It’s All Just ‘Theories’, All the Way Down

My modest proposal for situations like the current one in Georgia in which religious parents want to put stickers on biology textbooks stressing that evolution is only “a theory”, is to put analogous stickers on *all* the science textbooks. Especially the geology and astronomy ones. And the history textbooks too. All of it should be “approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.” Starting with a lesson in the scientific method, and what “theory” means in that context.

Curious to note the cover of the November issue of “National Geographic”, with a photo of a Jamaican lizard and the headline WAS DARWIN WRONG? Open to the article, turn the page and the answer is “NO. The evidence for Evolution is overwhelming.” (The article is by David Quammen.) You wonder if the NG editors are trying to trick disbelievers, or should I say believers, into opening the issue. The issue also has a new world map, with, on the reverse, a cool “Earth at Night” composite photograph.

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