Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

Humanity already possesses the characteristics that religion pretends to provide.

Compassion and empathy are built into us and are all we need to build ethics and morality.

Science is a tool for understanding nature, nothing else is required of it.

Science isn't needed or intended to replace religion.

You still have your head frimly up your cloaca

I really think youre grabbing straws again

if evolution is simple and thus applicable to the one step at a time scientific method, what will evolution produce in the future ? Caution: this may be above your pay grade.

Quote:

I have no fuckin idea what your trying to get at here

SCience is a tool, its not magic.

Whose ethics ? Yours ? Gomer the Turd's ? Morality ? Where and when is this morality ? The Third Reich ? The First Reich ? The Roman Empire before Christianity ? Yes, it sure is built into us isnt it.

What will evolution produce Gomer the turd ? You do remember the scientific method dont you, O great one ! Tell us a prediction based on fact. Of course you dont understand.

Meet Paul LePage, Creationist for Governor of Maine
by Jim
Two weeks ago, the moderator of a Republican gubernatorial debate asked candidate Paul LePage a simple and straightforward question: “Do you believe in creationism, and do you think it should be taught in Maine public schools?” Paul LePage’s complete answer:

I would say intelligence, uh, the more education you have the more knowledge you have the better person you are and I believe yes and yes.

Yesterday, Paul LePage won the Republican Party primary and will run as the GOP standard bearer in the race for Governor of Maine.

Paul LePage really answered “yes” to two questions, not just one. The first question asked, “Do you believe in creationism?” Paul LePage answered “yes.” Such an answer may seem odd to those who are aware of the strong empirical evidence for evolution, but as an individual citizen Paul LePage certainly has the right to believe whatever religious ideas he wants to believe.

What Paul LePage doesn’t have the right to do is to put his religious ideas into the curriculum of Maine’s public schools. And that’s why LePage’s second “yes” is much more important than the first. In a public debate, Paul LePage declared that creationism should be taught in public schools. As Governor of Maine, he’d be in a position to promote that notion. If you believe that creationism is for Sunday school and science is for public school, you might want to think twice before voting to put Paul LePage in the Governor’s seat.

Paul LePage is the eldest son of eighteen children. LePage grew up speaking French in an impoverished home. At age eleven, he left home and lived on the streets of Lewiston, rather than remain with what he has described as an abusive father. After spending roughly two years homeless, he began to earn a living shining shoes. At thirteen, he worked washing dishes at a café and hauling boxes for a truck driver. He later worked at a rubber company, a meat packing plant, and was a short order cook, and bartender.

] In 2007, he was named "Maine Business Champion" by the National Federation of Independent Business.

NOW, will the voting public give a rats ass that Mr Le Page will cost Maine several millions of dollars of funds (that they presently do not have) to conduct his fight for Creationism?

Does he know that this issue had been decided for the US Public School system late in the last century?

IS Mr LEPage nuts?

Is Maine collectively that stupid?

We shall find out.

Being lukewarm on the question of man's origin
(John Byrd, Shreveport Times Opinion, July 23, 2010)

A humorist-philosopher once observed, "There are two kinds of people in the world, those who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don't." Careful phrasing permits this grouping where there are only two possible answers.

Man was either purposefully designed or he was not. One is accurate. The other is false. Our nation is divided on that question.

Those who believe man was purposefully designed attribute that design to a supreme being, a creator, e.g. their God. For most Christians and Jews, this would be the biblical God, the God of Abraham. Atheists, on the other hand, deny the existence of God and reject any suggestion that man was purposefully designed.

Somehow, inexplicably, a nation that has "In God We Trust" printed on its currency and claims to be "one nation, under God" in its pledge of allegiance has chosen to teach its children only the atheistic view that man was not purposefully designed. Our biology teachers, whom we pay and direct, routinely make liars out of our preachers and rabbis who believe and teach that man was purposefully designed by God.

In high school biology classes, our children are taught that humans evolved from a lower life form that, in turn, evolved from a lower life form, etc., and that all living creatures evolved from a single common ancestor without the benefit of any planning or design, e.g., without the involvement of a supreme being, a creator, a God. Humans and turnips have a common ancestor.

If someone were to suggest that random or chance selections of paint from a painter's easel and random strokes from that painter's brush would produce a "Mona Lisa," the person making that suggestion would be considered a fool. The human brain is the most complex structure observed in the universe, much more complex and intricate than the "Mona Lisa." Only an absolute fool would see no evidence of purposeful design in the construction and function of the human brain. Yet that's what we teach our children.

The irony is that millions throughout the country go to churches and synagogues regularly. They read their Bibles, sing songs and offer prayers to the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Adam. Those sitting in the pews are the same ones paying the teachers to instruct their children. They raise holy hell about abortion yet pay for and condone the teaching of children that God had nothing to do with man's origin.

Our legislature passed and our governor signed into law the Louisiana Science Education Act, which permits an objective critique of evolution theory as it relates to man's origin. It authorizes the use of texts or teaching aids that question the evidence supporting that view and introducing material that supports the alternative view, e.g. that man was purposefully designed. The law's apparent purpose is to change what is being taught in our public schools re: man's origin (and purpose). The intent is to expose the children to both sides of this two-sided question.

I have been trying to find out whether the Caddo School Board has done anything to bring about this change. It appears it is disinclined to take any action to comply with the intent of the new law. My calls to Bonita Crawford (my representative) and Reggie Abrams (the board's legal counsel) were not returned. I don't like it when public representatives or servants ignore the public they represent or serve.

If the biblical God exists, he is likely not looking at the board. Rather, he is likely looking at a lukewarm church. There is an election coming. Our legislature and governor have given the local school boards the opportunity to present both sides of this question in biology class. The Constitution and the LSEA both require that it must be done without advancing or inhibiting any particular religious belief.

No, they won't even think about it.

Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined.

A world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar world. But,on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger.

Sweet pliability of man's spirit, that can at once surrender itself
to illusions, which cheat expectation and sorrow of their weary
moments!

How his buzz over in New Hampster?

Moron vs. Moron in Alabama Governor Race
By CHARLES JOHNSON
Today’s right wing jawdropper: in Alabama, the “True Republican PAC” is running an advertisement mocking Republican gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne for supporting the teaching of evolution in schools.

Yes, you read that right — these “True Republicans” are so proudly, invincibly ignorant that they’re making fun of a fellow Republican for not being a moron.


Except — Byrne actually is a moron too, just like the “True Republicans.” And he’s outraged that his moron credentials were questioned.

Byrne responds to this “despicable attack” with a statement: “I have never wavered in my belief that this world and everything in it is a masterpiece created by the hands of God… I fought to ensure the teaching of creationism in our school text books.”

Creationist Rumblings in Georgia
23-July-2010 ·
OUR last post about science education in Georgia was Evolution: Georgia On My Mind, in which we discussed state school Superintendent Kathy Cox — who had previously tried to remove all references to evolution and the Big Bang from the science curriculum. We quoted a Cox aide as saying:

“I think you can do without science.”

We now return to that state to learn what’s been going on. In the Times-Georgian, a daily newspaper serving Carrollton, Georgia — the county seat of Carroll County in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains — we read No change in county BOE millage rate. Here are some excerpts, with bold added by us:

The Carroll County Board of Education voted Thursday not to increase property taxes this year … . In other news, the school system will be receiving seven new buses from the state …

Before we lose you all, let’s get right to the creationism. Here we go:

Also discussed at the meeting, Bob Staples, a member of the Villa Rica Church of Christ, asked the board members to consider researching, evaluating and taking a position on the issue of teaching evolution compared to creation in the schools.

We checked. Villa Rica, population 4,134 at the last census, is located in Carroll County. Here’s the church’s website. Let’s read on:

“Evolution is a theory in crisis and harmful to our progress,” he said. “We have been either created by God or are the result of naturalistic evolution.” He said the teaching of evolution has grown to the point of excluding creationism.

Jeepers, we had no idea things had gone so far in Georgia. This is serious stuff! We continue:

“There is no evidence of evolution happening in the past. … Evolution is not a fact, but is taught as a fact in many educational settings,” Staples said. “Belief in creation and a global flood are consistent with the facts of science.”

Powerful testimony! What was the school board’s reply? Let’s find out:

Rogers [Kathy Rogers, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning] said there are units in seventh and eighth grade that teach evolution, and it is required for the students to meet the Georgia standards in tests.

That’s it? That’s all the response they gave to Bob Staples? Wait — then someone else offered this:

Superintendent Scott Cowart said a chart could be compiled listing what is required compared to what is offered and presented to the board.

A chart? Good ol’ Bob Staples pointed out that evolution is a theory in crisis, with no evidence, and it’s crowding out creationism. All they could do is offer him a chart? This is an outrage!

That’s where the article ends. We are left to assume that the meeting concluded on that note of confusion.

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