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Unfortuantely, most legislators are ignorant when it comes to science.
It seems a gross parody of our country that the Framers were well versed
in science and it's been downhill ever since. With the introduction
of a President and Attorney General who have made it their duty to blur
the lines between the separation of church and state, states are gaining
more confidence in their fight to protect their cherished religious
beliefs by filtering out ideas that challenge those beliefs.
Oklahoma is but one of several states that have added a disclaimer
notice to any and every science textbook that mentions evolution. This
disclaimer has various effects:
- It plants seeds of doubt in a student's mind about a subject.
- It confuses the student on the validity of any and all science.
- It creates controversy; teachers typically stay away from controversy
so they glibly go over the subject or fail to mention it in the first
place.
Below is the original text of the Oklahaoma disclaimer, followed by
a parody that attempts to illuminate the fallacies of the original...
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Message from
the Oklahoma State Textbook Committee:
This textbook
discusses evolution, a controversial theory, which some scientists
present as scientific explanation for the origin of living things,
such as plants and humans.
No one was
present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any statement
about life's origins should be considered as theory, not fact.
The word evolution may refer to many types of change. Evolution
describes changes that occur within a species. (White moths, for
example, may evolve into gray moths). This process is micro evolution,
which can be observed and described as fact. Evolution may also
refer to the change of one living thing into another, such as
reptiles into birds. This process, called macro evolution, has
never been observed and should be considered a theory. Evolution
also refers to the unproven belief that random, undirected forces
produced a world of living things.
There are many
unanswered questions about the origin of life, which are not mentioned
in your textbook, including: Why did the major groups of animals
suddenly appear in the fossil record, known as the Cambrian Explosion?
Why have no new major groups of living things appeared in the
fossil record in a long time? Why do major groups of plants and
animals have no transitional forms in the fossil record? How did
you and all living things come to possess such a complete and
complex set of instructions for building a living body? Study
hard and keep an open mind. Someday you may contribute to the
theories of how living things appeared on earth.
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Another message
from the Oklahoma State Textbook Committee:
This textbook
discusses heliocentrism, a notorious theory, which a couple of
scientists present as a scientific explanation for the way the
planets and the sun move around each other.
Nobody has
ever actually seen the Earth revolve around the Sun. Therefore,
any statement about the solar system's dynamics should be considered
as pure speculation, not actual reality. The word centrism refers
to what is the center of the solar system. Centrism describes
which object revolves around which (satellites from foreign governments
used to spy on patriotic Americans, for example, may revolve around
the Earth). This process is micro centrism, which can be observed
and described as fact. Centrism may also refer to how planets,
moons, stars and comets revolve around each other. This process,
called macro centrism, has never, ever, ever been observed and
should be considered as just a theory (something that is untrue
until proven guilty). Centrism also refers to the novel conviction
that gravity is a force of nature.
There are many
unanswered questions about the solar system, which are not mentioned
in your textbook, including: Why did all the planets suddenly
appear out of nowhere 6000 to 4.6 billion years ago? Why have
no new planets or stars appeared in recorded history? And isn't
it so blatantly clear that both the Sun and the Moon revolve around
the Earth in the same way? How can two celestial bodies move in
exactly the same way yet different?
Study really
hard and let your mind open itself to all explanations for everything
in the universe no matter how minutely probable or silly. Someday
you may be a factor in destroying science as we know it.
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