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A correspondent writes regarding
comments: What is the source of the posting about gravitation being only a theory in Texas textbooks? The reason I'm asking is so I can verify it and then beat a couple of evengelicals over the back with this. Thanks
Now we don't really see the connection to evangelical back beating (is that a drumming style?), but here is some further information:
The widely cited landmark 1947 Texas Supreme Court case Murray v Texas Education Agency (TEA) severely curtailed efforts to introduce the reactionary empiricist philosophy, the so-called "Scientific Method", to Texas classrooms.
The TEA had attempted to maintain mandatory language in high school physics textbooks that read, in part, "Gravitation is only a scientific theory and cannot be fully proven beyond all doubt."
The plaintiffs objected, arguing successfully that the fundamental product of science is objective truth that is then beyond further doubt or inquiry. "Mere theories," they wrote, "have no place in the science classroom, and gravitation is no mere theory."
The Texas Supreme Court agreed, and the language was deemed unconstitutional. By the following spring, the language had been removed from textbooks, in some instances requiring the intervention of armed state marshals.
Here is further discussion of the philosophical underpinnings of the case.
Best Regards,
Fred Strauss
speaking as a nearly-native texan (born in roswell...no, your clearance is not high 'nuff to even ask), i can attest to the fun of texas textbooks.
of course, a good philosophy professor will have you qwestioning your own mind, much less your senses or sense of gravity.
"Science is a way of thinking more than it is a body of knowledge."
- Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain, 1979
As we all know, everything is bigger in Texas...
...perhaps even brain cells.
The law of gravity is, in fact, a theory. The effects of this "theory" are however, not in question or dispute, even by the renouned Great Thinkers of Texas.
What is in dispute by many Texans is not the outcome of gravity, but rather the cause.
First put forth in the "When Cows Fly" challenge at Texas A&M University, key differences in the behaviour of gravity with regard to certain objects such as hoola hoops and frisbies (see whamo effect) caused the Texas Legislature to make changes in textboook requirements.
Best Regards,
Dr. W. Astor-Cabot
I have lived in Texas my whole life and there are things in alot of Texas textbooks that should be questioned. Please don't make the mistake of thinking that they are limited to Physics or any other science by any means.
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