Scientific Evidence Supporting Evolution Continues To Grow; Nonscientific Approaches Do Not Belong In Science ClassroomsMSNBC.com reports on a new publication from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that emphasizes the importance of teaching evolution in public schools.
A free PDF download of the booklet is available on the National Academies Press website.
The booklet comes at a time when public school science curriculum standards are under fire in Florida and Texas.
As an active participant in the debate concerning the 2005 Kansas Science Standards, one of the sections that caught my eye was the following description of scientific explanations:
In science, explanations must be based on naturally occurring phenomena. Natural causes are, in principle, reproducible and therefore can be checked independently by others. If explanations are based on purported forces that are outside of nature, scientists have no way of either confirming or disproving those explanations. Any scientific explanation has to be testable — there must be possible observational consequences that could support the idea but also ones that could refute it. Unless a proposed explanation is framed in a way that some observational evidence could potentially count against it, that explanation cannot be subjected to scientific testing. (p 10)
In 2005, much of the debate in Kansas centered around the removal of wording that specifically limited science to the search for natural explanations. Many observers saw this particular change as an attempt to allow for the discussion of supernatural explanations in science classrooms.
As the above excerpt from Science, Evolution, and Creationism makes clear, non-natural causes are not scientific because they cannot be subjected to scientific testing and therefore cannot be confirmed or disproved. The limitation of science to natural causes is not a priori. It is the unavoidable consequence of the practical requirement that all scientific explanations must be testable.
So it turns out that the original definition of science was right all along.
Thanks for the support NAS!
posted by Jeremy Mohn
