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Re: [Phys-L] John Lienhard on Absolutism, Evolution and Education, Engines of our Ingenuity No.2132

I think that, in general, we trust that most scientists are honest in their reporting and that the
peer review process works. However, there are some topics that scientists and teachers of
science should take the time to fully understand the evidence and theoretical underpinnings
for, such as climate change, the modern theory of evolution, the Big Bang, standard model,
etc.

Too many physicists blindly accept the ideas of climate change without ever looking at the
details of the climate models, the historical temperature data, measurement techniques, etc.
This topic is too important to not find out the details because it is a highly politicized field and
people are trying to advance their political agendas. Scientists should be skeptics and work
through the evidence before being convinced one way or the other. This is essential to
improve the quality of the science and to improve our ability to communicate the findings to
the general public.


On 11 Jun 2013 at 12:40, Marty Weiss wrote:

From: Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>
Date sent: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:40:05 -0400
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] John Lienhard on Absolutism, Evolution and Education,
Engines of our Ingenuity No.2132
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Depends on who the authority is.... Do you equate an authority on the Bible who counted the generations from Adam and comes up with an age of 6000 years, or 5773 to be precise, as being on equal footing as an authority in, say neuroscience, who has done experiments on mice brains and has developed a hypothesis on learning? Even though a physicist may not be expert in neuroscience or the Bible, should he trust the neurobiologist and the theologian equally?

Yes, I know the following argument... scientists cheat. That happens, but if we distrust every hypothesis in every field because of a few rotten apples what happens to science as a whole? And does that mean we have to teach the Biblical depiction of events as being equal to the work of scientists?

On Jun 11, 2013, at 12:18 PM, Ludwik Kowalski wrote:

ONCE AGAIN:

Yes indeed! Scientists are not very different from theologians, in that respect. They also often accept findings on the basis of authority; it is practically impossible to confirm everything through personal investigations. Do you agree?

Ludwik
===================================================================================
On Jun 10, 2013, at 8:32 PM, marx@phy.ilstu.edu wrote:


If the majority of the American public does not accept the modern theory
of evolution, then it means two things:

1. the educational system fails to teach how science really works, that it
is a creative human endeavor to increase human knowledge of the universe
and that it necessarily excludes the supernatural from its explanations;
and

2. the educational system has failed to adequately provide evidence and a
proper explanation of the theoretical framework.

Why should we expect people to accept what science says, just because we
say it is so?

Nowadays, even scientists take the easy way out and just accept the
findings of scientists from other disciplines (sometimes their own
discipline), without taking the time to look at the evidence or
understanding the theoretical underpinnings.




On 6/10/2013 3:16 PM, John Clement wrote:
See the link below:

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2132.htm No. 2132 ABSOLUTISM

This is one of the most stinging inditements of our educational system
and
our society. We rank with Turkey, below all other European contries and
Japan.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX
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Forum for Physics Educators
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Uh? It's an opinion piece - no supporting data that I noticed....

Brian Whatcott Altus OK
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_______________________________________________
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_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@phys-l.org
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