Replies

Some evolutionists prophetic warnings are that to allow ID and or creationism in the class room will doom this nation to third world status. (sounds a bit religious, being a prophetic warning and all)

It's the slippery slope of it. It is politics interfering directly in science, which would be disasterous if it became widespread. The act of redefining science in high schools to get ID or creationism into science classrooms is not disaster in itself, but it is a first step to disaster.

It wouldn't stop at highschool. Next would be attempts to use the same political force to get colleges and universities to redefine science too. If the scientific community is ignored and popular demand is allowed to define science education then all bets are off. If it becomes a major political issue then politicians have a nasty habit of getting too involved.

The nail in the coffin would be legislation to prevent "content discrimination" in colleges which forces them to not discriminate against ideas based on their content. This is all based on the ID/creationist concept of "teach all views", "fairness of ideas", "teach the controversy", as if the scientific validity of an idea cannot be determined, or is subjective or is just irrelevant.

This opens up psuedosciences to be taught in colleges, and because they are labelled science they will become entrenched as science in the public mind. It even possible that they could influence political policy decisions with disasterous consequences. I can even imagine new scientific fields being set up solely to support certain political objectives.

Also if scientists don't have trust in the future of science in a country they may very well move elsewhere.

Nice plausible philosophizing, but it appears very lame in the light of the fact that 'science' itself claims a superior methodology for actually answering such questions empirically. Will the cobbler wear his own shoes? If he won't, I don't have any sympathy for him going barefoot.

It is politics interfering directly in science

What's new?

This opens up psuedosciences to be taught in colleges, and because they are labelled science they will become entrenched as science in the public mind. It even possible that they could influence political policy decisions with disasterous consequences. I can even imagine new scientific fields being set up solely to support certain political objectives. I heartily agree, bobdsmith, that is exactly what happened under Stalin in the Soviet Union (Lysenko's revised Lamarckism, aligned with 'Marxist philosophy', or some fool thing). I don't like hysteria--and some of the posts in here, which seem to attribute various failings in our school and our society to the teaching of 'Darwinism', seem to be silly assertions, with no demonstration of the supposed connections offered. So without sounding too hysterical myself, let me suggest just where a society can end up when it starts setting up religion against science: Afghanistan under the Taliban, where they dispensed with science altogether in the name of religion

There seems to be a complete unawareness of what is going on in the K-12 public schools right now.

Creationists and or ID are not there, and what goes for science these days is not education it is brainwashing. The environmental extremists of evolution have charge of what you call science. Science is now about protection of habitat and the man destroying habitat.

I see none of you seeking to protect the status of this nation spending one second on what already is. That says more about the credibility of what is called evolutionary science, than anything the ID'er or creationists present.

Evolutionary science is all that has been allowed in K-12 public schools for decades.

It wouldn't stop at highschool. Next would be attempts to use the same political force to get colleges and universities to redefine science too. If the scientific community is ignored and popular demand is allowed to define science education then all bets are off. If it becomes a major political issue then politicians have a nasty habit of getting too involved.

It's already happening. University of California is being sues by Christian students who were denied admission because they were taught biology from non-accredited text books. These textbooks covered creationism and were used in a Christian highschool. They are claiming they are being discriminated against based upon their religious beliefs. Here's the FR thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1474790/posts

There are already people in FR claiming universities should have their federal funding cut if they teach evolution. Why? Because the Republicans (i.e. Christians with morals) are in charge now. This is becoming a very political issue and will cost Republicans at the polls if it becomes a strong party plank. Thankfully, this is not (yet) the majority view of fellow conservatives.