Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Evolution wins in Florida

For the first time, evolution has made it into Florida's science standards. In case you haven't been following, this comes at a time when several districts were trying to impose anti-evolution rhetoric into the standards with the old "just a theory" canard.

To placate these equivocators, the board decided to remind everyone that it is a scientific theory. Not a bad concession, but why not remind them that gravity is just a theory too?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not too bad methinks. Students will have to be told what a scientific theory actually is. That can be compared with belief, which is just that.

Tendu said...

No, no according to my friend gravity is not a theory, it is a law according to her 8th grade text book (that she still has because she stole it), and Newton has never been proved wrong
...
Anyway, I seen this story as well, although the article I cited in my blog seemed a bit slanted. I'm just hoping that a good definition of a scientific theory is provided. If I had a dollar every time someone said to me "It's just a theory...".

Jon Voisey said...

You mean aside from Newtonian gravity not being able to account for the motion of Mercury and Einstein fixing Newton's "laws"?

Rainedaye said...

No, no according to my friend gravity is not a theory, it is a law according to her 8th grade text book (that she still has because she stole it), and Newton has never been proved wrong
...
Anyway, I seen this story as well, although the article I cited in my blog seemed a bit slanted. I'm just hoping that a good definition of a scientific theory is provided. If I had a dollar every time someone said to me "It's just a theory...".