Indiana, You're Going to have to Sit Beside the Teacher

An Indiana Senate committee has voted to allow the full senate to vote on whether or not creationism should be taught in public high school science classes.  In fact, it passed 8 to 2.

This might be the dumbest action taken by the Indiana Legislature since 1897 when it tried to redefine the value of Pi as 3.2.

An Indiana Senate committee on Wednesday endorsed teaching creationism in public schools, despite pleas from scientists and religious leaders to keep religion out of science classrooms. Senate Bill 89 allows school corporations to authorize “the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life” and specifically mentions “creation science” as one such theory. 

State Sen. Scott Schneider, R-Indianapolis, who voted for the measure, said if there are many theories about life’s origins, students should be taught all of them.
But John Staver, professor of chemistry and science education at Purdue University, said evolution is the only theory of life that relies on empirical evidence from scientific investigations. “Creation science is not science,” Staver said. “It is unquestionably a statement of a specific religion.” 

 The Rev. Charles Allen, head of Grace Unlimited, an Indianapolis campus ministry, said students would be served better by teaching religion comparatively, rather than trying to “smuggle it in” to a science course. The Republican-controlled Senate Education Committee nevertheless voted 8-2 to send the legislation to the full Senate.

Obviously, this continues to be a problem because lack the scientific education in both politicians and their constituents.  Specifically the difference between a theory, a hypothesis and a belief:

• A belief is a deeply held idea that requires no reason, observation or analysis.  This has nothing to do with science.
• A hypothesis attempts to connect variables together in an effort to demonstrate that a relationship exists between them.  This is the beginning step of science.
• A theory focuses on explaining why a phenomenon or relationship exists has a process or a "sense of movement, a dynamic element by which one state of affairs leads to another" and is falsifiable, or able to be tested and possibly disproved.  (Special thanks to Marshall University professor Dr. Bobbi Nicholson for her definition of hypothesis and theory)

This is why evolution is a theory; it suggests an explanation for an observable phenomenon that can be tested ( and has proven to be a good descriptor of observations) and has an observable process (natural selection) that is falsifiable .

This is why this is why claiming that one's first name and one's level of success are linked is just a hypothesis; it suggest a relation but not a reason for it.

And why this is just a belief:



Beliefs belong in private organizations, in free speech and in church.  But not in science lesson plans.