Newspeak from the Ministry of Truth
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Pirate modeHmmm. Let’s see. Intelligent Design creationists made a big push in Minnesota. They had a friendly education commissioner who stacked the deck in their favor, and when the sensible scientists, educators, and citizens who wrote the science standards came up with a darn good document, she formed a special committee of creationists to put together revisions. End result: the revisions were scrapped, and our conservative stealth creationist commissioner finds herself thrown out on her ear.
Sounds like a defeat for Intelligent Design to me.
But no! How could I be so deluded? The Discovery Institute has declared it a victory!
Minnesota has become the second state to require students to know about scientific evidence critical of Darwinian evolution in its newly adopted science standards. On May 15, the Minnesota legislature adopted new science standards that include a benchmark requiring students to be able to explain how new evidence can challenge existing scientific theories, including the theory of evolution.
The benchmark reads, “The student will be able to explain how scientific and technological innovations as well as new evidence can challenge portions of or entire accepted theories and models including “...theory of evolution. ...” The benchmark is included in the “History and Nature of Science,” strand of the science standards for grades 9-12.
“This is a significant victory for the vast majority of Americans who favor teaching evolution but who want it taught fully, including scientific criticisms of the theory,” said Dr. John West, Associate Director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. Discovery Institute supports teaching students more about evolutionary theory, including introducing them to mainstream, peer-reviewed scientific debates over key aspects of modern evolutionary theory (known as neo-Darwinism).
Dr. West added that he expected some Darwin-only supporters would try to downplay or ignore the new benchmark. “Undoubtedly some Darwin-only supporters will claim that the standard doesn’t really mean what it says, or that schools don’t really need to follow it. Minnesotans who support the standard will need to make sure that it is actually implemented in Minnesota schools.”
When these guys speak, you know they are lying. They’ve changed their logo and name so many times, they might as well just go straight to the most appropriate one: Ministry of Truth.
I think that the Discovery Institute does have a little to brag about in the new standards. They seem to be able to effectively slip in small jams at evolution while scientists/legislators are busy preventing the major changes (such as the DI goal of preventing evolution from being taught or having creationism taught as an equally valid theory).
Included below is the bit that the DI is bragging about in their press release. This standard helps to single out evolution as one of the theories that could be or has been challenged by new evidence. This standard should have said that ALL theories can be challenged by new evidence. I personally sent a criticism of this standard to the MN Department of Education, but I received no reply and the criticism was not included in the list of public comments. The DI seems to be getting smarter by proposing a short list of theories that can be questioned, instead of mentioning only evolution. The trick seems to have worked for them this time. Of course many of the theories that were chosen for inclusion in the short list have some tie to origins of life, the age of the Earth/universe or demon possession (just a coincidence, right).
http://education.state.mn.us
GRADES 9–12
I. HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE
A. Scientific World View
2. Be able to explain how scientific and technological innovations as well as new evidence can challenge portions of or entire accepted theories and models including but not limited to cell theory, atomic theory, theory of evolution, plate tectonic theory, germ theory of disease and big bang theory.