velociraptor chickens

[spademan]

My son was commenting to me recently how easy it is to come to the conclusion the chickens evolved from dinosaurs as we were observing the antics of our own backyard flock of birds.
This conversation went on for several minutes about the complexities of the birds and the stages that things changed from cold to warm blood, scales to feathers etc................
After the conversation was nearing the end, I posed a simple question, where did the dinos come from that are depicted in all of the science books and nature books? Where did the shows on Geography get their illustrations?
The comment naturally came back skeletons of course.
To which I posed another question, How do we know the skeletons were covered with feathers or scales? How do we know that dinosaurs were not in fact giant chickens instead?
Another question that I posed is how do we know that the early paleontologists didn't backward engineer dinosaurs from birds?

The only answer that came back from my son was because the experts all agree and have came to a consensus already many years ago that things happened the way all the science says it happened.

My next curiosity is how many people just fall in line and accept whatever is taught and perpetuated in modern society as fact without ever questioning any of it?

This can be said of any subject matter where true, actual, physical data cannot be observed.

[inconu]

The fossil evidence showing the evolution from scales to feathers is increasing every year.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0405133401.htm

Palaeontologists have known for more than a decade that some small dinosaurs had bird-like feathers, mainly thanks to beautifully preserved fossils from northeastern China. Now three specimens of a new tyrannosauroid from the same region show that at least one much larger dinosaur had a feathery coat as well.

My next curiosity is how many people just fall in line and accept whatever is taught and perpetuated in modern society as fact without ever questioning any of it?

Unfortunately it's a majority.

It can be countered if we expand kid's minds and feed their natural curiosity when they're still in elementary school and before they get too socialized. I figure it's our responsibility as parents to fill in those big gaps in the public education system. If they can learn how to question, analyze and make informed decisions, they'll have the tools to avoid most of the BS that society throws at them.

[fuelishnot]

Originally Posted by spademan

My next curiosity is how many people just fall in line and accept whatever is taught and perpetuated in modern society as fact without ever questioning any of it?

This can be said of any subject matter where true, actual, physical data cannot be observed.

ask Copernicus.

[DieselBurps]

Originally Posted by fuelishnot

ask Copernicus.

That gives you the perspective of the folks that question the status quo and push for knowledge. To get a greater understanding of the folks that swallow what they are told to and believe without reason - ask the AGW faithful.

[spademan]

I was both proud and alarmed. It seemed there was enough early imprinting on him that he did observe and investigate, however, there were signs of acceptance of status quo based on the consensus of an ignorant majority. I blame the dumbed down public school system for this.
We are in one of the better districts, and all too often we witness assignments being done simply for the sake of a grade. Projects and homework not even looked at, but simply given an A for participation, or an F for non-participation.
Many times my children have come home complaining of a lack of buy-in from the teachers and them having to self-teach and self-learn.
Truly disturbing considering that we are investing more money now than ever before into public education.

[inconu]

Public education is unionized; the incompetents can't be fired.

[Pir8Darryl]

12 years of public education and you're qualified to flip burgers. Four more years and you're qualified to to sit in an office at five times the pay of a Mc-employee.....
What's so great about the last four years?
What's so wrong with the first twelve years?

[inconu]

http://www.economist.com/blogs...012/06/daily-chart-1

[ak49er]

Originally Posted by inconu

Public education is unionized; the incompetents can't be fired.

I'm IBEW the wife is NEA.....the above is half true.

They can be fired, but the next generation is more incompetent than the last, and has been, and will be unfortunately.

There is always good grounds to fire most of the "incompetents." The most important being liability. With the underfunded local Public School Systems being extremely susceptible to even one multimillion dollar lawsuit, there is reason to remove the unsafe, ineffective and dangerous, but most are kept employed as there are very few qualified replacements. This is even more so in Special Education, whose school population weighs in at 40% as of last year.

[inconu]