From a post I made at
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2006/08/02/1611.aspx Some people feel that evolution is not important. I say it very well could be. Here's a story I tell my girls:
"There's an interesting anecdote, as told by Charles M. Vest, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, during commencement on June 4th, 1999. "In the early years of this century, Steinmetz was brought to General Electric's facilities in Schenectady, New York. GE had encountered a performance problem with one of their huge electrical generators and had been absolutely unable to correct it. Steinmetz, a genius in his understanding of electromagnetic phenomena, was brought in as a consultant - not a very common occurrence in those days, as it would be now. Steinmetz also found the problem difficult to diagnose, but for some days he closeted himself with the generator, its engineering drawings, paper and pencil. At the end of this period, he emerged, confident that he knew how to correct the problem. After he departed, GE's engineers found a large "X" marked with chalk on the side of the generator casing. There also was a note instructing them to cut the casing open at that location and remove so many turns of wire from the stator. The generator would then function properly. And indeed it did. Steinmetz was asked what his fee would be. Having no idea in the world what was appropriate, he replied with the absolutely unheard of answer that his fee was $1000. Stunned, the GE bureaucracy then required him to submit a formally itemized invoice. They soon received it. It included two items: 1. Marking chalk "X" on side of generator: $1. 2. Knowing where to mark chalk "X": $999."
that's from http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/steinmetz.html
Now I tell my girls this story, as well as the kids I tutor every year, and then I say to them something like this:
When you grow up, you will inherit some problems from us; there will also be problems that will be unique to your generation - some of which we might be able to anticipate and others of which we cannot currently fathom. The reason you should want to go to school, and particularly why should care about learning all you can in the sciences is so that when your time comes, you know where to put the X.
Evolution is important because it's the best science we have - and contrary to what many creationists believe or assert, it's not discussed very much even in classes where it *IS* taught.
The current crop of creationists is trying to undermine education, by 1) redefining science, and 2) promulgating false information and bad science.
