Of course many Liberal supporters jumped on him for promoting the teaching of religious beliefs in science class and in order to spin the brewing media storm away he:"It's still called the theory of evolution," Tory said after touring a 100-year-old Jewish school in a Toronto suburb.
"They teach evolution in the Ontario curriculum, but they also could teach the fact to the children that there are other theories that people have out there that are part of some Christian beliefs."
...clarified his remarks to say that he meant creationism could be taught in religion class, and that he did not mean to suggest the two theories would be given equal weight in a science lab.At which point I sighed heavily.
Most people, when they use the word "theory" are using it based on this meaning: "contemplation or speculation", or "guess or conjecture". But in scientific terms when one uses the word theory as in the theory of gravity or the theory of relativity (or theory of evolution) the word means "a coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena".
My point is that saying creationism and evolution are "two theories" is misleading. One is "contemplation or speculation" supported by little to no evidence or research, and the other is a "coherent group of general propositions" that is supported by over a hundred years of observations, experiments, and evidence.
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Ah crap.... can't vote Liberal, can't vote NDP, and won't vote for a party that has a creationist at its head. Soooo.... where does that leave me?
If it weren't for the referendum question, I'd be tempted to skip this entire debacle.
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