Just an idea
I was thinking about conspiracy theories today. (Don't know why) And indoctrination - we were talking the other night at uni about what was the purpose of education? Is one of the purposes indoctrination?
And then I started thinking of the theory of evolution - and it's pretty much indoctrination. It's presented as fact and generally accepted, even though it's an unproven theory. Now admittedly you can neither prove creation or evolution. But to push one over the other - you've got to wonder what the agenda is, right?
What might be better? Perhaps a presentation of both theories, along with their pros and cons, in schools. Eg:
"Here is the theory of evolution - blah blah blah. The strengths of this theory are: blah blah blah. Scientists have found that xyz supports this theory. The weaknesses in this theory are: blah blah blah.
Here is the theory of creation - (repeat above process)."
This is a more balanced view and allows students to investigate for themselves and come to their own conclusions.
Instead, what we have is something closer to indoctrination. What's laughable is that creation theory is the one denounced as propaganda and indoctrination.
So I was thinking - why not write a play or a TV show, and completely send up the way schools are pushing evolution? Okay, it will probably infuriate a bunch of people - maybe. Unless we can use humour so that they're so busy laughing at it, they forget to be infuriated. And then maybe students will stop to think about what they're being taught, and why.
Just an idea :-)
And then I started thinking of the theory of evolution - and it's pretty much indoctrination. It's presented as fact and generally accepted, even though it's an unproven theory. Now admittedly you can neither prove creation or evolution. But to push one over the other - you've got to wonder what the agenda is, right?
What might be better? Perhaps a presentation of both theories, along with their pros and cons, in schools. Eg:
"Here is the theory of evolution - blah blah blah. The strengths of this theory are: blah blah blah. Scientists have found that xyz supports this theory. The weaknesses in this theory are: blah blah blah.
Here is the theory of creation - (repeat above process)."
This is a more balanced view and allows students to investigate for themselves and come to their own conclusions.
Instead, what we have is something closer to indoctrination. What's laughable is that creation theory is the one denounced as propaganda and indoctrination.
So I was thinking - why not write a play or a TV show, and completely send up the way schools are pushing evolution? Okay, it will probably infuriate a bunch of people - maybe. Unless we can use humour so that they're so busy laughing at it, they forget to be infuriated. And then maybe students will stop to think about what they're being taught, and why.
Just an idea :-)
posted by Noof @ 3/02/2006 07:34:00 pm
4 Comments:
At March 03, 2006 11:55 am,
Mathieu said…
Actually, Damien was just telling me the day before yesterday that they actually do present both theories the way you described now in NSW. Apparently they also update their curriculum on a regular basis so that the text books don't still contain all the hoaxes they still do in QLD, such as Recapitulation and the famous Peppered Moths like in this game, where it looks like the moths are on tree trunks.
I've noticed the lecturers at QUT usually seem to be afraid to comment one way or the other due to peer pressure, but they don't mind publicly mocking the Bible when they get a chance.
Yes, of course there are conspiracies. We know who the world answers to. As for the movie idea, well! Have you ever seen a movie called Inheit the Wind? At at Wikipedia you can read some of the many ways they systematically reversed the roles of the people in the story and changed the facts to make it seem as though the Scopes Monkey Trial was some kind of triumph of Evolution over the narrowmindedness of Christianity. If you ever see the movie, it will make your stomach turn. If you ever see the facts, you will see how obviouse it is that someone's motivation for making the movie and changing the story was far more than just to spice it up. They deliberately made it into the movie that people now use (also in schools) to show how 'science' has overcome the 'errors' of Christianity. You want to make movies? That's certainly not the only one that you'll be oposing. You'll be taking on all of Hollywood. Try dealing with that conspiracy! But I'm on your side. I've always planned on making such movies.
At March 03, 2006 3:12 pm,
Anonymous said…
Funnily enough - I already blogged this morning about a conspiracy theory of my own...
They are EVERYWHERE....
OUT TO GET YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At March 04, 2006 2:44 pm,
Anonymous said…
Hmm, its an interesting theory that. I personally, as both a christian and future educator of the masses, am somewhat torn on the issue. Whilst I am admittedly a christian and thus believe in at least some form of creation (I'm not getting into a debate about literal or six day creationism, because frankly i dont care enough about it to form logical prose on the subject), it seems to me that the theory of creation is such that you can't really reduce it to a level that is teachable in schools. Whilst I don't advocate evolution as the be all and end all of theories in regards to our origins, I can understand how a science class would rather present this theory, even though it is somewhat indoctrinated, as it still has the majority of the scientific community on its side. Begs the question of whether this is advantageous or not and would we be doing a disservice to future scientists to lean one way or the other on this issue. My personal feelings on the subject is that neither should be taught in a SCIENCE classroom, as neither theory presents a balanced scientific argument, but rather that these debates would be better left to social studies/studies of religion/philosophy and so forth.
At March 05, 2006 4:42 pm,
SuperTiph said…
I think we should discourage school. It makes sense. We're teaching kids a bunch of useless knowledge they will never use.
Stick every kid over the age of 15 on a plane to a non english speaking country, then they'll learn something worthwhile.
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