The Yellow Brick Road leads nowhere...

[John Grehan]

I for one am not suprised about the Kansas decision considering how badly
evolution is taught - at least what I have seen about teaching evolution
is the obsession with evolution having occured or evolution being a fact
rather than evolution as a scientific research program. The persistant
question from students asking what is a particular structure or
other biological feature "for" indicates, to me at leas,t that what students
learn from current evolutionary biology is little better than someone
who would regard themselves as a creationist.

One document I read on teaching evolution produced by a
teaching organization was simply a list of beliefs rather than an outline
of a coherent methdology that would circumscribe evolution as a
scientific research program. Some of the items I would not ascribe
to, so by their doctrine I cannot be an evolutionist. I think proponents
of evolution are creating the problem as much as the creationists.

Given the doctrinal emphasis in the teaching of evolution in
schools and universities, perhaps the Kansas students will
not be so badly off as they will simply be replacing one dogma
with another rather than losing out on learning a scientific methodology.


John Grehan