“The mission of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims. … some of the founding members of CSI include scientists, academics, and science writers such as Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Philip Klass, Paul Kurtz, Ray Hyman, James Randi, Martin Gardner, Sidney Hook, and others.”
Those people should weep. Maybe. Read this:
8. With the current administration, how do you think science education, mainly evolution, will change?
Americans are becoming more accepting of evolution. The people President Donald Trump has hired and the decisions being made (see for example Florida SB 989) will slow down this positive trend. Darwin said, “Ignorance begets confidence more often than knowledge.” People who do not know what they are talking about will make decisions that will hurt us as a nation. The United States has been a wonderfully innovative and scientifically curious country; this is one of the most wonderful things about our great nation. I’m worried that scientific discoveries and the economic benefits that accompany them will begin happening more in other countries. Look at green technology, for example, and how much profit there is to be made in that field! We are not taking advantage of it just so the fossil fuel industry can continue making profits. Imagine if the candle-makers had impeded the promotion of Edison’s light bulb! It’s tragic.
Does anyone really believe that the United States is not still a world leader in science? But depressingly few of the scientists are homegrown. No surprise, considering how bad the apparently unreformable education system is. And, along those lines, isn’t this a treat?:
9. How should the education of science teachers change to have more effective teachers in the classroom?
We have become an assessment-mad culture, with too much emphasis placed on test scores. In my district, teaching practically shuts down for six weeks so all of the tests can be administered. Instead of so much emphasis on teaching teachers how to analyze test data, give them content knowledge on the science topics they must cover. Emphasize hands-on activities and lessons that highlight the scientific method. I know it’s costly, but new teachers should have time to observe worthy veteran teachers for as long as possible. – Bertha Vazquez and Christopher Freidhoff
Skeptical Inquirer Volume 41.6, November/December 201More.
Assessment-mad, yes. Reform-mad no! Why reform when one can just reinterpret failure?
As Darwin’s chokehold is gradually being broken in the academy, though not yet in the popular culture off which CSICOP feeds, evolution is becoming a genuinely interesting topic. There are so many ways it happens — ways that do not necessarily provide a living for CSICOP.
See What the fossils told us in their own words
See also: The autopsy report on CSICOP’s naturalist credo:
How naturalism rots science from the head down
The Big Bang: Put simply,the facts are wrong.
What becomes of science when the evidence does not matter?
Cosmology is naturalism’s playground. But does the fun mask a science decline?
Post-modern physics: String theory gets over the need for evidence
Cosmic inflation theory loses hangups about the scientific method
The multiverse is science’s assisted suicide
Question for multiverse theorists: To what can science appeal, if not evidence?
Post-modern science: The illusion of consciousness sees through itself
Nature, as defined today, cannot be all there is. Science demonstrates that.
Can science survive long in a post-modern world? It’s not clear.
How naturalism morphed into a state religion
Mock at your peril! Naturalism is a jealous fraud
Can the rot of naturalism be stopped? Relating information to matter and energy might help