Brazilian and Worldwide Scientific Journalism Hysteria
|
Author: Enezio
E. de Almeida Filho |
Essays by
Author |
Enezio E. de
Almeida Filho credentials:
Science
Education/History of Science Researcher
Master of Arts
in Biblical Studies - Dallas Theological Seminary
History of
Science Graduate Student at
PUC
(Pontificate Catholic University) Sao Paulo - Brazil
e-mail: neddy@uol.com.br
Contrary to what was widely disclosed
by the Brazilian media as well as by the international media about the Kansas
Board of Education's decision, the Darwinian theory of evolution and the Big
Bang model will continue to be taught in that state. Students will not be
assessed in areas where the most distinguished experts' opinions are in
disagreement. A fair reading of the KBOE standards, newspapers, magazines and
specialized journals confirms this.
Thus, the Brazilian media not only
wasted a great chance for an ample debate but it just took a ride in the
radical neo-Darwinist American media hysteria: "religious bias",
"it will be the end of knowledge" and "harmful to
education" and other unsupported clichés.
It simply did not hear the other side. What really decided the KBOE and the
worldwide media failed to truthfully report as headlines? An impartial reading
of the final draft published in August [unfortunately it is not posted anymore
at http://www.ksbe.state.ks.us/cgi-bin/science_stds] settles the issue.
Contrary to reports published in Brazil as well in the rest of the world, the
KBOE's decision only increased five times the teaching of those subjects
compared to previous standards in that state.
The polemical decision taken by the
KBOE was to reject the demand on teachers to teach students that Darwinian
macro-evolution [General Theory of Evolution] is an established scientific
fact. The KBOE's decision should be better understood as the waking up from the
slumbers of a decided opinion. A rational protest against an empirical unwarranted
scientific theory is nowadays beyond the reach of scientific and rational
criticism. It should be extolled for they took a brave decision in defending
the students' intellectual right to exam all the evidences - for and against
any scientific theory. Without this academic freedom, the teaching-learning
process does not happen. We do not have education [how to critically think] but
indoctrination [what to think].
Besides being
a good idea to ask questions such as "What is the theory of
evolution?" Questions such as "What role does it really have in
Biology and in science?" "What is a scientific theory?" "Is
it really an established scientific fact?" There are other questions that
scientific journalists should dare to ask scientists about: "Are the
fossil discontinuities in the fossil record really compatible with the idea of
a gradual and continuous change in living beings?" "What does the
Cambrian explosion mean when all living beings basic forms erupted complete and
suddenly?" "What does it mean the language found in the DNA for which
there is no natural forces able to produce such complex information?"
The episode in Kansas, contrary to what
was sensationally published by the media, was not a question of teaching
religion in the classrooms; rather it was one for teaching Darwinism honestly
-- without any attempts to cover its weaknesses with ideological/philosophical
dogmas. Maybe the international media and the scientific Nomenklatura have
hysterically reacted because they are really worried with what the students
will finally find out -- Darwin is naked and we are watching the labor pains of
a paradigm shift in Biology: Intelligent Design!
Let
KBOE brave tribe increase throughout the world for science's sake!
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