evolution in KS

[Chris J. Durden]

>  Too bad about Kansas. 
>  Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. There is no excuse for
not teaching about evolution. It is a hoary intuitive hypothesis that has
emerged many times in different primitive societies. At least the history
of the idea can be taught as history.
>  Anaximander (615-537 BCE) of Miletos, Ionia (now Balat, Aydin, Turkey)
the successor to the philosopher Thales (636-546 BCE), wrote about fossils
and proposed that humans had evolved from fish.
>  Empedocles (492-444 BCE) of Agrigentum (now Girganti, Sicily), wrote
about fossils, proposed an evolutionary sequence of development from plants
to humans, and died while studying volcanic activity in Mount Etna.
>  Later educated people have known of the ideas of these philosophers.
Erasmus Darwin included their ideas in his poetry, something that was no
doubt learned in childhood by his grandson Charles. It took the field
observations of Alfred Russel Wallace in the Malay Archipelago to prod
Charles Darwin into presenting his pedantic theory (1857) that we have
embellished, and has served us so well since in understanding biology.
>  All this should be taught in History, plus the details on how it is seen
to work, in Biology. The other beliefs should also be mentioned in History,
but they should be left out of Biology - the school year is not long enough
to cover them.
>  What has this to do with leps-l? Ahh Psyche - the soul is a moth/butterfly.
>..........Chris Durden
>
>
>At 08:37  12/08/99 -0700, you wrote:
>>Phooey. I must apologize to the list. I think that this topic _is_
>>appropriate to _any_ list that deals in biology, but I did not intend to
>>incite a debate on evolution vs creationism. 
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>>Jim Kruse
>>University of California at Berkeley
>>Dept. of Environ Sci, Policy and Mgmt.
>>Div. of Insect Biology
>>201 Wellman Hall
>>Berkeley, California, 94720-3112
>>Voice: (510) 642-7410    Fax: (510) 642-7428
>>http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/sperlinglab/kruse.html
>>
>>