Letters: Science should be open to all ideas

I was saddened to see the article about young Zack Kopplin and his efforts to put the straitjacket back on science in Louisiana.

It was a hard-fought battle to win the right to even mention anything other than the standard evolutionary dialog in our classrooms. There have been so many amazing discoveries which are largely ignored by the old evolutionary minded “scientists” who will not cross the street to see anything which might point to something other than their belief in Darwinian evolution.

Just one discovery among many has been blood cells and DNA found in partially fossilized dinosaur bones, which point to a relatively recent demise of these creatures supposedly extinct for 69 million years.

“Impossible!” cry the “scientists” who refuse to even look at the issue. Let’s just keep our science classes free to explore real science please.

Dot Garlow

retired

Baton Rouge

Comments

1) Comment by Triple - 28/06/2012

@Teaslayer, please forgive Scrooge for using "he/she" in his posting. He is a goog guy and a poster with substance.

2) Comment by Triple - 28/06/2012

For one, I am not sure if Adam and Eve actually walked the earth, don't know if Noah floated an ark, couldn't say if Shadrach and his buddies survived the barbecue.  I think it is perfectly acceptable to disagree on these stories.  What is imperative, Christians should agree on the virgin birth and the resurrection. The new testament makes effort to prove the credibility of witnesses, Paul for instance, I believe is credible.  Humans are complex - physical, mental and spiritual beings - does anyone disagree? Possibly God instilled in us the drive to explore the spiritual, to know what cannot be known, to believe by faith.   Evolution, via. natural selection, seems inadequate (to me) to explain the spiritual nature of humans.  What I do know, you can't read a book on physics and build a rocket, just as you can't read the bible once and understand God.

3) Comment by Tea_Slayer - 27/06/2012

"Young-earth creationists also see Schweitzer’s work as revolutionary, but in an entirely different way. They first seized upon Schweitzer’s work after she wrote an article for the popular science magazine Earth in 1997 about possible red blood cells in her dinosaur specimens. Creation magazine claimed that Schweitzer’s research was “powerful testimony against the whole idea of dinosaurs living millions of years ago. It speaks volumes for the Bible’s account of a recent creation.” This drives Schweitzer crazy. Geologists have established that the Hell Creek Formation, where B. rex was found, is 68 million years old, and so are the bones buried in it. She’s horrified that some Christians accuse her of hiding the true meaning of her data. “They treat you really bad,” she says. “They twist your words and they manipulate your data.” For her, science and religion represent two different ways of looking at the world; invoking the hand of God to explain natural phenomena breaks the rules of science. After all, she says, what God asks is faith, not evidence. “If you have all this evidence and proof positive that God exists, you don’t need faith. I think he kind of designed it so that we’d never be able to prove his existence. And I think that’s really cool.” --- http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaur.html#ixzz1z1M3I0Rd

4) Comment by Tea_Slayer - 27/06/2012

Scrooge, don't pick on him. He is very frail and has a very thin skin. The poor persecuted christian...

5) Comment by Scrooge - 27/06/2012

I'll wager that Whatnow listens to a lot of advertising driven radio talk/tv designed to provoke his emotions in lieu of being alone with his thought. Unfortunately he/she is not alone.

6) Comment by Whatnow - 26/06/2012

If parents don't want their child to go to a Christian school, they don't have to choose one. Liberals just want Christian Schools to teach the way that they want. They want to ban teaching Christianity in a Christian school. Why would a parent choose a Christian School for their child if they don't want them taught Christianity? Does the liberal government or people have to impose their ideals in every instance? That's why it is the parents choice. I hope any Christian school that has a parent that tries to impose or demand that Christian Schools change their stance and teaching of Christianity, has the power to remove that student. I'm sure lawsuits will be forthcoming, but given that the parents had that choice, they would lose.

7) Comment by potkcalb - 26/06/2012

Modern evolutionary theory is not based on "faith" but on evidence from paleoanthropology, genetics, and other fields of science. For the umpteenth time natural selection has nothing to do with random chance that old canard foisted off on the public by creationists.Ransom chance is the antithesis of natural selection. It is the environment that determines selection.

8) Comment by Tea_Slayer - 26/06/2012

Actually, The ironically named Louisiana "Science Education" Act is what put a straight-jacket on science.

9) Comment by RationalOne - 26/06/2012

First of all, Zack isn't putting a straitjacket on any science. He's trying to fumigate it & get the mythology out of it. Second of all, dinosaurs went extinct about 65.5 million years ago, not 69 million years ago.

10) Comment by potkcalb - 26/06/2012

The modern theory of evolution is not based on "faith" but on evidence from paleoanthropology, genetics, and other scientific fields. And for the umpteenth time natural selection has nothing to do with random chance. Random chance, that old canard of the creationists, is the antithesis of natural selection. It is the environment that determines what is "selected" and passed on.

11) Comment by DMJ - 26/06/2012

Louisiana is becoming a laughingstock. National news outlets are running stories about certain religious schools in Louisiana (which will now get voucher money) teaching textbooks created by creationists at Liberty "University". This is embarrassing. We can't even agree on basic scientific principles like evolution??? Pathetic.

12) Comment by [e-mail] - 26/06/2012

It's always seemed strange to me that some insist that faith in the almighty's creation is ludicrous while at the same time they insist that we blindly accept on faith the assertions of scientists that it all happened by random chance during natural selection. Any breeder will tell you that left alone for a few generations all the cross breds will revert back to the original. None has ever mutated into a new species. Mankind alone is sentient; I can't imagine that happening by chance.

13) Comment by mdsgu - 26/06/2012

I happen to "believe" in evolution, only because there is too much evidence behind the theory to really dispute it. I also happen to "believe" in God -- not because there is too much evidence for His existence, but for the same reason I believe in wife, children, and parents: all have touched me in various ways. My answer is God did it; does it matter whether He created Adam and Eve or they evolved from now-extinct ancestors?

14) Comment by potkcalb - 26/06/2012

Scientists are not opposed to theories in addition to or in lieu of evolution, but they have to qualify as theories not beliefs. In contrast to beliefs for which there are no restrictions, a requisite of any theory is that it provides a "well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment." The modern theory of evolution meets all of those criteria. No other explanation meets any of them. If beliefs are to be regarded as theory how should the content of science courses be determined--by the absurd claim that my belief is more believable than your belief?

15) Comment by TheTardis - 26/06/2012

Guess I'll plan my trip to visit the Lochness monster now that we know it exists.

16) Comment by lovemykids - 26/06/2012

Read this article and you will see our new education system. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/loch-ness-monster-real-dinosaur-biology-books-taught-louisiana-school-article-1.1102340

17) Comment by Bighug - 26/06/2012

Right on, Dot! Why are our students not allowed access to all science? It is time they started learning about the science of the Greek god who made humans out of mud and brought them to life, and the American Indian science of creation. A class on the science of how holy water causes vampires to melt would be good.