Welcome to the 21st Century

Sort of. From Associated Press:

Alabama is updating its decade-old science standards to require that students understand evolution and learn about climate change, topics that can still be controversial in the Bible Belt state.

Educators say the new rules — part of a major change that includes more experimentation and hands-on instruction and less lecturing — don’t require that students believe in evolution or accept the idea that climate is changing globally.

But public school students will be required for the first time to understand the theory of evolution. And teachers will be required to address climate change, which wasn’t a focus the last time the state set science standards in 2005.

Unfortunately, Alabama still requires textbooks to cast doubt on evolution. From the same story:

Textbooks used in Alabama science classes have carried a disclaimer sticker for years stating that evolution is a “controversial theory,” not fact, and the new course of study doesn’t change the warnings, which were advocated by Christian conservatives.

Back in 2009, the State Board of Education in Texas approved new curriculum standards that creationists hoped would force publishers to include discredited arguments attacking evolution in their new textbooks. But the Texas Freedom Network worked with partner organizations to make sure that didn’t happen — and, in 2013, we succeeded.

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10 Comments

  • phrynosomatx says:

    Amazed makes assertions, but offers no data to support those claims. This might suggest that he/she actually knows nothing about the topics, but only repeats opinions he/she has heard from others. So here is a good source of data on changing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere (recommended reading for Amazed and other climate-change deniers):

    http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/

    Note that CO2 concentration has been continuously monitored since 1958. It has steadily risen throughout that period. And even if one has a robust, rigorously-tested model of the atmosphere that somehow does NOT predict heating as CO2 concentration rises (actually no one does), there would still be the ocean-acidification effects due to solubility of CO2 in water, such as seawater. I assume that Amazed knows the meaning of solubility constants??????

    • Amazed says:

      Im not making an assertion, I was just thinking outloud. From history and such hasn’t the earth survived many different things and survived? I am not denying or affirming just wondering if we are overreacting sometimes.

      • Dan says:

        Of course Earth has survived. But the survival of Earth isn’t the issue here. Earth “survived” the catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs after all. But the dinosaurs didn’t fare very well, did they? What’s especially tragic here is that the consequences of climate change are — or were — avoidable. Scientists have been warning us for decades, but we’ve done far too little about it.

        • Amazed says:

          Hey Dan,

          I know we have been warned for decades. I remember it in science classes in school in the 60s. Along with water resource problems and such.

          Too many prefer not to do anything which I personally don’t understand why.

  • kristine weibel says:

    Thank you.

  • Amazed says:

    Rhonda,

    I think you misunderstood me. I am against what the conservatives are doing and don’t like David Barton’s influence in Austin on history standards.

    I am just not convinced of climate change since the earth seems to be able to adjust to whatever comes through passages of time. Im not attacking anyone or indoctrinating.

  • Beverly Margolis says:

    Religion is one thing, science is another thing.
    How anyone can argue against the “theory” of evolution dos not understand what the word “theory” means. It does not mean it is a guess, it is proven scientific proof, I wish they would drop the word “theory” once a hypothesis has been proven, which evolution most assuredly does.
    I love how people misinterpret their bibles. Example: There is no place in any bible that says that marriage is only between one man and one woman. It NEVER SAYS THAT! Yet the fools are too lazy to bother to actually READ the part that talks about marriage.
    It is easy to prove evolution. Look at ourselves. We are taller, more robust, etc. that our grandparents.
    How do you think that bacteria become immune to anti-biotics? By sprinkling fairy dust over them? NO, by EVOLUTION, which as someone said simply is CHANGE.

    Climate change is real, the predominately sane scientists have said so. It is not a myth. Take a look at what is happening out west. A record-breaking drought is crippling California, Oregon, and Washington. This is not a natural thing. The only people who keep on denying that is exists are the Koch brothers and their ilk. PROFITS ARE ALL THAT MATTERS. When our great-grandchildren cannot breath it will be too late to do anything about it.
    What most people don’t even think about is the fact that airliners are pouring climate changing gases into the stratosphere.
    In short, we are killing ourselves, I hope the greedy corporations live long enough to see THEIR grand-children’s gasp for air.

    • Amazed says:

      Hi Beverly,

      My only point is that the earth has withstood droughts before. I am not poo pooing the global climate change I am just saying that our earth is an amazing planet that has weathered all kinds of crazy things.

      That is all.

      Shalom

  • Rhonda says:

    Oh stop it amazed with your BS A majority of Americans are sick of all the religious crap that people like you spew. This god dammed state of Texas needs to get ALL of the morons in positions of power out of power so that all of us who are sane and believe in science can get the children in this state educated not indoctrinated.

  • Amazed says:

    All evolution means is change. Genesis 1:1 is a statement, not an argument.

    Climate change is a bad practical joke in that the planet is always in a state of flux.

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