Science, Storks and Spaghetti Monsters

I'm not quite finished yet discussing English related topics--I still owe you a couple of reading lists at least--but I wanted to make a brief switch to the world of Science for today. The good old Evolution debate is back in the news these days, coming at us from a couple fronts. First you've got Florida, who in the name of protecting teachers' rights to teach what they believe, is trying to pass a law to make evolution "just a theory" again. Then you've got Ben Stein's new movie about the witch hunt against teachers who want to teach Intelligent Design. I was willing to forgive him for the whole Nixon speechwriter thing, since he gave us such memorable teachers in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Wonder Years, but I think he's on my shit list for good now.

I don't have a lot to add to the debate, except to say that one of the things all schools should manage to get across to their students before they become voters is what the word "theory" really means in the scientific sense. It would save the world a lot of trouble. Instead, I offer you this video rebuttal to Mr. Stein's movie, up there with The Flying Spaghetti Monster as far as parodies of this whole situation go.



Thanks to the good people at Flypaper over at the Fordham Institute for posting this video on their blog.