Science Stagnates
Apr. 19th, 2006 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
farlaToday I went to the museum.
I'm in favor of random facts and information, as well as pretty displays, so I thought it'd be fun.
And I know I'm probably picky, but...
Well, we went with my aunt, who's that happy smiley literal kind of religious, making it really surreal. I'm not entirely sure on her stance on extinction, but she doesn't believe in evolution and she was mentioning hearing that there were still dinosaurs alive somewhere in South America, so... It made it more than a bit weird to be going to see dinosaurs and extinct whatevers and talk about how they were adapted to their environments and why they died out.
Then there were all the 'well, duh' exhibits, cataloging what I consider basic knowledge. Some of them are for kids, which is okay until you realize their parents are watching with confused expressions and you suddenly realize that these people vote.
Of the exhibits I knew anything about, I kept picking out errors. Whether it was the simple grammatical mistake on the plaque's title or the fact that the dinosaur models were a solid fifty years out of date, it added up. (The models in question weren't even that big, and it's not like it would have killed anyone to put a little sign saying 'This is how scientists USED to think dinosaurs looked, note X, Y, and Z which we now know are actually...) Some of the modern exhibits were maybe five years out of date, and somewhat incomplete at that. So it wound up being a lesson in scientific orthodoxy and refusal to update.
What's the point, if people don't know, don't believe, and aren't even being taught accurately?
I'm in favor of random facts and information, as well as pretty displays, so I thought it'd be fun.
And I know I'm probably picky, but...
Well, we went with my aunt, who's that happy smiley literal kind of religious, making it really surreal. I'm not entirely sure on her stance on extinction, but she doesn't believe in evolution and she was mentioning hearing that there were still dinosaurs alive somewhere in South America, so... It made it more than a bit weird to be going to see dinosaurs and extinct whatevers and talk about how they were adapted to their environments and why they died out.
Then there were all the 'well, duh' exhibits, cataloging what I consider basic knowledge. Some of them are for kids, which is okay until you realize their parents are watching with confused expressions and you suddenly realize that these people vote.
Of the exhibits I knew anything about, I kept picking out errors. Whether it was the simple grammatical mistake on the plaque's title or the fact that the dinosaur models were a solid fifty years out of date, it added up. (The models in question weren't even that big, and it's not like it would have killed anyone to put a little sign saying 'This is how scientists USED to think dinosaurs looked, note X, Y, and Z which we now know are actually...) Some of the modern exhibits were maybe five years out of date, and somewhat incomplete at that. So it wound up being a lesson in scientific orthodoxy and refusal to update.
What's the point, if people don't know, don't believe, and aren't even being taught accurately?
