If evolution, creationism and intelligent design are controversial and worthy of debate, that’s fine. Debate ‘em.

Debate them in philosophy class. Debate them in theology class. Even debate them in debate class. In fact, come debate them here. But they shouldn’t be debated in science class. Evolution isn’t debatable in many parts of the world, and among a majority of scientists, but somehow Florida hasn’t fully gotten the message.

In an attempt to reach the 21st century, revisions are being considered to the state science standards. Among the changes, the word “evolution” would finally be substituted for the more generic “biological changes over time.”

And it’s about time.

A public hearing will be held today at Everglades High School in Miramar on the proposed changes, which will be voted on by the State Board of Education on Feb. 19.

At a previous hearing in Jacksonville (where I currently call home), a few people toting Bibles opposed any attempt to emphasize evolution in public schools. It may not conform to everyone’s religious beliefs, but evolution, as one teacher said in Jacksonville, “is the glue that holds biology together.”

It’s also time to definitively call it what it is, and not use this politically correct “biological changes over time” bullshit. And there shouldn’t be a need to give equal time to creationism and intelligent design in science class.

Let’s leave science to the scientists. Scientific evidence has long backed up evolution to explain the development of species, and it’s time that message reached the state’s public schools. Florida students have scored poorly on college entrance tests, and science surely hasn’t been a strong point.

The suggested new state science standards were developed by a committee of scientists and educators who looked at world class standards. They obviously feel it’s time Florida joins the rest of the world.

The true underlying issue is the same as with the anti-abortionists. Religious fascists are compelled to make everyone else conform to their religious beliefs. Reality or truth doesn’t come into play here. Only dogma. The tragedy is that ultimately, as genuine spiritual experience will reveal to those few who have it (and scientific evolution of thought will reveal), there is no conflict or discrepancy between spiritual awareness and scientific understanding.

To the extent that religious dogma restrains awareness of this truth, it exchanges a superficial sense of security for an abiding faith that stays strong and balanced when confronting life’s difficult and painful experiences. The question then is, what kind of education do you want for your child? Do you want children to be able to accept responsibility for themselves as individuals, or do you want little conformity machines ready to take up the religious dogma cause whatever the circumstances? You know, like what they are doing to those children in the Muslim Madrasas.

Our science curricula have been sloshing through a vomit of creationist superstition, ignorance and stupidity for more than long enough. The creationists have more than adequate opportunity to flog their fairy tales, misinformation, incomprehension of scientific method and cerebrosclerosis at their places of worship and in the privacy of their own caves. The last thing America needs is a bunch of medieval clowns undermining our efforts to teach our kids solid science in a world that is rapidly technologizing apace with us. Despite the sideways inspiration offered to the ignorant by our very own dim-bulb-in-chief himself who is always belching platitudes about America’s leadership role, these people seem hellbent on reducing this nation to third-world science. Enough is enough. For that reason, there are a few things I want to clarify here.

“Evolution” is not about “ascent.” Species adapt to environmental pressures, when they need to, and extremely slowly over many generations. Plankton are perfect for their environment, and are as they have been forever; same for the cockroach, the shark, the crocodile and so on. If it works, don’t. Fucking. Fix it.

On the other hand, if the species is prey it might evolve a way of reducing its vulnerability by adapting to a slightly different environment. The Mudskipper, for instance, is a fish that climbs trees and breathes through its skin as much as it breathes with gills. The evolution process is grossly inefficient, with mutations that “kill” being far more likely than mutations that “cure.”

There is nothing in the theory of evolution that suggests successive generations are “improved” or “more complex.” It says only that, to survive, they must be better fitted to the environmental niche that they occupy.

Evolution says nothing about God. Let me repeat that: EVOLUTION SAYS NOTHING ABOUT GOD. It attempts to explain why, for instance, a whale fetus has vestigial hind legs when they are clearly not required (and vanish by the time of birth.) And why, in the early stages of human embryonics, are our eyes on the sides of our heads and have to migrate to the front, sometimes with really weird and fatal results. It attempts to explain why our skeletons are more suited to quadrupedal motion than bipedal motion; why our eyes are woefully inferior to some other species; why our jaws are too small for the number of teeth; why some populations have improved resistance to malaria, and so on. It exploits known mutational processes to predict what variant of the flu vaccine will be most effective for the continually-evolving virus in the next season; uses similar methods to develop cancer therapies and other important biological research; searches for gene therapies that may activate natural physiological ‘cures’- on and on, an endless catalog of scientific applications without which we humans would be doomed.

While we’re at it, not only should we teach the foolishness of creationism as a “scientific” explanation of the beginnings of the universe, I think we should also deal the with theory of gravity properly. I don’t buy it. I think it’s actually God’s invisible velcro.

Organized religion has feared science since we found out that the earth isn’t the center of the universe and the sun isn’t Apollo riding his chariot across the sky. And in every generation since then science has explained a little more of what religion held power over. That trend will continue as we learn more about the universe and ourselves. Just as science has discovered that thunder is not Zeus throwing around lightening bolts, it will continue to reveal the truth about the remaining mysteries in our lives.

That’s something that religion just can’t have. Organized religion relies on people blindly believing and not questioning. It’s much like the military in that way.

That being said, I personally believe that the universe is just a little too orderly to have been a completely random act. I believe that a higher power has to be responsible for a lot of what is going on around us. Hell, the patterns in mathematics alone are too organized to be random. But the difference I have is that I accept what science provides after examining the proof and I’m not trying to force my beliefs on others. Well, except all of you reading this.

Tags: evolution, creationism, intelligent design, science, Florida, public schools