Teach the controversy
From June but still of interest:
Rep. Terese Berceau, a Madison Democrat, was quizzing Rep. Jesse Kremer, her Republican colleague from Kewaskum, at a hearing for his proposed Campus Free Speech Act before the state Assembly’s Committee on Colleges and Universities recently.
Berceau wondered what would happen under the bill — which requires University of Wisconsin System institutions to be neutral on “controversies of the day” — if a student in a geology class argued the Biblical theory that the earth is only 6,000 years old.
“Is it okay for the professor to tell them they’re wrong?” Berceau asked during the lengthy session on May 11.
“The earth is 6,000 years old,” Kremer offered. “That’s a fact.”
Pause for the mind to reel at the fact that a state legislator – someone who makes the laws – is that ignorant, not just of what the facts in question are, but what a fact is.
Then pause again for the mind to reel at the fact that that same staggeringly ignorant legislator is promoting a bill that would require Wisconsin state universities to be “neutral” on what he, the ignorant legislator, considers “controversies” as opposed to “facts.”
But, he said, “this bill stays out of the classroom.”
Yet Kremer immediately speculated that students who felt intimidated from expressing their opinions in class could bring their complaints to the Council on Free Expression, an oversight board created in the bill. So the law could potentially cover things that happen in the classroom, he suggested.
So then students could bring official complaints against geology professors who taught their subject, on the pretext that there is “controversy” over whether or not the earth is 6 thousand years old.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, is a sponsor of the bill. He spoke at the hearing about the importance of presenting all views on controversial topics on campus.
“Probably the biggest debate is global warming,” Vos said. “A lot of people think it’s settled science and an awful lot of people think it isn’t. I think both sides should be brought to campus and let students decide.”
But which people? Vos is counting people in general, lining them up as if it were an election as opposed to a large complex technical subject that relies on evidence, not opinion. The fact that “an awful lot of people think it isn’t” is not relevant on subjects of that kind, because an awful lot of people think all kinds of things that aren’t true simply because they don’t know enough about them.
He doesn’t want to present all views. I’m sure he doesn’t want to present the view of the world as existing on the back of a turtle, or the yin/yang creation story, certainly not Flying Spaghetti Monster. He wants to present Christianity as equivalent to (actually, better than) the scientifically determined theory of evolution.
I suppose that one could add to the ‘controversy’ by telling young people, as far as is possible without corrupting them, that many religions lay a claim to The Truth on the origins of life, and that they can’t all be right. In fact most of them must be wrong, leaving open the possibility that they all are.
Ahura Mazda vs Jehovah vs Amun Re vs turtles all the way down? Take your pick.
Turtles. Definitely turtles.
Turtles have a fine record for NOT burning aturtlists, so that’s something.
But yeah – universities are there to deal in facts and the best speculations available based on them. If someone disagrees with them and manufactures a “controversy” based on that, it’s not a university’s job to be “neutral” between science and crackpottery. For that matter, it’s not the job of news media or legislatures to be neutral that way either.
If you’re generating clearly identified fiction, then that’s a safe policy. No other exceptions are springing to mind.
Once again, someone has confused an “awful lot of people” with a “lot of awful people.”
The Earth is more than 6000 years old, it’s due to celebrate its 6021st. birthday next month.
This fun fact comes courtesy of Archbishop Ussher.
The Earth can’t be 6021 years old next month. Religious truths are unalterable; if it was 6000 years old once it always has to be 6000 years old.
Bugger! I’ve baked it a cake and everything.
Well, here’s ‘both side-ism’ and freezepeach in a nutshell. If right-wing crackpots and jihadis are owed a university platform, why not flat-earthers and Lysenko fans?
John, why not indeed. How do we refute what they say if we don’t get to hear them? Once we start calling for the banning of certain speech because it’s abhorrent we give the governmentt the power to decide what is forbidden speech, and that way lies Trump’s wet dream writ large.