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Re: [Phys-l] Another alternative theory horror

Modern Biology in today's world is so completely connected with all the other sciences in ways which would mystify and confound the early biologists, Darwin included. Take the 1950's for example as a time when bio texts were concerned with physical structure of cells, and general classical genetics, and chemical events in cells were treated in one or two short chapters. DNA was a mystery which the authors hoped would be solved in the future and most high school biology teachers were poorly prepared to explain the marvel of the chemical genetics of the double helix and probably completely in the dark as to how this would benefit us in the next cedecade, not to mention the next century. To the high school students,of that era, Watson and Crick were no more than two little known guys whose picture made a sidebar in the high school textbook, and the double helix was a wonder left to be explored in the better universities if you were lucky enough to encounter a professor whose yellowed lecture notes were somehow updated to included this new discovery. Now, as we know now, through the wonders of chemistry and physics, DNA and all the ramifications thereof form the central thesis of most biology courses and medical research, and in turn has lead to the profound discovery that all organisms have genomes which, for all intents and purposes are the same, It is this series of discoveries that lead us to the underlying theme of all of science, namely that all organisms are related, from the orangutan through the common fly. Modern biological and biochemical research has shown us that this relationship can be expressed in a set of family trees dating back to the millenia when this DNA mutated into the myriad of organisms we recognize today. This, my friend, is what evoilution is all about.
It is quite simply, the most important thesis in modern science of the 21st century, and forms the basis of modern medicine and biochemistry. If you were to visit a major research university today or a modern medical research lab, you would see evolution at work. Mutant strains of germs, mice, rats, flies, and a host of other organisms are used to manipulate the genome in ways which are making or will make headlines in months, years, or decades to come and solve mysteries which were thought unsolvable twenty or even ten years ago . Literally everything we know about the living world, from the ecology of the Amazon rain forest, to the ecology of the salt marshes; from the tiniest of viruses to the most gigantic of carnovores; from how Ebola is transmitted from monkeys to how HIV is spread through bodily fluids... everything!!!... is explained through evolution. One cannot study biology by simply dissecting a frog in a *vacuum*; now the well prepared student must see how the frog's body works through its chemistry and physics, and by doing so we see how it is closely related to our own anatomy and physiology. As I wrote in the start of this essay, all of science is now interconnected through this central theme of evolution. It works, it explains the world, and it simplyt cannot be ignored or denied by anyone who has any knowledge and desire to learn about how things function and how to make things better for all humanity.

Marty
Steve Clark wrote:

This evolution thing sure is a hot button for many. Not entirely sure why.

I have a question. This may not be the best forum to ask it in, but here goes:

Why is evolution considered the central tenet of biology? I'm not a biologist (although I married one), but it looks to me like evolution has become a philosophy and everything in biology is explained with the assumption that evolution is true. And evolution is then supported by using the ideas that were explained by evolution.

I think we could teach every aspect of high school biology in the curriculum without mentioning evolution and have our students know the same concepts as we do now with evolution (of course, with the exception of evolution, itself). If that's true (it may not be), then why is evolution a fundamental principle?

And, please, no attacks on religion or people of faith. This is supposed to be a scientific issue. If you have to attack people's faith, then there is something else at issue here than just a question of good science.

Steve Clark

On Feb 9, 2008, at 1:12 PM, Bernard Cleyet wrote:


LEADING CANDIDATE FOR FLORIDA MAYOR THINKS EVOLUTION IS NAZI IDEA

ST PETERSBURG TIMES - Darwin's theory of evolution helped fuel the
rise of Hitler and contributed to the school-shooting massacre at
Columbine, a former St. Petersburg City Council member wrote in a
letter urging the Pinellas County School Board to expose students to
alternative theories.

"Evolution gives our kids an excuse to believe in natural selection
and survival of the fittest, which leads to a belief that they are
superior over the weak," Bill Foster wrote board members in a letter
received this week. "This is a slippery slope."

He continued: "One of the Columbine shooters wrote on his Web site,
'You know what I love? Natural selection! It's the best thing that
ever happened to the Earth. Getting rid of all the stupid and weak
organisms.'"

Foster, who recently stepped down after being term-limited from
office, is widely considered to be a leading contender to be St.
Petersburg's next mayor in 2009. He said Friday he wrote the letter,
which appears on his law firm's stationery, as the concerned parent
of a high school student. . .

Foster isn't the first Darwin critic to attempt to link evolutionary
theory to violence and racism, but he is the first public figure in
the Florida debate to do so.

After the Columbine shooting in 1999, then-U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay cited
Darwin's theory as a contributing factor, reading a letter into the
Congressional Record that said public schools "teach the children
that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized out
of some primordial soup of mud." This summer, Fort Lauderdale's Coral
Ridge Ministries aired a TV special on Christian cable called
Darwin's Deadly Legacy. "To put it simply, no Darwin, no Hitler,"
said the group's late founder, D. James Kennedy.

Foster echoed those words in his letter: "Adolf Hitler duped an
entire generation using Darwin's evolution," he wrote. "He sought to
preserve the 'favored' race in the struggle for survival."

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/12/Southpinellas/
Foster_links_Darwin__.shtml

from UnderNews

more:

In his letter, Foster said he learned about Darwin in a class at
Northeast High School, where a teacher told him, "There is really no
scientific evidence to support this theory, but if you want to
believe that you descended from monkeys, then feel free to do so."

Becky Steele, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of
Florida, called those statements embarrassing.



bc the article confirms we are a polarized society.

p.s. this is interesting:


Mr. Romney said he was asked about his belief in evolution when he
was interviewed by faculty members for highest honors designations
before his graduation from Brigham Young University.

He told his interviewers that he did not believe there was a
“conflict between true science and true religion,” he said.

“True science and true religion are on exactly the same page,” he
said. “they may come from different angles, but they reach the same
conclusion. I’ve never found a conflict between the science of
evolution and the belief that God created the universe. He uses
scientific tools to do his work.”

The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints has no definitive
position on evolution, and church leaders have disagreed on the issue
over the years.

Mr. Romney said his answer was satisfactory to faculty members. “They
teach evolution at B.Y.U.,” he said.



http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/romney-elaborates-on-
evolution/




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_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l