Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Caveman-induced Global Warming

We are shivering here in the Midwest, not just in light of the prospect that the government may be about to take over our health care system--or because Obama's representatives are in Copenhagen right now discussing ways in which international bureaucrats can control the weather system, but because it is really cold.

I any case, here is what ice core data say about how warm it is now compared to previous times throughout history:

5 comments:

Art said...

Um, I thought the universe was only 6000 years old. Something's not right ....

Martin Cothran said...

Art,

You couldn't have gotten that idea here at this blog. I think you must have taken too many trips the creation museum.

Did you ride the dinosaur?

Art said...

Well, Martin, actually, it is this blog that gives me this idea. Specifically, you are affiliated with the Highlands Latin School in Louisville, no? This school uses A Beka materials in its science instruction. A Beka is a completely, unabashedly, uncompromisingly young-earth enterprise. So it would be reasonable to assume that you are in agreement with A Beka and Highlands in this matter.

Martin Cothran said...

Art,

There are other factors in addition to the text that you do not seem to have taken into account, such as the teacher's own beliefs on the subject, as well as the school's official position, neither of which is strictly creationist.

In addition, we use some A Beka programs which are creationist, and other books from mainstream secular publishers which present the issue from the other side.

The school's chief priority is to makes sure first that students actually know nature itself, as well as to teach them the rudiments of each of the disciplines. In the case of evolution, it is presented as an issue fairly and objectively, but not dwelt on in a great degree of detail outside the confines of what needs to be known for the subject. If students want to come to their own conclusions on the issue of evolution, they are welcome to.

It's called open-mindedness. I realize that may not fit the requirements of the more dogmatic approach favored in many other places, but that's not the school's problem.

Art said...

Before this leaves the front page:

Martin, elsewhere on your blog, you criticized some schools for including teen fiction in their English reading. What your school does in biology is much, much worse. The A Beka system is a pathetic curriculum. UC Berkeley doesn't accept as a science credit a course taught from those books, and they should not. Expressed in terms more familiar to those who have read your criticism of others' English classes, what your school does is equivalent to assigning the Dick and Jane readers in 12th grade honors English.

I think you have some 'splainin' to do.

Also, I wonder - do you tell parents of prospective students that UC Berkeley doesn't accept your biology classes for science credit? If not, why?