5 Comments »

1. Larry:
   August 23rd, 2006 @ 12:46 pm

   Our thought process is so broken and so prone to self-righteousness, that it is nearly impossible to expect us to see ourselves and how we work unless someone points it out.

   I invite you to explore my blog a little and then explore yourself. I invite you to dump all that you think you believe at this time in order that you might start again.

   Oh yes — I am NOT advocating “Typical Christianity” because the truth is many Christians and people of all “faiths” suffer from the same delusion as the rest of humanity. You are suffering from it as well.

2. AnneA:
   August 24th, 2006 @ 8:46 am

   Noelle,
   I wasn’t sure where to post this, but it was from the New York Times today…..I thought it would be of interest to this group.
   I found it at http://www.HuffingtonPost.com.

   August 24, 2006
   Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List
   By CORNELIA DEAN
   Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.

   The omission is inadvertent, said Katherine McLane, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, which administers the grants. “There is no explanation for it being left off the list,” Ms. McLane said. “It has always been an eligible major.”

   Another spokeswoman, Samara Yudof, said evolutionary biology would be restored to the list, but as of last night it was still missing.

   If a major is not on the list, students in that major cannot get grants unless they declare another major, said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Mr. Nassirian said students seeking the grants went first to their college registrar, who determined whether they were full-time students majoring in an eligible field.

   “If a field is missing, that student would not even get into the process,” he said.

   That the omission occurred at all is worrying scientists concerned about threats to the teaching of evolution.

   One of them, Lawrence M. Krauss, a physicist at Case Western Reserve University, said he learned about it from someone at the Department of Education, who got in touch with him after his essay on the necessity of teaching evolution appeared in The New York Times on Aug. 15. Dr. Krauss would not name his source, who he said was concerned about being publicly identified as having drawn attention to the matter.

   An article about the issue was posted Tuesday on the Web site of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

   Dr. Krauss said the omission would be “of great concern” if evolutionary biology had been singled out for removal, or if the change had been made without consulting with experts on biology. The grants are awarded under the National Smart Grant program, established this year by Congress. (Smart stands for Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent.)

   The program provides $4,000 grants to third- or fourth-year, low-income students majoring in physical, life or computer sciences; mathematics; technology; engineering; or foreign languages deemed “critical” to national security.

   The list of eligible majors (which is online at ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/GEN0606A.pdf) is drawn from the Education Department’s “Classification of Instructional Programs,” or CIP (pronounced “sip”), a voluminous and detailed classification of courses of study, arranged in a numbered system of sections and subsections.

   Part 26, biological and biomedical sciences, has a number of sections, each of which has one or more subsections. Subsection 13 is ecology, evolution, systematics and population biology. This subsection itself has 10 sub-subsections. One of them is 26.1303 — evolutionary biology, “the scientific study of the genetic, developmental, functional, and morphological patterns and processes, and theoretical principles; and the emergence and mutation of organisms over time.”

   Though references to evolution appear in listings of other fields of biological study, the evolutionary biology sub-subsection is missing from a list of “fields of study” on the National Smart Grant list — there is an empty space between line 26.1302 (marine biology and biological oceanography) and line 26.1304 (aquatic biology/limnology).

   Students cannot simply list something else on an application form, said Mr. Nassirian of the registrars’ association. “Your declared major maps to a CIP code,” he said.

   Mr. Nassirian said people at the Education Department had described the omission as “a clerical mistake.” But it is “odd,” he said, because applying the subject codes “is a fairly mechanical task. It is not supposed to be the subject of any kind of deliberation.”

   “I am not at all certain that the omission of this particular major is unintentional,” he added. “But I have to take them at their word.”

   Scientists who knew about the omission also said they found the clerical explanation unconvincing, given the furor over challenges by the religious right to the teaching of evolution in public schools. “It’s just awfully coincidental,” said Steven W. Rissing, an evolutionary biologist at Ohio State University.

   Jeremy Gunn, who directs the Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at the American Civil Liberties Union, said that if the change was not immediately reversed “we will certainly pursue this.”

   Dr. Rissing said removing evolutionary biology from the list of acceptable majors would discourage students who needed the grants from pursuing the field, at a time when studies of how genes act and evolve are producing valuable insights into human health.

   “This is not just some kind of nicety,” he said. “We are doing a terrible disservice to our students if this is yet another example of making sure science doesn’t offend anyone.”

   Dr. Krauss of Case Western said he did not know what practical issues would arise from the omission of evolutionary biology from the list, given that students would still be eligible for grants if they declared a major in something else — biology, say.

   “I am sure an enterprising student or program director could find a way to put themselves in another slot,” he said. “But why should they have to do that?”

   Mr. Nassirian said he was not so sure. “Candidly, I don’t think most administrators know enough about this program” to help students overcome the apparent objection to evolutionary biology, he said. Undergraduates would be even less knowledgeable about the issue, he added.

   Dr. Krauss said: “Removing that one major is not going to make the nation stupid, but if this really was removed, specifically removed, then I see it as part of a pattern to put ideology over knowledge. And, especially in the Department of Education, that should be abhorred.”

3. Lisa:
   August 24th, 2006 @ 9:55 am

   Wow. That is appalling. Thank you for posting that article. Goes to prove just how vigiliant we have be against all subtle forms of oppression. How much else is going on at a quiet level? We all have to be ready to fight injustice wherever it sneaks up. The person who got in touch with Dr. Krauss is a real hero.

4. Rodolfo:
   August 28th, 2006 @ 12:11 am

   Feels like everyone’s taking a break in one way or another. It’s amazing how much closer we are to another new year. Hope you all had a wonderful summer though. I’m just wrapping up a much deserved two week break from school and now I’m ready to get started again.

   I agree that article is appalling as well. I hate to speculate but I wonder if it was intentional. That’s really pathetic if it was. But it just goes to show we need to all keep doing what we’re doing.

   I think most of us here would agree that Charles Darwin is probably the most important man to have ever walked this planet. I’m fully convinced of this now. To purposely hide this from the masses (if that were the case) is horrible. It’s like a repeat of the Inquisition minus the torture but still nevertheless immoral. The world needs to understand and appreciate the complexity and simplicity of Evolution. The world needs to know how truly great Darwin’s ideas were. The world needs more Darwinian raised children instead of Judeo-Christian-Muslim raised children. In my eyes this IS our greatest challenge.

5. Ed Darrell:
   August 30th, 2006 @ 6:01 pm

   Noell, you’re welcome. If anything I send over seems useful, it’s due to your ability to figure those things out.

   I’ve seen reports that the Department of Education now says that evolution is included, and was never meant to be overlooked.

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