Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

There is a very simple way to get ID into the schools. Build a body of evidence, by using the scientific method. If they ever present same, I will be the first to welcome them.

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@edgarblythe,

cannot argue with that at all. The website for the "Search for Dsign" has been uncharacteristically silent for about 1.5 years. THeyd promised so much and gave out several vaunted scholarships, apparently theyd not worked out after the --------- money was spent

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@farmerman,

We don't have an idiot in the White House who is advocating what is taught in church as a subject to be taught in public schools. Private religious schools tackle it and more likely drive intelligent studios away from religion as they try to conjure Voodoo into a science.

The question now is irreducible imbecility which is what we are getting from the charmless Brit.

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@farmerman,

cannot argue with that at all. The website for the "Search for Dsign" has been uncharacteristically silent for about 1.5 years. THeyd promised so much and gave out several vaunted scholarships, apparently theyd not worked out after the AHMANSON money was spent.

Sorry, had a senior moment there and couldnt remember the guys name.

1 Reply

LOUISIANA UPDATE

Quote:

Americans United Warns Louisiana Education Board Not To Adopt Review Policy That Favors Creationism
(Americans United, Press Release, January 5, 2010)

A new policy under consideration by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is slanted to favor creationism and should be revised, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Due to lobbying by the Religious Right, Louisiana legislators approved a law in 2008 that allows for “supplemental materials” to be used in public school science classes. The Board has developed a policy for reviewing these materials that is seriously flawed, says Americans United.

“It’s obvious what’s going on here,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “Louisiana elected officials are once again trying to undercut the teaching of evolution and slip creationism into science classes. This effort must fail.”

In a letter sent to the Board, Americans United warns that the proposed review policy is constitutionally suspect because it appears to open the door for creationist concepts to be taught in public schools.

The Board calls for allowing challenged materials to be reviewed by a panel that could easily be stacked with people sympathetic to creationism. It would bypass the expert opinion of the Louisiana Department of Education.

“The proposed procedure for reviewing challenged supplemental material is unnecessarily complicated and appears designed to provide a forum for promoting creationism,” asserts AU’s letter.

The letter notes that the Board’s proposal “would create the opportunity for a show trial with ‘experts’ presenting reports” that attempt to portray creationist supplemental materials as scientifically sound and supported by empirical evidence.

The Louisiana Family Forum, a state affiliate of Religious Right leader James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, pushed for adoption of the new law and will likely try to use it to smuggle creationist materials into public schools.

In fact, AU’s letter points out, the U.S. Supreme Court and several lower federal courts have struck down the teaching of creationism in public schools. The Board’s proposed policy, AU says, is “unfair and illogical” and “appears to have the unconstitutional purpose of promoting religion.”

Sorry about reposting. This press release is from today. (I previously showed 2009 instead of 2010.)

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@edgarblythe,

Bill GAtes funds the Disxcovery Institute in the tune of 3.8 million penyenzies.

The Governor of Louisiana advocates teaching of Creationism/ID

John McCain hd opened the Discovery Institutes 2008 convocation with a strong endorsement from his "John MacCain for PResident" campaign

Those are just three offn the top of heads. Im sure, digging deeper we could find many more ID/Creationism supporters.

I like Ed's idea to let them prove their case via Sci Method and with evidence and fully mindful of Popperian "falsifiability", also being able to apply the "theory" in its predictive sense.

I wouldnt hold breath .

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@edgarblythe,

Quote:

Here is where spendi splatters all over the pavement like a soft turd. Charging that we four only accept the facts of evolution in order to push immorality - Not a one of the pro science posters on this thread can be successfully labeled 'immoral.' It's just one more throw the dog in the wind and hope it flies tactic. A desperate, pathetic, ploy, to pull the focus away from the topic.

That raises some fundamental theological and psychological issues Ed and I'm afraid there is not the space to go into them here.

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@Lightwizard,

So now I've got you quoting ex-President George Bush as an authoritative source have I?

And there was some slippage in the language usage there too. As one might expect.

There is also something of a very naive temperment which fails to take into account that Mr Bush was riding a tiger at the time which was, obviously, an important aspect of the context.

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@farmerman,

Bill Gates... the DI? Say it ain't so.

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@wandeljw,

Quote:

A new policy under consideration by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is slanted to favor creationism and should be revised, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Well-they would wouldn't they? There's not much point in having a franchise called Americans United for Separation of Church and State unless it was intended to call for---well-- the separation of Church and State.

Everything else follows as night follows day. Anybody not sure what "everything else" is has only to consult the literature put out by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and it's all laid out in simple and easy to understand brochures.

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@farmerman,

Bill Gates? I'm crushed! I used to believe he was a pretty smart guy in many ways.

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I have heard on the News that President Obama has said that some highly paid high-ups chosen for their intelligence have failed to "connect up the dots" in an important matter relating to national security.

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@cicerone imposter,

Quote:

Bill Gates? I'm crushed! I used to believe he was a pretty smart guy in many ways.

He is a pretty smart guy ci. If you revise your opinion of him at this late stage on the basis of him funding the DI it is proof that your prejudices over-rule your common sense.

I understood that Americans measure how smart someone is by how much money they made.

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@spendius,

Not true; it's also true of the inverse; many smart people are not rich.

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@cicerone imposter,

That's not what I said or even implied. "Many smart people" are not Americans. I said that the American way was to measure how smart someone is by their pile of loot. Especially self-made loot.

Are you un-American ci? Was Andy Warhol wrong?

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@spendius,

My post still stands, whether you talk about Americans or anybody else.

They are called "universal truths." Something on which you lack understanding.

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@cicerone imposter,

Well ci--the argument is that smartness measured by assertions and funny stuff in graduation ceremonies is special pleading leading to ruination and only the size of the pile of moolah is a reliable guide.

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@spendius,

Ever hear about the lottery, spendi? Some times it's pure luck, and it has absolutely nothing related to smarts.

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@farmerman,

Don't feel bad -- I typed "studio" instead of "student" as I was also watching a Smithsonian Institute show about famous artist's studios. Multi-tasking is now multi-taxing.

PSXXX asks a stupid question, still not comprehending the title of this thread, and gets the answer he deserved as bait and eats it, hook, line and sinker. What a fish!

Bill Gates made a tons of money on a system that constantly crashes, dupes people into buying new technology from manufacturers he is cahoots with by holding back a better product, sticks the consumer with purposefully ill-designed OS's, and laughed all the way to the bank. I have never had any respect for him other than his philanthropy. He isn't a scientist, he's a marketing guru.

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@cicerone imposter,

Quote:

Some times it's pure luck, and it has absolutely nothing related to smarts.

Agreed if it is the rare "sometimes" that has absolutely nothing related to smarts.

Sometimes a photon penetrates to the bottom of a mine through the rocks.

You're obtuse.

Bill Gates is "pretty smart" you thought until you found out he disagrees with you on this matter and that caused you to change your mind. Wonderful. Would a great quarterback suddenly become useless if you found out he went to church every Sunday.

On that silly argument California should be evacuated because sometimes there's an earthquake. Or ladies should be kept locked up because sometimes there's a rape.

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