Arizona is reviewing its science standards for teaching evolution. Someone might think that it is a serious job that should be done by experts in the field of science. Well… Joseph Kezele, the president of the Arizona Origin Science Association, was appointed by State Superintendent Diane Douglass to be part of a team which is in charge of reviewing Arizona’s science standards. According to his biography, Joseph earned his medical degree at the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona and is currently an assistant biology professor at Arizona Christian University.
His bio also says: “Having heard the clear call of God on his life to teach from the Biblical creation perspective, Joseph has been active in researching and speaking since 1993. In 2005 he began teaching annually at the Arizona Origin Science Association. Joseph is also a founding staff member of Creation Training Initiative.”
The Phoenix New Times reports:
Douglas appointed him (Joseph Kezele) to an eight-member special working group at the Arizona Department of Education that completed a final review of the draft evolution teaching standards on August 30.
Kezele teaches biology at Arizona Christian University in Phoenix. He advocates teaching his version of “established, real science” in classrooms.
Evolution, he said, is a false explanation for life and should be taught so that students “can defend against it, if they want to.”
The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) said Kezele was selected because he was a biology professor. "One of the aims of the working group is to include a broad collection of contributors from the scientific community," Stefan Swiat, an ADE spokeperson, wrote in an email. "Both the working group, as well as the head of ADE’s science standards, were completely unaware that Dr. Kezele was a creationist." They obviously didn’t do researches about him at all.
“I’m not saying to put the Bible into the classroom, although the real science will confirm the Bible,” Kezele told Phoenix New Times in an interview on Wednesday. “Students can draw their own conclusions when they see what the real science actually shows.”
He argued that scientific evidence supports his creationist ideas, including the claims that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs were on board Noah’s Ark.
Students should be able to judge for themselves whether the creation model or the evolutionary model "actually is consistent with the real scientific evidence that we have," Kezele said. "And then the students can do some thinking and see which one holds up. In general, that's what education should be, not just indoctrination."
How can teaching science in schools be considered indoctrination? Can the bible be taught in classrooms as a science?
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