[extropy-chat] Intelligent Design: I'm not dead yet

[kevinfreels.com]

No. This is completely wrong. Intelligence has nothing to do with it. It is
education.
When I was a kid, I was a "gifted student". By the time I left high school,
I was average. For severa; years I thougth I was just average and only found
my hidden geek self again in my mid 20s. By then I knew the creation story
was bologna, but evolution didn't seem sensible to me either. I would often
spout such things to friends as "I have a third theory. Aliens are
responsible". And I truly believed this was the most likely scenario.

It wasn't until my late 20s while doing some self-directed research that I
stumbled onto an old copy of "Origins" by Richard Leakey. This book turned
me onto a path that I never knew existed. Before I knew it, I had a
fundamental understanding of evolution and became obsessed with it. Now,
several years later, I am amazed at my own ignorance before. Even more
amazing is the fact that many, many people thought the same way as I did
about evolution.

I have attempted to figure out what details made the difference and here
they are:

1.) High school students are not taught the scientific method properly and
have no clue as to the difference between an opinion and a theory.

2.) High school teachers teach evolution only half-heartedly. They fear
reprisal if they actually convince children of the correctness of evolution.
(I was told this by 8 different science teachers while interviewing them for
a report for an online class several years ago)

3.) Educators on all levels fail to recognize the importance of
understanding natural selection and common descent in our daily lives.

4.) Educators fail to emphasize and teach the difference between
exponentially increasing numbers - therefore most people simply can't
comprehend the difference between 10,000 years, a million years, and a
billion years.

5.) Science teachers fail completely to teach the basics of how genetic
mutation occurs and how cumulutive effects can vary in populatoins leading
to speciation. Again, this is likely due to fear of actually persuading
science students to believe that evolution is real.

6.) The philosophical questions of the origins of life are never addressed
at all in school.

The basics of evolution can be found in nearly any college basic
anthropology or biology textbook yet many college students arrive knowing
little about evolution. People of all levels of intelligence are affected by
this. Our schools have created a population where even educated and
intelligent people in science, medicine, and technology simply do not
understand the basic concepts of common descent, natural selection, and
cumulative changes in isolated populations leading to speciation.

I believe that many people could be properly convinced if they could be
taken one on one and taught. But like many things, this simply cannot be won
with sound bites and short phrases. Instead, we need to see a fundamental
change in our educational system that throws out creation ideas and teaches
evolution properly. It needs people like us to become teachers of grade
school kids instead of taking on the higher paying jobs we have now.

Due to recent statements from the Vatican, I am inclined to think that a
partnership with them may actually help in these matters. They seem fairly
open to scientific ideas lately. They know that things such as evolution are
simply no longer debatable and have probably learned from the past that they
need to position themselves to concur with reality and lead if they want to
have any validity at all. This is especially important after all the
priest/boy fiascos bringing the catholic church under fire. If they played
their cards right they may be on the verge of a major shift in religion back
to catholocism using science as it's means to do this. Has anyone from the
Extropy Inst. considered developing a dialog with the Vatican?

I can see it now. I make a backup of myself. My body dies and I restore
myself from a backup. The shrinking Baptist church claims that I am an
abomination. Meanwhile, the catholic church holds me up as "proof of God's
great glory". :-)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Samantha Atkins" <sjatkins at mac.com>
To: "ExI chat list" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 10:57 PM
Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Intelligent Design: I'm not dead yet


>
> On Jan 26, 2006, at 8:18 AM, Robert Bradbury wrote:
>
> > Slashdot is reporting [1] that the BBC is reporting [2] that more
> > than 50% of the people in Britian do not believe in evolution and
> > more than 40% support the teaching of creationism or intelligent
> > design.  So this isn't a problem for the United States only.
> >
>
> Hmm.  So perhaps we should take it as a given that the 50% of the
> population below average intelligence in IQ or by choice just simply
> isn't worth attempting to convince of much of anything.
>
> - samantha
>
>
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