From: Jay Willingham (jaywillingham@cfl.rr.com)
Date: Thu Aug 21 2003 - 16:11:28 EDT
I agree that over the past say 100 years, education has become less than
laudable in the USA across the board. Grading have been dropped (until
recently Harvard was a good example of this). And this was all in the south
(if Duke still qualifies for South)A professor I had in a senior English
class tell me my paper was the best one he had received but it would have
only gotten a "C" at his alma mater in England.
How about my experience with 12 years of grade school in public and private
schools and 4 years of pre-med including 4th year Vertebrate Developmental
Anatomy, a laboratory classification and dissection senior Biology course on
evolution.
The Bible was often taught as pure parable or myth and evolution as the
factual source of life and all taxa.
Most recently, my wife and I home schooled two boys and had to review a lot
of textbooks.
Sadly, one reason that evolution might have lately be avoided is the school
prayer/separation of church/state "junk" jurisprudence the courts have
vomited out (how's that for ad hominum).
How can you avoid teaching the two sides of the argument if you cannot even
mention the Biblical side of the debate without making someone angry that
you for even mentioned Judeo-Christianity?
Jay
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Schneider" <rjschn39@bellsouth.net>
To: "Howard J. Van Till" <hvantill@chartermi.net>; <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 3:05 PM
Subject: Re: Student perceptions re evolution
> Jay's substitution of "so many" for "so often" does not make such a
sweeping
> indictment any less palatable, and Howard's challenge for empirical
evidence
> still stands.
>
> One of the major difficulties that stand in the way of carrying on a
serious
> discussion and debate over the merits of the evolutionary paradigm is that
> it has become so stuck in the culture wars. One gets bombarded with
> sweeping accusations and ad hominem characterizations that add nothing
> positive to the discussion and serve only to raise hackles.
>
> From my own experience of trying to teach the main features of evolution
to
> students who have come armed and armored, I know how frustrating such an
> experience is, and it must be even more so for biology teachers in public
> schools, who often have to walk on eggshells with school board members,
> local pastors and parents looking over their shoulders. What I learned
from
> the seniors in my college seminar is that 80% were not exposed to
evolution
> in their high school biology or science classes, mainly because "the
teacher
> skipped that chapter." Why, is not hard to guess. They are as much
> casualties in the culture wars as their students who are kept in
ignorance.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Howard J. Van Till" <hvantill@chartermi.net>
> To: <asa@calvin.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 1:51 PM
> Subject: Re: Student perceptions re evolution
>
>
> > >From: "Jay Willingham" <jaywillingham@cfl.rr.com>
> >
> > > Conversely, teachers of evolution so often teach it as proof that
there
> is
> > > no God and the Bible is a pack of lies.
> >
> > What is the basis for this serious accusation against "teachers of
> > evolution," many of whom are Christians?
> >
> > Do you have the strength of empirical evidence on your side?
> >
> > Would you approve of scientists making assertions on the basis of
evidence
> > of the same quality?
> >
> > Would it be any less accurate to say, "Preachers of Christianity so
often
> > use the Bible as proof that macro-evolution did not occur and that
science
> > is a pack of lies."?
> >
> > Howard Van Till
> >
>
>
>
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