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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:

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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.
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