Louisiana and the Future of Science Education May Be At Risk

I am a strong proponent of proper science education. Science is an orchestrated methodological study of the occurences and phenomena experienced by both ourselves and our instruments. It rests in operational language based on empircal backings and theoretical frames with no invocation of a priori intuitions or expectancies.

This is the fabric of science. Yet, there will always exist people who desire, whether with ulterior motives or due to their lack of comprehension, to ruffle the very fabric of the scientific enterprise. Science is used to such ruffling, but sometimes the demagogues in control are too convincing for the ignorant and naive public. Thus, their pseudoscience becomes commonly accepted amongst the non-scientific minded, and accepted into the minds of the laymen as if the mechanics of the pseudoscience was how science operated and function.

Intelligent design creationism (IDC) is the major culprit of the modern era, moreso than persistent quantum physics and relativity deniers and people who still think the caloric is a measurable quantity. It plagues this nation like an annoying flea, hopping from location to location to test the waters of local, state, and federal governments.

Through the decades, creationism has tested itself in the higher courts and utterly failed to present itself as a valid source of instruction. Again and again, its blatant errors being pointed out by not only those who are at the top of their fields of speciality but also by their very students. Even I who have had very little formal training in biochemistry and evolutionary biology can see the errors in those respective fields.

IDC is a mockery not only of the sciences which they attempt to represent in their faux mannerisms, but IDC also makes a mockery of the scientific method in general. By attempting to circumvent the necessary requirement of determining the existence of a designer but instead concentrating on hypotheticals of "designed systems", they fail to meet the requirements of developing a proper operational definition backed with empirical as well as theoretical framework for support. IDC is all presentation with no calculation and no attempt to present itself honestly to an informed audience in the fields tangentially addrsssed by the proponents of IDC.

But why do I bring up IDC? Because the governor-elect of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, has stated that intelligent design is on equal footing with the theory of evolution as a scientific topic to be taught in science class. I fear that the flea infestation is about to begin. Though I do plan on continueing addressing modern research concerning the interface of chemistry and physics, I have a deep commitment to proper science education and the future of my state. Expect more diverging topics in the future.