr. Moore are just afraid. They’re afraid that the notion of creation with surpass the notion of evolution.
6 jake // Mar 7, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Or…. they think Tim Moore is full of shit.
Fact of the matter? The Earth is older than 5,000 years. And for these knuckle-draggers to continue perpetuating that myth? Yeah, smooth move.
7 briansmith // Mar 7, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Can you call yourself Student if you are homeschooled?
8 Jerry // May 1, 2010 at 10:56 pm
As usual liberals, indoctrinated in “Big” education, just as this site operator, miss the point. WHY can’t there be an opposing theory? That’s what he is talking about. There are no opposing theories provided in “taxpayer” funded “Big” education. Liberals can’t stand an opposing view. Try looking a the constitution
JF, Army retired.
9 jake // May 1, 2010 at 11:04 pm
That’s the ticket! Attack the messenger. Call them “liberal” and insinuate that they’re well-educated and use that as a negative.
Then let me know how that works for ya, dipstick.
10 Kentucky Parent // Sep 7, 2010 at 9:39 am
Sadly, our “institutions of learning” have become hives of pet projects.
As the lack proof and facts for many of the ideas being forced upon our children as “facts”, and many which have been disproved, seems not to stop the “institutions” from forcing these views with no other explanations being offered.
Just 30 years ago, “global cooling” was going to kill us all. Now the “knuckle draggers” on the left think it is global warming (which has been proven to be a fraud as well). However, these same “enlightened” liberals keep pushing proven falsehoods because it fits their agendas.
Indeed, they scream diversity in thought and teaching, while they burn the American flag, but dare question their false assumptions and theories, and they want to censor you.
Com’on libs, if you are so sure that your “theories” are unassailable, then you should embrace the opportunity to prove them superior to other alternative theories and ideas…..
….Or are you scared of a free arena of ideas and thoughts?
Closed mindedness seems to be the action of the day for the self appointed “enlightened” among us ;)
11 futureman // Sep 7, 2010 at 10:14 pm
@Kentucky Parent – “Global cooling” appeared in Life magazine not in a bunch of peer reviewed journals. So basically your entire post is a big pile of dumb. I would venture to say that your entire existence is a case study for the Dunning–Kruger effect.
12 a nony mouse // Sep 8, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Few things are as tedious as contemporary common-taters posing ancient arguments as if they were new and fresh.
Most of the above are too inane to contemplate.
However, @ Jerry: There is no need to seek out an “opposing theory”; it was there before evolution was posed. More than a century ago, Archbishop Wilberforce — with glowing eloquence — took the floor with the opposing theory (creation, young Earth, etc) and by the reckoning of Victorian England, soundly trounced the arguments of evolution.
The problem, of course, is the evolution didn’t stay trounced because it is science. It is concrete, factual, subject to testing and multiple verification. As a result, evolution is the best explanation of the way living organisms change over time.
Religion, on the other hand, addresses philosophy and culture. It is not subject to proof, only to faith and logical application to life and ethics.
That is an immensely powerful role and one that should not be distorted by trying to make religion do things it is not fit to do, like comment on the cotton-pickin’ weather.
And a hi-nony-nony to all of ye.
13 Jon Weiss // Sep 11, 2010 at 10:35 am
The problem with public edication is that as in this issue, it is one sided. Teachers, teach evolution, sometimes they call it “theory” sometimes they pose it as fact, in any case they never point to the other theories, leaving the kids only half taught. There are a myriad of explanations that apply to evolution and creation that schools merely overlook because they are not “popular”. Teachers get good pay, but their performance is rarely commensurate with their pay.
14 jake // Sep 11, 2010 at 10:39 am
Yet another person commenting on a story that’s seven months old because they’re bitter over the lack of jesus brainwashing?
Imagine that.
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