Science Progress and
Scientific Illiteracy:
From the Classroom to
Washington
Progress: What and for
Whom
Cuyahoga Community College
March 1, 2003
Progress?
• Being able to explain things one couldn’t
explain before
• Being able to explore things one couldn’t
before
• Being able to build things one couldn’t
before
• Understanding ourselves and our place in
the Universe better than we did before
• Overcoming myth, superstition, and
nonsense
Progress?
Science has made unbelievable strides in the past
century, leading to new insights and new
understanding!
These insights have not been communicated to
the public, and our democracy cannot progress
unless they are.
Science Under Attack?
Scientific Ignorance pervades our society.
At the same time, science is either being
attacked, or at the very least marginalized at
all levels, from the White House to the high
school classroom.
In March 1996, Presidential Candidate Patrick
Buchanan asserted ABC’s This Week, that he
personally was not descended from monkeys, and
he didn’t think children should be taught that they
are. Not a single reporter questioning the
candidate asked about this assertion, although he
was subjected to harsh criticism of his positions on
trade protectionism, and immigration limits---all
issues about which there is much more room for
debate.
Fallacy self-evident???
• Hesitancy to offend religious sensibilities?
• Hesitancy to state that some things are NOT
open for debate…
Journalism:
There are always two sides to every story
Science:
Most times one side is simply wrong
Because of lack of comfort on scientific matters
there is a hesitancy for many journalists to make
pronouncements….
• National Anchor fears…
• NYT…
SCIENCE AS NON-CULTURE!
This makes it difficult to
distinguish nonsense from sense..
FOX “NEWS”….. 50th anniversary 1997
John English, International Aerospace Hall of
Fame…
Religious Sect Announces the First Cloned Baby
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. (New York Times)
A religious sect that contends that space travelers created the human
race by cloning themselves declared today that the first cloned human
had been born
…Raëlians are followers of Raël, a French-born former race-car
driver who has said he met a four-foot space alien atop a volcano in
southern France in 1973 and went aboard his ship, where he was
entertained by voluptuous female robots and learned that the first
humans were created 25,000 years ago by space travelers called
Elohim, who cloned themselves.
Evolution… Human Archaelogical Record.. Hominid
Species..5 million years
Some Facts and Figures
• The fraction of school children believing in astrology rose
from 40 percent to 59 percent between 1978 and 1984.
• In a 2001 NSF Survey on Science Literacy:
• 53% of American adults were unaware that the last dinosaur died
before the first human arose.
• 50% of adults knew that the earth orbits the sun, and takes a year
to do it.
• 53% of adults knew that: “Human beings, as we know them today,
developed from earlier species of animals.
• 30% of Ohio adults surveyed in 2002 stated their belief
that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old.
In a democratic society…. Everything
should be open to debate!
EXPERIMENT
….. THE EARTH IS NOT FLAT!
“It appears to me that they who rely simply on
the weight of authority to prove any assertion,
without searching out the arguments to support it,
act absurdly. I wish to question freely and to
answer freely without any sort of adulation. That
well becomes any who are sincere in the search
for truth.”
V. Galilei, 1574
“I believe in an open mind, but not so open that
your brains fall out.”
Arthur Hays Sulzberger
Publisher, New York Times 1935-61
WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
Truth blurred!….
We are too afraid of offending
religious/cultural sensibilities… even
when those sensibilities are wrong!!!
TOO OPEN A MIND?
• 1925
State of Tennessee convicts John T. Scopes of the
crime of teaching evolution
• 1968 in Epperson v. Arkansas, Supreme Court rules that
states cannot ban the teaching of evolution on religious
grounds
• 1982 Federal district court rules in McLean v.Arkansas
Board of Education that “creation science” is in fact religion.
• 1987 in Edwards v. Aguillard, the Supreme Court reaffirms
1982 decision. But dissenting opinion raises idea of
“evidence against evolution”
• 1999
Kansas State Board of Education votes to remove
evolution from state science curriculum
• 2002 Ohio Board of Education developing new science
curriculum. Debates inclusion of “Intelligent Design”, and
Intelligent Design:
• Open-Mindedness
• Honesty
• Fairness
Intelligent Design:
• Closed Minded
• Dishonest
• Unfair!
Science is a particular way of knowing about
the world. In science, explanations are limited
to those based on observations and experiments
that can be substantiated by other scientists.
Explanations that cannot be based on empirical
evidence are not a part of science…
Science and Creationism
The National Academy of Sciences
“Science standards use a little known “Rule” to
censor the evidence of design. The Rule, which is
usually unstated, is often referred to as
“methodological naturalism.” “
= Scientific Method!
Source: Science Excellence for all Ohioans
http://www.sciohio.org/start.htm
WHAT IS INTELLIGENT
DESIGN?:
INTELLIGENT DESIGN HAS NEVER BEEN
SUBJECTED TO THE MOULDING AND
DEVELOPMENT THAT OCCURS WHEN
SCIENTIFIC IDEAS ARE SUBJECTED TO
YEARS OF EXPERIMENTAL DEVELOPMENT
AND PEER REVEW!
WHAT IS INTELLIGENT
DESIGN?:
INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS SIMPLY :
OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION!
“THE
WEDGE STRATEGY (1998)
Governing Goals
* To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive
moral, cultural and political legacies.
* To replace materialistic explanations with the
theistic understanding that nature and human beings
are created by God.
Five Year Goals
* To see intelligent design theory as an accepted
alternative in the sciences and scientific research being
done from the perspective of design theory.
*begin attacking science teaching in public schools
….
The Scriptures are absolutely true.
However, if
the Scriptures appear to disagree with the results
of scientific investigation, one should re-examine
one’s interpretation of the Scriptures.
Maimonides, A Guide for the Perplexed
Intelligent Design: Non-Science at Work?
1. What predictions does it make?
Intelligent Design: Non-Science at Work?
Humans designed?
•
•
•
Fallen arches
Back problems…..
….
The National Academy of
Science
Special creation or supernatural intervention is not
subjectable to meaningful tests, which require predicting
plausible results and then checking these results through
observation and experimentation…
Wesley R. Elsberry: Ph.D. candidate in Wildlife and
Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University
"Oct. 25-27, "Research and Progress in Intelligent Design"
conference, Biola U., La Mirada, CA.: "Its purpose is to
form new collaborations among scientists seeking to do
research on the interface between science and faith,
particularly within the context of ID.” It will cover a broad
range of topics, from fine-tuning in physics and habitability
to molecular machines in bacteria. E-mail:
gonzog@aistate.edu"
BACK
Teach the the
Controversy?
Manufacture
Controversy?
In a survey of over 10 million articles in over
20 major science journals during the past 12
years:
• 115,000 articles that used the keyword "evolution," -most
referred to biological evolution.
• "Intelligent design," appeared in 88 articles. All but 11 of
those were engineering articles
• of the remaining 11, 8 were critical of the scientific basis
of intelligent-design
• The remaining 3 were not in research journals
An Ohio Example…
• For the first time in the 77 years following the Scopes trial,
the word "evolution" appears in the science standards
proposed by ODE
• An apparently innocuous phrase suggests that students learn
"how scientists continue to investigate and critically analyze
aspects of evolutionary theory.”
• ODE Standards Committee: “This does not support the
teaching of intelligent design in the classroom”
• Stephen Meyer (Discovery Inst): “A victory for the
principle of teaching the contoversy
• Philip Johnson: “Ohio is not a minor state.. Kansas is a
marginal state -- not one the Eastern establishment pays
much attention to..” Ohio's decision is a victory in the battle
to free science classes from the grip of Charles Darwin”.
“The First Amendment protects against the
government establishment of religion, but that
doesn’t mean it will protect against bad
science.”
Eugenie Scott,
Director, National Center for Science Ed.
BACK
Novel
Intelligent
Scientific
Design
Claim
Theory
Research
Peer Review
Calls for the Teaching
of “ID Theory” amount
to an attempt to ShortCircuit the Process of
Science Itself.
Scientific
Consensus
Classroom &
Textbook
Science is NOT FAIR!
NOT ALL IDEAS TREATED
EQUALLY!
THE GREATEST LEGACY
OF SCIENCE.
After the Columbine school shootings, House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay (a former biology
major) suggested that the tragedy had occurred
"because our school systems teach our children that
they are nothing but glorified apes who have
evolutionized out of some primordial mud.
These are the people who will be
legislating on such issues as stem cell
research!!!
Science Fiction in Washington..
On March23, 1983, President Reagan called upon “the
scientific community in our country, those who gave us
nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents to the cause of
mankind and world peace; to give us a means of rendering
these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.”
STAR WARS!!!
ALL STARSHIPS WORTH THEIR SALT HAVE
SHIELDS….
• THE SPIRIT OF AMERICAN ENTERPRISE!
• NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!
"Yeah, but 300 years ago people would have
said it would be impossible to fly!"
• There is probably more we do not know
about the Universe than we do know.
• BUT : WE DO KNOW SOMETHING!
• Balls fall down
• The Earth is round
• We know how electromagnetism works
• The Earth is billions of years old, not
thousands!
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•
•
•
•
1972 ABM Treaty
Intercepting the Moon?
Decoys are cheaper than missiles!
Missiles are cheaper than interceptors!
Probabilities: more reliable than any
system…. Compare to space shuttle…
• AT LEAST GET IT TO WORK BEFORE
DEPLOYING! 40% success rate thus far.
• 100 billion dollars at stake!!
In April 2000, the APS Council stated: "The United States
should not make a deployment decision relative to the planned
National Missile Defense system unless that system is shown
through analysis and intercept tests to be effective against the
types of offensive countermeasures that an attacker could
reasonably be expected to deploy with its long-range missiles."
Now the Bush administration is proposing to exempt the
Pentagon's controversial missile defense from testing!
• Would it be acceptable for General Motors
to begin marketing a new SUV when trials
had shown that 60% of the time it toppled
over when turning a curve at greater than 50
km/hr?
• Would it be acceptable to build nuclear
power plants if there was a 60% failure rate
in all prototypes?
Democracy and Technology..
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MISSILE DEFENSE
Global Warming
Stem Cells
International Space Station
Biological weapons
….
The National Academy of Sciences convened an expert panel
to assess the Bush administration plans for examining the
effects of global warming. The panel concluded that the
supposed research program proposed by the administration
was anything but, arguing that it lacks "a guiding vision,
executable goals, clear timetables and criteria for measuring
progress, an assessment of whether existing programs are
capable of meeting these goals, explicit prioritization and a
management plan." In short, it lacks the characteristics on
which empirical science is based!
At the same time Pentagon budget planners made it clear
that the proposed war in Iraq could easily exceed the $100
billion level once estimated by former Bush economic
adviser Lawrence Lindsey, whose estimate was ridiculed by
senior members of the administration as recently as this
month. It seems that earlier, much lower figures, did not
take into account the obvious requirements of money
promised to compensate allies hurt during the war, or to
provide what will be at least 6 months of significant US
occupation of Iraq following an even short, successful
invasion.
In the Wall Street Journal this week, Shirley Tilghman and
David Baltimore, internationally known biologists, and the
Presidents respectively of Princeton and Caltech, point out that
human reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning to produce
stem cells that might be used for research are completely
different biological investigations and that a wholesale ban on
cloning designed to stop efforts to produce the former would
have dire consequences for important biological research on the
latter in this country. Yet the house passed such a wholesale
ban, driven as much by inappropriate fears of science as by
sound thinking.
“Political” Science
• The National Cancer Institute, which used to say on its
Web site that the best studies showed "no association
between abortion and breast cancer," now says the
evidence is inconclusive.
• A Web page of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention used to say studies showed that education about
condom use did not lead to earlier or increased sexual
activity. That statement, which contradicts the view of
"abstinence only" advocates, is omitted from a revised
version of the page.
How are we to trust claims regarding the possession and
possible threats from weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq, or of the strategic imperative to invade at this time
when we cannot trust that our government is not willing
to subvert or ignore objective scientific evidence in favor
of religious or political dogma in other important policy
arenas?
WE CANNOT!
When we discuss a possible attack on Iraq at this
time, we must understand that the antagonists
include the ONLY country to have been condemned
for international terrorism by the World Court (in
1986), and that also rejected a Security Council
resolution calling on states to observe international
law.
I refer here not to Iraq, but to the United States!
Indeed, the United States has a long history of
unilateral, terrorist action against sovereign
nations to further its perceived national interest.
US TERRORISM..
• 1985: Reagan Admin Truck Bombing in Beirut:
killed 80 and wounded 250 outside a mosque
• Supplied weapons to Saddam Hussein during
period of his gassing of Kurds.
• Created terrorist army in Afghanistan
• Provided arms for Turkey to crush Kurds
• Clinton bombing of Al-Shifa pharmaceutical
plant…
• Lumumba assassination in Congo..overthrow of
democratic govts in Gautemala in 1954 or in Chile
decades later..
How would we respond if half of the
pharmaceutical supplies of our country were
destroyed. We should ask how we would
respond if Iraq, say, introduced a new “Strategic
Doctrine” that granted itself rights to attack
“preemptively” on other countries if it perceives a
possible risk to its own self-defense, as the US
now claims the right to do. If this were the case,
they would be crazy not to attack the US now…
THE UNIVERSE IS A REMARKABLE
PLACE WITHOUT ALL THE JUNK!
Only when we are willing to accept the Universe
for what it is, without myth, without fear, will we
be able to build a just society.
Scientific ethos: honesty, open mindedness,
creativity, egalitarian, full disclosure…
Science works!
Once we allow truth to be blurred with
impunity in one important area of human
activity, we jeopardize the very basis of a
healthy democratic society.