Montana bill would ban teaching of scientific theories in schools

Exactly the approach we take in our home. Comparative religion is an interesting topic that can teach you a lot about a culture. And when we’re learning about a different place, we try to squeeze in the local religion. It gets pretty interesting when you thrown in history too.

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I like:

“All models are wrong, but some are useful.” - George Box

Coupled with:

“… when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.” – Isaac Asimov

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On the nose @Mister44! I wonder if this guy ever passed a science class? I learned the difference in grade school for Christ sakes. It was a Catholic school.

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Scientific “theory” is a difficult thing for non-science people to understand properly.

There are no facts on science. Or, whatever is called a fact, is something which we know is provisional until some better evidence and better theory comes along to replace it, like Newtonian mechanics got replaced / updated by relativity, etc.

Can I say that F = MA is a fact? Not really, because there’s experimental evidence which goes against it, but it absolutely should be taught, with a little asterisk by it, like every other “fact” in science. So yeah, poorly phrased bill, trying to ban certain things from being taught without mentioning them specifically.

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Oh sure, you say it’s all fine when it’s “just asking” blasphemous questions!

But as soon as people start just asking questions like “why are white men the best ever?” it’s all CANCEL!!! CANCEL!!!

/s

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So group theory, set theory, theory of computation, number theory also go out the window?

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“Poorly phrased bill” implies an accident made by the legislators. This is incorrect. This type of thing is entirely deliberate. Deliberately vague and with deliberate word choice. It’s a playbook handed to conservative politicians by right wing think tanks, engineered to undermine things like evolution and Black history. The word “theory” was specifically chosen here because it sounds like a reasonable thing to ban to many laypeople, yet lets them later invoke it for the Theory Of Evolution and what they will call Critical Race Theory.

If you ascribe to incompetence what is absolutely malice, you are making the problem worse by dismissing it.

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It’s all grifting. If it didn’t make a slimy dollar, they wouldn’t do it.

You mean those color wheels that are suspiciously “rainbow-like”? Yeah, banned, because who knows whose kid might get triggered into being gay from something like that!

ETA:

Jinx! I owe you a Coke :slight_smile:

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“Saint Leibowitz preserve us from the Simpletons!”
A Canticel


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I’ve heard of Buffalo Bill but “montana Bill”?

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Well, that rules out…everything. At that point “school” is just sitting quietly in a room full of people.

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It’s a junior high school level concept.

Edit:

Texas 6th grade basic knowledge standards includes this.

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Plus the idea of facts being provisional in the face of new evidence isn’t some strange science thing. It’s how life works. History, medicine, law, just interacting with other people…everything has the possibility of finding out something was a mistake. Singling science out for that is so transparently not honest confusion about it.

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This Up Here GIF by Chord Overstreet

Absolutely this! Malice disguised as incompetence. And allows them to claim “eggheads making fun of Real AmericansTM” if they get called on it.

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Kenan Thompson Reaction GIF by Saturday Night Live

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That’s the main difference (IMHO) between science and religion. Science evolves with new data. Religion usually does not. And when it does, it tends to result in schisms and wars. In fact, i hear complaints from religious types about the answers science gives keeps changing. Well, yes, we learn more, we get better answers. That’s how it works. Expecting our knowledge base to remain unchanged over thousands of years is how we end up with fundies sounding dumb.

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The :tangerine: :clown_face: and his abettors institutionalized this effective, inhumane practice in the highest levels of U.S. government.

A recitation of examples is probably not necessary or pleasant, but fwiw (and in case someone around you needs reminding):

To download a PDF of this entire list, click here.

Someone upthread already cited Asimov here, but maybe it’s time to repost this one too:

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Beau’s video on this made a good point about the cost of policies like this. I’ve made similar arguments that these folks better plan for their kids to never leave home, because they aren’t likely to get a job that will support that.

However, this is the same crowd that couldn’t be convinced to work on environmental issues for the sake of themselves or their children. So, here we go again…

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Oh, “theory” eh?

Lemme know how it works out, Montanans!

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Montana - Well, that’s just like your opinion, man.

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