Kids, School, and liberal Science?

[Smith]

So, I get home tonight to my 4th grader who is excited to tell me about this new study they are about to start at school about Global Warming and how it is detrimentally affecting the world. It's one thing when I have to deal with it. I'm comfortable with that, but how do you explain to a 9 yr old that science isn't as absolute as she is told and that some people she trust aren't telling her the whole truth. I think her teacher means well and don't want my daughter to think poorly of her, but that's where it's at.

This is rhetorical, as we've discussed about assumptions and looking at all the data before we make decisions. It was just a sad day for me to realize that the ugliness I feared when my wife and I talked about having kids is now beginning.

[Jonnin]

tell her the truth --- that school teachers are human and do not know everything. Then explain that global warming is very new and that the exact causes and effects are not known, and that her teacher has to give it her best guess but that you and many others think differently about it.

In the end, she has to regurgitate whatever nonsense to pass. That is just how school, at every level from cradle to PHD and beyond, is.

[Guest BungieCord]

tell her the truth --- that school teachers are human and do not know everything....

The truth is that the teachers are pimping for a scientifically unsupported cause célèbre because it's an article of faith among their peer group. Failure to conform will result in their ostracization and they lack the strength of constitution to endure the isolation and withdrawal of positive reinforcement.

The leftists are arming their kids for this struggle from birth. You're doing yours a disservice if you don't equip them to fight back. If -- G-d willing -- if they eventually catch on all on their own and realize that everything is political to the liberals, how will you explain you spent so many years not telling them the whole truth?

[Jonnin]

yea but a 4th grader can't really understand it when you say it that way. The above was for the child.

[Smith]

Thanks guys. that's essentially what i told her. I told here what she needed to know. The fact that she told me she wanted to believe it was true because she liked her teacher, reinforced the idea in my mind that liberals like using group pressure and personality persuasion to validate their ideology. Truth stands on it's own solid foundation. Lies have to be constantly reinforced.

[Daniel]

Human influences

Main article: Global warming

Main article: Climate change mitigation

In the context of climate variation, anthropogenic factors are human activities which affect the climate. The scientific consensus on climate change is "that climate is changing and that these changes are in large part caused by human activities,"^[37] and it "is largely irreversible."^[38]

“Science has made enormous inroads in understanding climate change and its causes, and is beginning to help develop a strong understanding of current and potential impacts that will affect people today and in coming decades. This understanding is crucial because it allows decision makers to place climate change in the context of other large challenges facing the nation and the world. There are still some uncertainties, and there always will be in understanding a complex system like Earth’s climate. Nevertheless, there is a strong, credible body of evidence, based on multiple lines of research, documenting that climate is changing and that these changes are in large part caused by human activities. While much remains to be learned, the core phenomenon, scientific questions, and hypotheses have been examined thoroughly and have stood firm in the face of serious scientific debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations.â€

—

United States National Research Council, Advancing the Science of Climate Change

If you are taking her to church and instilling a belief in a diety you are already well on your way to "explain to a 9 yr old that science isn't as absolute as she is told."

Just IMO.

Edited August 18, 2012 by Daniel

[TrickyNicky]

This is a tough issue all around. Both my mother and sister are teacher and teachers aid and try to remain as neutral in issues of politics and religion ie; creationism vs evolution as they possibly can. It's not made easy on them though between what any number of parents want them to teach their kids and what the administrators and board say they can teach.

Luckily for them they get the young'uns and not alot of hot topic issues get brought up to K-3 graders, and what does they say basically there are many different theories and go ask your parents because I don't know.

Unfortunately they both know a lot of teachers that use their influence to get their and only their views across as being sensible. As parents those with children not being home schooled would do well to keep tabs on what their kids are learning day to day.

Smith, get out a copy of the dictionary and have your daughter look up the words theory, supposedly, opinion, and hypothesis. Explain in a nice way that teacher is a teacher, not an environmental scientist and that teachers jobs are to relay information and they can only relay what their told or personably believe.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Well, at least there is one more child who has a choice to make up her own mind about junk science.

You're giving her opportunity to understand differing points of view before she makes her own mind up

and if she already has a faith to guide her, and good parents, it will turn out just fine. One less lost soul.

[daddyo]

Where did the science come from?

[Guest 6.8 AR]

An understatement, DaddyO. Bravo.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

If you are taking her to church and instilling a belief in a diety you are already well on your way to "explain to a 9 yr old that science isn't as absolute as she is told."

Just IMO.

Interesting observation. What's interesting about it is that there are those who pray for your safe return while receiving

insults. They will continue, regardless. The prayers, that is.

Interesting paradox.

[RichardR]

The earth periodically goes through glacial and interglacial cycles, during which the earth is either warming or cooling, this whole "global warming" stuff is just political propaganda, as it most certainly is not based on actual science.

[Daniel]

Interesting observation. What's interesting about it is that there are those who pray for your safe return while receiving

insults. They will continue, regardless. The prayers, that is.

Interesting paradox.

I am not intending to insult anyone. Smith and I have voiced our own positions on religon numerous times and, I believe at least, maintained a mutual respect, I for him at the very least.

In my opinion if you believe and instill a belief in a diety and creationism you are essentially already saying to your children that science is not "as absolute as she is told."

If you feel differently I would love to hear it.

[Daniel]

The earth periodically goes through glacial and interglacial cycles, during which the earth is either warming or cooling, this whole "global warming" stuff is just political propaganda, as it most certainly is not based on actual science.

This has never been in doubt. What global warming and climate change references would be that human actions are accelerating the process of warming. The issue is that it has a snowball effect.

[zapfbroad]

There's several interesting studies out regarding the flawed, inaccurate nature of measuring temps around the country & world & how the data is specifically weeded to support the idea of global warming by agencies who receive the funding to track global warming & temps thereby threatening their own existence & funding if they don't provide the 'right' set of data to support the doctrine.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2

[daddyo]

This has never been in doubt. What global warming and climate change references would be that human actions are accelerating the process of warming. The issue is that it has a snowball effect.

Still waiting for proof.

[TMF]

I have a very open mind on the subject. I'm not ready to commit to the belief that we're the cause until there is research done by folks that don't have an agenda. There is such a history of debunked studies and agenda-driven "facts" that it is too convoluted for me to have an opinion on the subject. If it is true, than the eco-terrorist hippies are to blame for derailing the legitimacy of the studies.

[BigK]

There's several interesting studies out regarding the flawed, inaccurate nature of measuring temps around the country & world & how the data is specifically weeded to support the idea of global warming by agencies who receive the funding to track global warming & temps thereby threatening their own existence & funding if they don't provide the 'right' set of data to support the doctrine.

It's sad, really, when science becomes politicized. Many of these global warming "scientists" are well-educated and initially mean well. When it became known that some were fudging numbers to support their theories, I was disappointed. When it became known that most who had done so were getting gov't grants, I was disgusted. The gov't shouldn't hand out money to scientists willing to prove global warming exists.

Edited August 19, 2012 by BigK

[daddyo]

MMGW is BIG business. I mean, just look at Al Gore!

[BigK]

MMGW is BIG business. I mean, just look at Al Gore!

You ain't kidding! Kind of makes me sick to think about it.

[Smith]

I have no issue with earth cycles. That is about the only know fact about global temperature changes. Since accurate data was not kept until the failry modern times there is a vast amount of reading between the lines and assumptions that are not scientific fact and many are proven errant nearly as soon as they are thrown out there as fact. that is not science.

Also, little is said about the 70's when many of these same scientist wanted to put ash on the polar caps to melt them because we were cooling too much. Study the middle ages and one of the biggest factors that drove the rise of the Roman and European dominance was the fact that temperatures in Europe were considerably warmer than they are today. Agriculture and population movement was able to thrive and spread like never before. Towards the end of the Roman decline and the beginning of medieval Europe many people were driven into towns and the feudal system because temperatures had begun to drop to modern levels making it near impossible to provide crops to help them survive. Wheat and other temperate climate crops no longer grew in abundance and the people began to have to live off legumes and potatoes etc.Europe has not been able to overcome many of those obstacles to this day. Warming may not be a completely horrible cycle anyway.

[tnhawk]

.....Also, little is said about the 70's when many of these same scientist wanted to put ash on the polar caps to melt them because we were cooling too much. Study the middle ages and one of the biggest factors that drove the rise of the Roman and European dominance was the fact that temperatures in Europe were considerably warmer than they are today. Agriculture and population movement was able to thrive and spread like never before. Towards the end of the Roman decline and the beginning of medieval Europe many people were driven into towns and the feudal system because temperatures had begun to drop to modern levels making it near impossible to provide crops to help them survive.....

These events happened in the B.G. ages (Before Gore)

[Daniel]

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/27/bill-nye-slams-creationism/?hpt=hp_c2

August 27th, 2012

11:31 AM ET

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Bill Nye slams creationism

By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

(CNN)–Famed TV scientist Bill Nye is slamming creationism in a new online

for Big Think titled "Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children."

"Denial of evolution is unique to the United States," Nye begins in a YouTube video posted on Thursday. The video quickly picked up steam over the weekend and as of Monday morning had been viewed more than 1,100,000 times.

Nye – a mechanical engineer and television personality best known for his program, "Bill Nye the Science Guy" – said the United States has great capital in scientific knowledge and "when you have a portion of the population that doesn't believe in it, it holds everyone back."

"Your world becomes fantastically complicated if you don't believe in evolution," Nye said in the Web video.

Creationists are a vast and varied group in the United States. Most creationists believe in the account of the origins of the world as told in the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories

In the creation account, God creates Adam and Eve, the world, and everything in it in six days.

For Christians who read the Genesis account literally, or authoritatively as they would say, the six days in the account are literal 24-hour periods and leave no room for evolution. Young Earth creationists use this construct and biblical genealogies to determine the age of the Earth, and typically come up with 6,000 to 10,000 years.

The Gallup Poll has been tracking Americans' views on creation and evolution for the past 30 years. In June it released its latest findings, which showed 46% of Americans believed in creationism, 32% believed in evolution guided by God, and 15% believed in atheistic evolution.

During the 30 years Gallup has conducted the survey, creationism has remained far and away the most popular answer, with 40% to 47% of Americans surveyed saying they believed that God created humans in their present form at one point within the past 10,000 years.

Survey: Nearly half of Americans subscribe to creationist view of human origins

"The idea of deep time of billions of years explains so much of the world around us. If you try to ignore that, your worldview becomes crazy, untenable, itself inconsistent," Nye said in the video.

"I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, that's completely inconsistent with the world we observe, that's fine. But don't make your kids do it. Because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems," he said.

Creationists' beliefs about the origins of the Earth are often a narrow focus, based in large part on religious beliefs, and while they reject evolution as "just one theory," they often embrace other fields of science and technology.

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In "The Genesis Flood," the 1961 book that in many ways help launch the Young Earth creationism movement in the United States, the authors write: “Our conclusions must unavoidably be colored by our Biblical presuppositions, and this we plainly acknowledge." Their goal for the book was to harmonize the scientific evidence with the accounts in Genesis of creation and the flood.

The idea of creationism has been scorned by the mainstream scientific community since shortly after Darwin introduced "The Origin of Species" in 1859. By 1880, The American Naturalists, a science journal, reported nearly every major university in America was teaching evolution.

"In another couple centuries I'm sure that worldview won't even exist. There's no evidence for it. So..." Nye ends his video.

[daddyo]

Isn't it interesting how people find nothing wrong in slamming creationism, but don't you dare question what they believe!

[Daniel]

46% questions what he believes.