{"id":581154,"date":"2010-05-27T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/badastronomy\/?p=16293"},"modified":"2010-05-27T10:00:44","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T14:00:44","slug":"when-a-biologist-teaches-creationism-bad-astronomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/581154","title":{"rendered":"When a biologist teaches creationism | Bad Astronomy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A while back, a young blogger named Jaden wrote about his college biology teacher<\/a> who used the opportunity of his class to teach creationism and abstinence:<\/p>\n

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He started off his discussion by saying that there are two ideas (not theories, but ideas) of how life became how it is on Earth. He closed the classroom\u2019s door. Once the door was closed, he glossed over the scientific explanation very quickly (less than 20 seconds), then explained Creationism for about five minutes (5000 year old Earth, no evolution, etc). He then said that accepted scientific thought is the first, and that\u2019s what the school wants him to teach, \u201c\u2026but we all know which one is right.\u201d WHOA! […] After he finished his Creationism lecture, he opened the classroom door again.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yegads. That post was from April 23. Now that classes are over and grades finalized, on May 21 Jaden gave details<\/a>. He did what I would’ve: approached the Dean of Science and told her the biology teacher was a crackpot.<\/p>\n

What happened?
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[The Dean] acted like I was being unreasonable. She said two things that really sit poorly with me. She told me that he is completely entitled to share his opinions in class. Then, she said eluded to the fact that I\u2019m being intolerant of his beliefs and need to show more respect for him.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ha!<\/p>\n

First, this is not public high school, so the teacher can, if he so pleases, teach that Thor created the Universe by cracking an ostrich egg in two and then dancing around nude on one foot while swinging a lawn mower blade around his head (being careful not to nick his winged helm, of course). He can<\/em> do that, but should he do that there should be repercussions. Just as there should be if he teaches creationism, a provably wrong idea that goes counter to everything a science class represents.<\/p>\n

But clearly the Dean disagrees. Here’s what Jaden learned:<\/p>\n

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What I took away from this meeting with Dr. Williams was that my school didn\u2019t care about science content in its science classes. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He’s right. The next step I would take would be to talk to the people that accredit colleges in Oklahoma. I am not saying that Jaden’s college should have their accreditation taken away, but I certainly think a focused and deep investigation is warranted. What other wacky (and useless) stuff is being taught there?<\/p>\n

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A while back, a young blogger named Jaden wrote about his college biology teacher who used the opportunity of his class to teach creationism and abstinence: He started off his discussion by saying that there are two ideas (not theories, but ideas) of how life became how it is on Earth. He closed the classroom\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}