It amazes me that people have pre-existing
notions that defy the evidence of reality.
But that they hold onto them so dearly.
And one of them is the notion of creationism,
or. in fact, Senator Marco Rubio, who’s
presumably a reasonably intelligent man and
maybe even educated, was asked what’s the
age of the Earth, and ultimately, either because
he actually believed it or he was trying to
appeal to some constituency, had to argue
that it’s a big mystery, that somehow we
should teach kids both ideas, that the Earth
is 6,000 years old and that it’s 4.55 billion
years old, which is what it is.
If you think about that, somehow saying that,
well, anything goes, we shouldn't offend religious
beliefs by requiring kids to know - to understand
reality; that’s child abuse.
And if you think about it, teaching kids - or
allowing the notion that the earth is 6,000
years old to be promulgated in schools is
like teaching kids that the distance across
the United States is 17 feet.
That’s how big an error it is.
Now you might say, look, a lot of people believe
that, so don’t we owe it to them to allow
their views to be present in school?
Well, as I’ve often said, the purpose of
education is not to validate ignorance but
to overcome it.
Fifty percent of the people in the United
States, when we probe them each year with
the National Science Foundation, think that
the sun goes around the Earth, not that the
Earth goes around the sun.
When we asked the question - we provide the
question: The Earth goes around the sun and
takes a year to do it; true or false?
Almost every year, 50 percent of the people
get that wrong.
Now, does that mean in schools we should allow
the anti-Galilean and Copernican idea that
the sun goes around the Earth to be taught?
Absolutely not.
If, in fact, the very fact that people don’t
know that, and the very fact that enough people
are willing to somehow believe that Earth
is 6,000 years old, means we have to do a
better job of teaching physics and biology,
not a worse job.
The last thing we want to do is water down
the teaching of biology because some people
don’t recognize that evolution happened.
Evolution is the basis of modern biology and,
in fact, if a lot of people don’t believe
it, it only means we have to do a better job
teaching it.
So once again, I repeat, the purpose of education
is not to validate ignorance, but to overcome
it.
And to overcome a situation where a United
States Senator can speak such manifest nonsense
with impunity is vitally important to the
healthy future of our society.
Technology and biotechnology will be the basis
of our economic future.
And if we allow nonsense to be promulgated
in the schools, we do a disservice to our
students, a disservice to our children, and
we’re guaranteeing that they will fall behind
in a competitive world that depends upon a
skilled workforce able to understand and manipulate
technology and science.
