exactly! the sad, sad fact is that for decades school children have been taught not to think, it has in fact been actively discouraged at most schools, and those of us who could think critically and independently were often seen as a discipline problem, rather than something truly wonderful. i do not think this is accidental. cows are far easier to control than people with a strong will and the capability to question "the truth". many teachers, school administrators and others want class rooms full of smiling cattle who never correct even the most obvious mistake made by a teacher, i've seen this in action many times. part of the problem is also the tragic decline in language skills, which helps people believe that a fact is a fact when they are just widely held beliefs and science offers no absolute facts, nor is it meant to. =20 science is meant to offer an ever improving model and understanding of things, always subject to change and enhancement, always open to scrutiny and question. religion is the opposite of this, it can have no validity if it changes even a little bit. of course as society learns it stops tolerating old religious "truths" and the religion is forced to change eventually, as even the catholic church has. in the context of moral absolutes it is difficult to understand how religious teachings can change. science avoids this pitfall by being inherently open to change, and indeed even seeking it and welcoming it (other than those practitioners who've made a religion our of certain theories and inevitably hold science back, those who have learned a great deal about science but never embraced the scientific method). =20 yes, evolution is a THEORY, and it's flawed as all theories are, and it changes over time to become less flawed, this is the beauty of science and the open mind. gravity is also a theory to the physicist, but no one is foolish enough to question the value of that theory (well, they did for awhile, the church was very unhappy about the early days of ballistic theory and what it said about the flight of a cannon ball, but the church lost because science was a lot closer to "right" than the priest were and armies valued the theory that was actually useful). =20 the wonderful thing about a free country is that you are allowed to passionately insist the world is flat if you happen to believe that for whatever warped reason. you are also allowed to believe in creationism if you are a fool, or evolution if you are somewhat more practical. i was always amazed at the incredibly dismissive tone taken by my teachers when they talked about the old greek "legends", which were in fact the religion at the time for those folks, every bit as real as christianity or any other religion is now to it's followers, and yet you don't dare call christ a legendary god and laugh at how foolish people were to believe in it. odd, don't you think? i do not in general think christians are fools, nor do i think they are particularly enlightened. Wouter van Ooijen wrote: >=20 > > =93This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theor= y, > > not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material > > should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and > > critically considered.=94 >=20 > This whole creation versus evolution thing makes me both laugh and weep. > Science creates theories, not facts. Anyone who doubts that should stud= y > the science of science. What Faith(s) create(s) I'll leave to others, > you would not like my opinion. Of course everything should be studied > with and open mind. If you learn your children that in the first place > no such stickers would be needed at all. I suppose these stickers are > (with slightly changed text) are also put on Bibles, Korans, Laws, and > of course Microchip Datasheets? No, don't put them on anything said or > written by politicians or lawyers, the idea that such texts should be > studied at all makes no sense. >=20 > I don't know where to put the weepy in my text, so I put it here :( >=20 > Wouter van Ooijen -------- --=20 Just the truth Corporate controlled news is white washing, the real motives and aims of heir Bush: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6895.htm http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7369.htm http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7370.htm _______________________________________________ http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist