Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Fact or Theory

The Discovery Channel just came out with a new animal series called Life which airs on Sunday nights. I was excited. The kids are starting to get interested in animal programs just as I was when I was their age. The HD footage is amazing. The first Sunday night it was on, we all piled in the king sized bed and I let them stay up until 10:00 to watch the whole thing. We made it through an hour of the second Sunday before concluding -Life wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Picture this: a lizard crawls up on a rock. Oprah is narrating in hushed, excited tones. The lizard inches to the edge of the rock and sizes up the distance to the ground. Kettle drums beat in the background, increasing the tension. The lizard takes a deep breath, closes its reptilian eyes and takes the leap! The orchestra quiets and Oprah chimes back in, "And from there, it was only a hop, skip and a jump to becoming birds with real flight."

I paraphrased that, but you get the idea. "Science" these days, has a bad habit of confusing fact and theory. Take Darwinism, as an example. Darwin's theory is chock full of holes (and missing links) but alternative theories are not even allowed to be explored especially not in public school. Professors and other people in the scientific community have been ostracized, fired or denied tenure just for questioning evolution. Ben Stein's documentary, Expelled: No intelligence allowed, was rather interesting despite his monotone. Bueller, Bueller.

Global Warming is another theory accepted as fact. So many people in government and the scientific community are reliant on Global Warming as a source of income, power and influence that they even changed the name to Climate Change when the earth started cooling just to keep the funds flowing in. Nevermind the emails uncovered last year that exposed the deletion and doctoring of data. Nevermind evidence that the earth has been cooling for the last 10 years. Forget evidence of much warmer periods prior to the Industrial Revolution. The theory that man's activities are causing the climate to change is still drilled into us and into our children as though it is gospel.

As parents (and for ourselves), we have to be aware of what is being taught and what is being omitted. Don't leave it to the schools to present alternate theories; you'll have to do the research and fill in the blanks yourself. Teachers know it would be career suicide to do so. Scientific integrity has sold out to greed and intimidation.

3 comments:

  1. One of the problems with two-income families or single income/ no spouse families, everyone is too exhausted to research what's being taught and/or to hold educators accountable. Accountability, ah, a word fought against by teacher unions more than a decade ago.

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  2. Coming next week on "Life"..."After a short jog, the piglet stretches for his trough, poised elegantly on a single leg. The little guy hops once and tumbles in reverse onto his back. Thus begins the short, but inevitable, transformation from piglet to Dwight Stones, three-time Olympic high jumper! Next week on LIFE!!

    http://www.dwightstones.com/temp_mm/Dwight_Stones.jpg

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  3. After reading what happened to the piglet I can't wait to find out what the cow turns into!

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