Carol Riggles's electrons arrived as:

>To elaborate further on Deb's rational letter...
>
>I took college biology from a creationist.  He handled his religious beliefs
>very diplomatically.  He taught textbook evolution, and added the
>mathematical improbability that life could have spontaneously generated
>itself (something like 10 to the 27th power).  He suggested the
>discrepancies between the timeline in the Bible and actual scientific
>evidence are related to non-scientific time being kept or understood when
>the Bible was written. Then he allowed us to decide or believe what we
>wanted.

Why was this instructor invoking the Bible at all -- in a biology class?!
 This is exactly the problem... you accept the confluence of science and
religion without the righteous indignation that academic integrity
demands.  Science is not a contest between its findings and all
non-scientific alternative beliefs -- and those alternatives, while they
may have a place in academia, do not belong in science curricula.  Your
biology teacher wasn't teaching "science."

This kind of misconception about science is what endangers a presentation
of the subject in museums!

Stephen

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).