Evolution
Just to make it clear ahead of time - this isn't an evolution vs intelligent design thing, I'm not touching that can of worms.
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I was in a college biology class when the teacher brought up evolution.

She explained that, much to her surprise - many students (she was finding out) were under the mistaken impression that evolution was an almost instant process.

The idea many students seemed to have was that ... One day a short necked giraffe suddenly thought "Screw this looking-like-a-horse bullshit - if I stretch my neck really hard, I'll be frikking awesome cause I'll suddenly have a super long neck" and he did it and then all the females giraffes had long neck babies from then on because... (magic words said in a rush cause they're not understood:) "it was an evolutionary advantage."

According to her, she was learning that this is what a lot of people believed Evolution was... basically Magic Necks + Magic Babies = Evolution.

This blew my mind - and I thought to myself "Ok, this is like one student who came up and talked to her and she's blowing it out of proportion... she's just making sure there's no one else out there is equally confused..."

Then she asked for a show of hands of how many people believed that that's how evolution worked.

More than half the class raised their hands.

I was floored.

This was in an advanced bio class, most of the students there were BioTech or Pre-Med majors... these are your future doctors and geneticists...

I was just f$&king floored.

She spent the rest of that class period explaining Evolution from scratch, and she did a decent job. And during the rest of the week she answered a lot of questions about it and reinforced it.

She even made the explicit point, many many times, that if a creature did manage to change in some way during it's own lifetime (magically or not =)) this would still not be Evolution, it would instead be an example of Adaptation. (The message being: So whatever you want believe about how things happened, at least use the right word for it =))

End of the week - There's a test. The very first question is a *multiple choice* question on Evolution vs Adaptation. It really couldn't have been more clear...

Half the class got it wrong =(

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This did open my eyes to something though, when you see reports about Americans and how 60% of them don't believe in Evolution... it's really important to find out which "Evolution" do they not believe in =)

If you've been taught the magic neck babies version...
Then I might not believe in it either =)
( Allisade would love to hear from you, Thu 18 Mar 2010, 18:26, 7 replies)

I once had a TEACHER who believed this.
She was my English teacher, but even so. I was practically shouting and tearing out my hair, yelling, "NO! That's not how it works!"
( Bob Todd whee, Thu 18 Mar 2010, 18:28, closed)

at least
she never mentioned the Callisto Effect ;)
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Thu 18 Mar 2010, 18:35, closed)

i shit you not my friend.
Here in good old Chattanooga,TN,USA that is not only the accepted definition, IT IS TAUGHT. The schools teach it that way so the Bible proves it wrong. Also, the churches say that is how it is so therefore it's wrong. All over the southern US, especially Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky, this is happening like a fucking virus. Also, man and monkey share a common ancestor, not monkey is the ancestor of man, let's not forget that one that they throw in there.
Sorry for the rant.
(CactusZack Shaved his coin purse on, Thu 18 Mar 2010, 19:07, closed)

I was rather disturbed when I visited Atlanta, Georgia, in the summer of 1999, to see the confederate flags plastered on the side of sky scrapers and wondering what message they were trying to embrace with them.

But then again the south and middle states really don't have the best education out there. There's a reason why they're called the armpits of the US.
(mrgimpers, Thu 18 Mar 2010, 20:39, closed)

So, uh,
they're deliberately misteaching evolution, to make the Bible right, by making evolution be wrong, so as to make the Bible right?

That would not only be a monumental straw-man, but a monumental straw-man with a generous side-serving of begging the question.

Q: How do we know the Bible's right?
A: Because evolution's wrong!

Q: How do we know evolution's wrong?
A: Because the Bible proves it wrong!

Q: How do we know the Bible's right?
A: Hey, we already did that one!

Is that the kind of bullshit they're pulling?
(Honourable Member is upstanding, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 20:24, closed)

Dear Allisade

You have reminded me of a science teacher (I was in year 9) who taught us evolution about how the giraffes all had short necks and ate all the fruit, leaves and branches of bushes. They were running out of food, and then one day a giraffe was born that had a long neck and could reach the fruit and leaves of the highest trees in the land. Now being the strongest and most alpha male he got to have lots of children all of which were born with long necks. The short necks died out due to lack of grub, the end.

That is what she taught us, and now I think about it, I cannot for the life of me think why I didn`t question it.
(Sadarse works like Mist condensing mud flaps, Fri 19 Mar 2010, 0:23, closed)

As an example
this is not too bad to get the gist of things. Certainly it's rather more complex than that, but if you are trying to explain evolution to children you could do worse.
The important thing is that the creature is born with an advantage that makes it more successful in propagating that genetic advantage.
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Sun 21 Mar 2010, 2:25, closed)