Intelligent Design Theory: Science or Religion?

State school board urged to add guide for hot-button discussionsThe state board took no action Monday and will likely discuss it further in September.

timber wrote-

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spendi, facts are facts, what I've referenced is fact, and another fact is that your "focus" on some imagined sociological impact is absolutely immaterial in the face of established fact.

There are many other areas besides cloning and stem-cell research which will impact on society and on every member of it and in a profound way.

timber's assertion is obviously not accepted by Ms Grady. Nor by me.

Evolutionites are living a life of indulgence and hiding behind the fact that the impact of evolution theory on society is too sensitive a subject to discuss even in their own homes.

On the Chicago Meeting thread the impact of global warming was much too sensitive a topic for the participants to even contemplate. They just didn't wish to know. When I raised it I was an "annoying buzzing noise" as if that was a reply suitable for adults.

They buried their heads in the sand which is tame stuff indeed compared to what most evolutionites will do in a proper discussion of evolution theory's impact on society which is already strikingly apparent to those who have their eyes and ears open.

despite a withering fusillade, not a shot fired so far has taken him out

What you or some twit from the bible belt may think is immaterial. Facts are facts.

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Evolutionites are living a life of indulgence and hiding behind the fact that the impact of evolution theory on society is too sensitive a subject to discuss even in their own homes.

Bullshit.

One of her gurus was the late Nobel laureate Francis Crick. At a neuroscience meeting in Orlando in 1996, I listened to Crick declaring: "Your sense of personal identity and free will are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules."

Later he invited me to tea at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, where he asserted, waving a blue teapot in the air: "Neuroscience will give us a more authentic causal explanation for human behaviour than unscientific and hence unreliable folk psychology." By folk psychology he meant history, fiction, memoir, poetry, philosophy and religion.

Crick was not alone in believing that the whole of our mental life, including our choices and our sense of responsibility, is no more than a kind of determined chemical software program running in a computer-like brain. Being good means an efficient program; being bad - paedophilia, rape, theft, lying, murder - means a defective program. Against this background, it seems feasible to correct a defective program with mind-altering drugs like Prozac.

Philosophers, too, have long suggested that personal responsibility is an illusion. The British professor Sir Freddie Ayer, famous for his BBC Brains Trust stints, claimed there was no such thing as good or bad acts: merely feelings of "boo!" or "hurrah!" The French philosopher Jacques Derrida taught that a person was just a series of stories from which emerges the illusion of a self - and how is one good or bad without a self?

Just to be clear here; no need or reason for spendi to "shut up"

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despite a withering fusillade, not a shot fired so far has taken him out

Fancy that . . . people in the Chicago meeting thread did not wish to discuss global warming . . . the intellectual cowards ! ! !

: "Neuroscience will give us a more authentic causal explanation for human behaviour than unscientific and hence unreliable folk psychology." By folk psychology he meant history, fiction, memoir, poetry, philosophy and religion.

Church-State Watchdog Group Files Public Records Request Regarding Proposed Changes To State Science Standards
(Americans United Press Release, July 12, 2006)

WASHINGTON - July 12 - Some members of the Ohio Board of Education appear to be preparing for another assault on the teaching of evolution in public schools, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Last month, board member Colleen Grady reportedly urged the Board of Education's Achievement Committee to consider giving 10th-grade science teachers guidance on teaching evolution and other "controversial" issues such as global warming, cloning and stem-cell research.

Grady apparently put forward a proposal that would change the language of Ohio's existing science standards in an effort to reflect religious criticism of evolution and other scientific principles. The proposal has not been publicly released.

On July 11, Americans United filed a request under the Ohio open records law that asks for copies of the Grady proposal as well as all documents and correspondence by the Board of Education and the Department of Education relating to proposed changes to the state's science standards.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, urged the Ohio board to reject any effort to reopen the dispute over science education.

"Public school students in Ohio deserve sound science education, not religious dogma masquerading as science," said Lynn. "It's time for Religious Right allies on the board to drop their unwise agenda and focus on policies that will benefit all of Ohio's students."

The teaching of evolution has sparked an ongoing battle in Ohio. In January, the board voted 9-8 to affirm state science standards that downplayed evolution. A month later, the board reversed itself and voted to drop language that singled out evolution for "critical analysis" and a lesson plan that promoted "intelligent design."

But Americans United says Religious Right allies on the board have apparently not given up, and have now expanded their focus to encompass other issues. AU made the public information request in an effort to learn exactly what the board is trying to do.

The AU letter requests copies of various documents, communications and other materials, including any contacts the board may have had with the Discovery Institute or other Religious Right organizations that seek to teach their religious perspectives in public school science classes.

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"But when Jesus was taken before Pilate then[/I] the world of facts and the world of truths were face to face in immediate and implacable hostility . It is a scene appallingly distinct and overwhelming in its symbolism, such as the world's history had never before and has never since looked at. The discord that lies at the root of all mobile life from its beginning, in virtue of its very being, of its having both existence and awareness, took here the highest form that can possibly be conceived as human tragedy. In the famouus question of the Roman Procurator: "What is truth?"-- the one word that is race-pure in the whole Greel Testament--lies the entire meaning of history, the exclusive
validity of the deed, the prestige of the State and war and blood, the all-powerfullness of success and the pride of eminent fitness. Notindeed the mouth, but the silent feeling of Jesus answers this question by that other which is decisive in all things of religion--What is actuality? For Pilate actuality was all; for him nothing. Were it anything, indeed, pure religiousness could never stand up against history and the powers of history, or sit in judgement on active life; or if it does, it ceases to be religion and is subjected itself to the spirit of history.

My kingdom is not of this world. This is the final word which admits of no gloss and on which each must check the course wherein birth and nature have set him. A being that makes use of a waking consciousness, or a waking-consciousness which subjects being to itself; pulsation or tension, blood or intellect, history or nature, politics or religion-- here it is one or the other, there is no honest way of compromise.

Dreams where the umbrella is folded
And into the path you are hurled
And the cards are no good that you're holdin'
Unless they're from another world.

School board primary for state looms
(By Jeff Myrick, Baldwin City Signal, July 13, 2006)

Incumbent State School Board Member Janet Waugh, who represents most of the Baldwin City district, is hopeful that this year's elections will reverse the board's recent conservative majority that has caused embarrassment for the state.

But, in order for that to happen, Waugh needs to win her Aug. 1 primary race against Jesse Hall, a fellow Democrat. The winner of the primary gains the school board position because there isn't a Republican challenger.

"Naturally, I'm very hopeful we will regain control," said Waugh, who lives in Kansas City, Kan., as does Hall. "I'm getting a lot of positive feedback from all over the state and even outside the state and nation. I got the neatest e-mail from a guy in Australia, who is a resident of Kansas, and feels this race is the most important one in Kansas. He's in my district and is supporting me.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," she said. "This election is not something anyone can take for granted. We all have to work hard and make sure everyone knows the issues."

The conservative majority has removed evolution from Kansas classrooms and altered programs for sex education, among other items. The conservatives have a 6-4 advantage. Waugh doesn't mince words about the need for that to change.

"It is time to return the board to a more moderate viewpoint," she said. "The last few years have been extremely difficult with the conservative majority. Instead of focusing our attention on the crucial issues facing Kansas such as continuous improvement, closing the gap, raising graduation rates, increasing test scores and making sure all students achieve at high levels, the board has spent it's time debating issues that will do little to help schools and students.

"We've become the laughingstock not only of the nation, but the world and it's time we returned to making sure we are offering the best education possible for all students," said Waugh. "The state board needs to be the leader in helping districts use best practices so they can make sure we prepare all students for the 21st century, able to compete in a global economy, lifelong learners and contributing citizens."

To this point, Hall hasn't attended any of the forums for state board candidates. He has stated that he supports the conservative majority's actions.

He said he grew tired of complaining about the education system and decided to run for office and try to effect change.

He said he supported the science standards adopted by the 6-4 majority that criticize evolution.

"The way it was set up, evolution was the only thing that could be taught. That doesn't allow a child to step outside the box so that they themselves learn how to think," Hall said.

Opponents of the new science standards say they bring intelligent design -- the theory that a master designer formed life -- into science class.

"It is time to return the board to a more moderate viewpoint," she said. "The last few years have been extremely difficult with the conservative majority. Instead of focusing our attention on the crucial issues facing Kansas such as continuous improvement, closing the gap, raising graduation rates, increasing test scores and making sure all students achieve at high levels, the board has spent it's time debating issues that will do little to help schools and students.

continuous improvement, closing the gap, raising graduation rates, increasing test scores and making sure all students achieve at high levels,

... (a national education system) is an important subject and not suitable for playing games with.