The red flag proclaiming “I don’t understand science” goes up when the story sounds something like this:
The panel includes the word “evolution” in state science standards for the first time, but it is relegated to a place among a host of ideas, including Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Relegated? To the “lowly” place that includes relativity?
I think writing of the phrase “just a theory” or “merely a theory” in a science article should make one’s word processor/computer explode. If you don’t understand why, and you’ve graduated from college, you need to go and ask for your money back.
I listened to the public hearings on this. You would be amazed at how many people kept repeating the mantra that “evolution is just a theory”. It’s as if calling it a theory was downgrading it to “just another guess”. Finally a scientist got a hold of the mic and chastized everyone. He basically told them that if they don’t understand what it means to call something a scientific theory, they have no business giving their opinion on a scientific matter such as evolution.
People could not seem to get it through their thick skulls — I swear I heard it several more times.
That seems to get to the heart of the issue. In science, at least in my perspective, the theory is this elegant and robust item which allows for predictions and explanations and real depth of understanding. Yet, in the general populace, in the US anyway, a theory is treated like a stray mutt… like the imbred cousins of the family who show up and get drunk at the reunion. “Oh… it’s JUST a theory.”
The recent special on NOVA about the Dover Case really showed nicely the difference, but unfortunately, the people who need to learn this idea the most tend to be the ones who refuse to watch shows such as NOVA. It’s a self-perpetuating and self-reinforcing cycle.
I fear there are only two ways to overcome the issue (or, perhaps more apropos, to overcome the ignorance). One: a mass extinction event, where the only ones to survive are the smart sciency types who rebuild humanity with a solid love and understanding of the scientific method. Or… Two: find a way to pretend that the bible says something about the elegance of a well supported scientific theory which has withstood all tests thrown at it, and how it should be worshipped as something orders of magnitude more profound than a mere handful of facts, and get the preachers to start sermonizing about it.
Neither option leaves me very hopeful.
Maybe we should just change the terminology we tell the public… will they shut up then?