Teach the Controversy tees illustrate other important "scientific controversies"
Wear Science's line of "Teach the Controversy" tees invite Creationists to consider other "scientific controversies" that might be taught in school. Link (Thanks, Gus!)
Wear Science's line of "Teach the Controversy" tees invite Creationists to consider other "scientific controversies" that might be taught in school. Link (Thanks, Gus!)
the latest
latest episodes
What's the one on the bottom-left?
ESP. Didn't you see Ghostbusters?
Extrasensory perception - those are Zener cards depicted which are used as a tool to determine ESP ability - geez didn't you see the movie GhostBusters? For shame!
---
VENKMAN
Nervous?
SOPHOMORE
Yes. I don't like this.
VENKMAN
Well, just 75 more to go. What's this one?
SOPHOMORE
(takes a deep breath)
Two wavy lines?
VENKMAN
(burying the card)
Sorry. This isn't your day.
He zaps him again but this time the Sophomore really jumps.
SOPHOMORE
(angry)
Hey! I'm getting a little tired of this.
VENKMAN
You volunteered, didn't you? Aren't we
paying you for this?
SOPHOMORE
Yeah, but I didn't know you were going to
give me electric shocks. What are you
trying to prove?
VENKMAN
I'm studying the effect of negative
reinforcement on ESP ability.
SOPHOMORE
I'll tell you the effect! It pisses me off!
VENKMAN
Then my theory was correct.
I like the air, earth, fire, water, and aether shirt, but it is inaccurate. The symbol by aether should be a circle. And fire should have the stronger arrow (fire has a stronger levity than air while earth has a stronger gravity than water). I'm surprised they screwed this up when they clearly understood the concepts of Aristotelian levity and gravity by putting the arrows there in the first place. Screwing up the circle with aether is extraordinarily bizarre as it indicates that the designers don't know how objects move past the sublunar sphere.
Then again, I might just be nitpicking.
The UFOs building the pyramids is most excellent.
I like Pratchett's Disk World up there:
"we use to believe that the world was round now we know that it is a disk that rests on four elephants that stand on a giant turtle. Imagine what we'll know tomorrow."
Bottom right: is that a dung beetle? Guffaw!
#7: Egyptian mythology I believe. The sacred dung beetle rolls the sun across the sky.
The interesting thing about the UFOs building pyramids "controversy" is that there are still so many being taught/led to believe that they were built by slaves - a theory generally discredited by archaeologists for a number of years now.
#6 - Thoreau remarked in 1852, "No man stands on truth. They are merely banded together as usual, one leaning on another and all together on nothing; as the Hindoos made the world rest on an elephant, and the elephant on a tortoise, and had nothing to put under the tortoise." Not so much about Diskworld.
Another great theory. "First there was nothing ....and then it exploded". Is that tee available yet?
What's the point of teaching the controversy? You mean in a historical context? Such as: People were soooo stupid in (fill in year), that they thought...(There is going to be a huge list...most of our history.) Besides, everone knows the sun is pulled across the sky by Apollo! All hail our golden Sun God!
#6 - It's a Hindu creation myth.
I would buy the discworld one in a heartbeat. That is fantastic :D
Or, um, I meant the Hindu creation myth one.
Yes, thats what I meant.
*quietly leaves*
Is there a single English word that expresses the sheer schaedenfreude-laden glee and object-lust I now am feeling?
It's Christmas in July ...
Well, I had what I consider to be an excellent high school education, and we *WERE* taught the Greek elements, the Earth centered solar system, etc., and what evidence tipped folks to put aside these theories.
Would folks prefer that this sort of education be stomped out, and replaced with something where alternative theories that were hugely important in the history of science were not mentioned and explained?
I looked at these a few days ago (I want the periodic table tee and another design from their store not shown here) but the overseas shipping cost is too steep.
I thought the one on the bottom left was from "The Fifth Element."
TJIC, I think the point behind these shirts is that Creationists want the "Intelligent Design" theory to be taught alongside and on equal footing with evolution, so that students can decide for themselves which theory to believe.
The joke is that these shirts suggest that we should teach the theory about the pyramids being built by UFOs right alongside the historically-accepted explanation.
When you learned about the Earth-centered solar system, it wasn't put forth alongside the sun-centered solar system as an equally-acceptable belief. You were told which was correct and why. Not so with how the Creationists would like their theory to be taught.
"Would folks prefer that this sort of education be stomped out, and replaced with something where alternative theories that were hugely important in the history of science were not mentioned and explained?"
Did they teach you that Greek elements were viable theories that could be right?
No?
That is all this is about people that want to call creationism a theory, not to be taught for historical context but for real modern day scientific value.
If that or any of these were presented to my children in that way I would pull them out and homeschool.
@17: Yeah, I read Genesis in High School too. And Enûma Eliš. And the story of Raven stealing the sun.
Actually, despite living in a basically secular household I continued to believe in Genesis while learning more about the Big Bang theory and evolution (which I'd say I understand now about as well as any non-physicist, non-biologist can).
At some point I put it aside as a kid's story, but I still have this vague notion of Adam and Eve hanging out in a garden as "history." I could say the same of a lot of myths though.
Tjic: But you were taught that theese were old, outdated theories, right? No one (or very few) are against teching students in the appropriate classes what the old christian tradition about the origin of the world is. The discussion is not about this. The discussion is about if it is right to teach creationism as a still valid alternative to evolution (in biology class), and consequently if it is then not also right to teach both the atomic theory and the theory of the five substances as valid (in chemistry class)?
#14 - I saw a Jesus-Fish style Great A'Tuin with "The Turtle Moves" inscribed in it.
That's...nice
What's controversial about Satan putting the bones of "dinosaurs" in the dirt for scientists to find later?
Is it controversial that Satan would ever be caught dead in something so humdrum and workmanlike as a pair of overalls? Because otherwise I'm pretty sure that's more or less bedrock fact.
Needs an FSM t-shirt.
If my kids are ever in a school where any form of stealth creationism (such as "Intelligent Design") is given validity in a science class, I'd put them in one of these shirts for each day of the week.
What's controversial about Satan putting the bones of "dinosaurs" in the dirt for scientists to find later?
You do realize that you're trapped in the Matrix, enslaved by the machines, who use your piddly couple of watts of brain electricty to power their gigantic cities, right?
When you prove to me that you're not in the Matrix, I'll explain the bones.
Unicorn FTW! Hray! -=)
dammit, i want ALL of these!
I love these, I had just bookmarked them yesterday. There are many more good ones in his other lines, too. These stood out as +5 awesome:
http://wearscience.com/design/robot/
http://amorphia-apparel.com/design/evolution/
Ok im stumped on the unicorn. Cause they are real. I mean if they arent who is that who keeps putting my mail in the box?
These designs are nice.
Nicer though, is the fact that you can click a "I would prefer this design without the text" link, and order the t-shirt without the TeachTheControversy logo, so you can choose to join in the mudslinging or just have a cool shirt.
Massive kudos for that alone, and the designs are great too.
I like the Flat Earth on the Elephants on the turtle one best.
Mostly because that was the popular theory at the time when the bible stated that He(God) is "Hanging the earth upon nothing"(Job 26:7), and "the circle of the earth"(Isa 40:22). Just like evolution is the popular theory today.
Flame away!!
(and no, I won't be responding.)
**Mostly because that was the popular theory at the time when the bible stated that He(God) is "Hanging the earth upon nothing"(Job 26:7), and "the circle of the earth"(Isa 40:22). Just like evolution is the popular theory today.**
Look, another Christian that doesn't understand science!
I don't suppose in those ancient time that those early theorists were seeing bacteria supporting their little worlds on the back of little turtles the same way we see micro-organisms evolving today?
I want a shirt with the XKCD strip with the Microwave Anisotropy Probe graphics on it... hmm, maybe he sells those, actually. I'll have to check.
My high school biology teacher actually spent an entire day on "intelligent design" or whatever.
She had a graduate degree in genetics from Purdue.
In retrospect, the contempt in her voice might have communicated more about the scientific provenance of "intelligent design" than the whole rest of the year of biology class. And it was a good class.
"Teaching the controversy" is wasting time, of course, but I think forcing serious biologists to teach units on "intelligent design" might have hilarious unintended effects.
#35: Flame away!! (and no, I won't be responding.)
You do your Savior proud, boy.
/yay, XKCD actually does sell that shirt!
I want equal time for "Stupid Design" then. I have a few choice words for the creator of cancer.
The Great A'Tuin is a turtle, not a tortoise.
#3 and others, referring to the symbol cards shirt:
I've seen those cards referenced in many TV shows and such. One that shows the cards in use is the cult British TV show "The Prisoner", I believe it is the episode "The Schizoid Man".
These shirts are gorgeous, and I'm tempted to get the Elements one for my Chem teacher.
I just ordered one of the Wear Science shirts, but I almost bailed on them out of sheer frustration. Their fulfillment house, Spreadshirt.com, is a piece of Flash-based junk that doesn't work with Autofill; it requires you to sign up for a "membership" (whatever that is); and the PayPal payment link doesn't work at all ("You cannot fund this payment with a MasterCard" appeared immediately after the login page.)
If you guys are reading this, you seriously need to punt that vendor in favor of CafePress or someone who actually knows how to run an e-commerce site. :(
I'm going to laugh when ESP becomes real, thanks to science.