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Well, to jump in and cause people to strongly disagree with me, one 
needs to be careful about saying science is "truth".  Good science is 
based on testing theories and unbiased conclusions.
Growing up in the 50s and 60s, some of "our" heroes were people, such as 
Galileo, who stood against the accepted facts of their time. But let us 
be clear, many of today's scientifically accepted theories are presented 
as facts not to be questioned.  Anyone in the scientific community or 
science education community who questions these theories is 
marginalized.
If you do not believe this, just question the "fact" that an asteroid 
collision with Earth caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Another 
example, the idea that birds are dinosaurs makes as much sense as the 
anti-evolution propaganda of the 19th century that men were descended 
from apes.
Most science is our current best guess.
Normally I do not list any of my background on these posting, but in 
this case I have.
Tom Lesser, Ed.D.
Astronomy book reviewer for AAAS’ Science Books & Films former Senior 
Lecturer, American Museum-Hayden PlanPlanetarium, former Executive 
Director, The Dinosaur Society



On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 9:04 AM, Stephen Uzzo wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology 
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>
> This gets us back to the Levi-Strauss' problem of why truth (science) 
> and fiction (myth) are equivalent in people's minds. There is no 
> imperative for truth in evolution unless it improves fitness. But 
> there may be an imperative for seeking cause for effect (which might 
> be adaptive-something, according to Michotte, is evident in the 
> behavior of even infants). So in looking at what the real process 
> caused the effect of the earth (geologic or creationistic), its 
> unclear what advantage knowing this conveys upon fitness. In the 
> absence of doubt, as people build their ontologies and identify a 
> cause (the Earth moving closer to the Sun), that satisfies the effect 
> (climate change), the tension is relived and there is no further need 
> to deepen inquiry. Unless you're a geologist, oil or mining company, 
> or earth science teacher, the benefit of knowing the age of the earth 
> might be hard to quantify.
> One of the things we don't do well is give learners permission to be 
> skeptical, nor do we provide them with useful mechanisms to deepen 
> inquiry around skepticiism over an idea. If we did, then the 
> Creationistas would have no purchase in the minds of our youth to cast 
> doubt on geology because it would only stimulate them to more quickly 
> reveal their fakery. I think its healthy to doubt anything you don't 
> completely understand, but until we equip learners with the right 
> truth-seeking thinking tools we should expect this kind of 
> intellectual con game to continue unabated. Rubio is merely reflecting 
> the ignorance of his constituency, he is not the cause of it. This has 
> been the state of humanity since Aristotle. We are not going to fix 
> the problem by claiming truthier truth, but by being serious about 
> educating our youth--to stop just throwing our truth at them to see 
> what sticks (evidently, very little).
>
> Stephen Miles Uzzo, PhD.
> VP, Science & Technology
> New York Hall of Science
> 47-01 111th Street
> Flushing Meadows Corona Park, NY 11368 USA
> V +1.718 595.9177
> F +1.718.699.5227
>
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 20, 2012, at 10:12 PM, Eric Siegel wrote:
>
>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology 
>> Centers
>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related 
>> institutions.
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>> *****************************************************************************
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>> ps.  an acquaintance of mine told me that global warming is happening 
>> because the earth is moving closer to the sun.  after i picked my jaw 
>> up off the ground, I weighed the benefits of schooling her with the 
>> futility of the attempt.  I tried to explain what we know about the 
>> physics of the solar system since newton.
>>
>> e
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