Intelligent Design Theory: Science or Religion?

The Texas Republican Party Platform is an interesting read...
2006 voysion
http://www.texasgop.org/site/PageServer?pagename=library_platform

Explain, if you will, how an atheist materialist would make us feel better about ourselves better than, say, how a lot of us feel at Midnight Mass at Christmastime and with the memories of it.

What's wrong Spendius? Can't you feel good about yourself on your own? Why do you need a church to make you feel better about yourself? Is that task too tough for you to handle on your own?

Schools' revised science standards saluted
(By RON MATUS, St. Petersburg Times, November 30, 2007)

Two years ago, an influential national think tank concluded in a scathing report that Florida's science standards - which outline what students need to know to be well grounded in the subject - were sprawling, superficial and deserving of a big, fat F.

Amazingly, the Fordham Institute noted, the standards didn't even mention the word "evolution."

Fast-forward to now.

Proposed standards are more focused and better organized. They not only mention evolution, they dub it a "big idea." And this time, they get a thumbs-up from the chief author of the Fordham report.

"Much better," said biologist Paul Gross, a former provost at the University of Virginia, who reviewed the draft at the request of the St. Petersburg Times.

Supporters say good science standards are key to turning around the dismal performance of Florida students on state and national science tests, and making them more competitive in a technology-driven global economy.

Gross agreed to review the standards as an individual and not as a Fordham representative. But as a scientist, he was impressed: "Clearly, the writing committee, whoever they are, have taken to heart all the arguments that have been made about lousy standards," he said.

That's the reaction state education officials were hoping for.

The current standards were adopted in 1996, when some education officials were concerned that direct mention of Darwin's theory of evolution - the keystone of modern biology - would spark a cultural firestorm.

This time, state officials haven't flinched. And though it remains to be seen how much of an uproar there may be from religious conservatives, the proposed standards are garnering strong support from teachers and scientists.

"Nothing like that is ever perfect," said Gerry Meisels, a University of South Florida chemistry professor who directs the state's Coalition for Science Literacy. "But they are a very big step forward."

"They're good science," said Joe Wolf, president of Florida Citizens for Science.

Meisels was among more than 50 scientists, teachers and business people who helped rewrite the standards, which were released in October and can be found on the Department of Education Web site. The public has until Dec. 14 to comment. The Board of Education is expected to vote on them early next year. If passed, the new standards would take effect next fall.

As of Monday, 7,069 people had posted 11,622 comments.

The review of Florida's standards spawned anxiety even before it began.

In the summer of 2005, the Department of Education hired K-12 chancellor Cheri Yecke, who had become embroiled in a controversy over the teaching of intelligent design in Minnesota. A few months later, it postponed the standards review, which had been originally scheduled for 2006. And then, in December 2005, confusion emerged when Gov. Jeb Bush said there should be a "vigorous discussion of varying viewpoints in our classrooms" - a position that some took as a nod to creationism.

"Oh, boy," Meisels said at the time.

Judging by the draft, those fears have not been realized.

"The organization of the plan is entirely respectable, and it pays attention to all the national models," said Gross. "There's not a lot of fluff in it."

That's not to say passions aren't still running strong on evolution.

"Evolution is not science," one person wrote after reviewing the standards on the Internet.

"I am so sick that people have become so brainwashed into thinking that evolution is true," wrote another.

On the other hand, one supporter wrote: "It is very promising that you intend to introduce this concept at such an early age."

Comments on the evolution language appear to be running more than 2-to-1 in favor.

Teachers and scientists like other changes, too.

The current standards have been slammed for trying to teach too much. So the proposed standards cut away some detail, but better wrap what's left around a handful of central themes like earth structures, heredity and energy transfer.

"It focuses more on big ideas and pursues them," Meisels said.

"They're more precise and they're absolutely world class," said Janet Acerra, a fifth-grade teacher at Forest Lakes Elementary in Oldsmar and another member of the revamp team.

sprawling, superficial

Proposed standards are more focused and better organized

"There's not a lot of fluff in it."

Religious furor over 'The Golden Compass'

with particular ramifications for the multibillion-dollar textbook industry.

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-bk-miller2dec02,0,1352215.story?coll=la-home-center

Culture war reflects split between board, residents
(By Mike Cronin, PITTSBUGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, December 3, 2007)

The national culture war over how teachers should educate children has raged for nearly two years in Upper St. Clair.

New members of a recently elected school board majority, who are to take office today, hope to heal divisions caused by the debate over International Baccalaureate, a curriculum described as advanced by some and Marxist by others. But the healing could be difficult.

"Things won't calm down," said board member Bill Sulkowski, 56, a dentist and opponent of the curriculum. "I feel like I'm in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' when I'm in the boardroom. I don't believe some of the members of this board have the ability to look at the big picture. I question whether (the new board members) will have independent thought."

Outgoing school board President Mark Trombetta, 49, an oncologist, said the culture war has been initiated by "the radical left." Other residents of the South Hills district -- one of Allegheny County's wealthiest -- argue that the conflict's aggressors are religious zealots.

However one characterizes it, the nastiness in Upper St. Clair represents the local front of the battle over what and how America's children should learn.

The focus of Upper St. Clair's dispute is an academically rigorous curriculum designed by a nonprofit educational foundation in Switzerland.

But in other districts, clashes have come over the introduction into the classroom of intelligent design -- a belief that an "intelligent designer," not natural selection, guides life processes -- so it can be taught alongside or instead of evolution.

On Thursday, the former Texas director of science curriculum said officials from that state's education agency pressured her to resign due to evolution politics. Residents in a Long Island, N.Y., school district last month argued whether a night course on "creation science" for adults can be taught on district property.

Opponents of International Baccalaureate say it violates Judeo-Christian values, is anti-American and has ties to Marxism. Supporters say the curriculum is like an advanced placement program with an international perspective that helps students succeed in an interconnected world.
David Masci, a senior research fellow at Washington's Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, said it's not a surprise that at least some of the debate has formed along religious lines.

"Between 65 and 70 percent of Americans say the U.S. is a Christian nation," said Masci, according to polls conducted by Pew.

Daniel Iracki, 54, a pulmonary specialist and member of Upper St. Clair's board, provided a theological-based opposition to the curriculum during a September school board meeting when he read a 4 1/2-page essay.

Iracki, a devout Catholic, argues it teaches students "moral relativism" instead of an absolute notion of what's right and wrong.

His comments included: "Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie;" and, "Jesus Christ as the redeemer of man is the center and purpose of human history. That is why all authentically religious tradition must be allowed to manifest their own identity publicly, free from any pressure to hide or disguise it."

Iracki and parents allied with him vowed to maintain their opposition, despite a new board majority that supports the program and recommendations from two district committees to keep it.

"I wasn't willing to compromise my principles for the facade of everyone getting along," Iracki said after acknowledging that his vigorous protests probably hurt his preferred candidates in last month's election. Iracki also made a motion to eliminate IB at a September board meeting minutes after Trombetta assured a standing-room only audience that the board would not vote on the curriculum's survival. The motion failed.

The curriculum is used in three other local schools, according to the Swiss foundation's Web site. But officials at Quaker Valley High School, Schenley High School and Vincentian Academy said they have had no similar eruptions of controversy.

Vincentian in McCandless is a Catholic school where the staff is paid by Duquesne University, said assistant Principal Bob Caler. About 85 percent of the school's 260 students are enrolled in the curriculum.

"IB does not promote relativism," Caler said of Iracki's critique. "It teaches students to think critically. It challenges them. And it pushes them to explore other viewpoints. In no way is it contradictory to our beliefs as Catholics."

The fight over the program hit its flash point in Upper St. Clair in February 2006 when the school board eliminated it in a 5-4 vote. In addition to the philosophical objections, the majority of the board complained about its cost and what they said was a duplication of advanced placement courses.

A group of parents sued the board the following month, demanding the program's reinstatement. Supporters said the board ignored the community's will in making the decision and did so behind closed doors without seeking public input.

When the board's legal fees hit $200,000, it settled the lawsuit and restored the curriculum.

Bernie left this bit out-

Quote:

with particular ramifications for the multibillion-dollar textbook industry.

First rule of journalism--"Follow the money".

The blather is neither here nor there.

I drew attention to text-book production two years ago (and since) but it was asserted that I was talkning out of my arse and I should get up to speed with blood clotting in chiclids and 600 million year old fossils of bat's knuckle bones such as one fm had in a glass case which made him feel "scientific".

with particular ramifications for the multibillion-dollar textbook industry.

Actually Bernie- I'm a little surprised that the editor of the NYT allowed Mr Blumenthal's beautifully ironic expression to stand but he may have felt it wouldn't be noticed I suppose. Maybe he didn't notice it himself.

I'm thinking of the NYT's obvious entanglements with the book "industry" which, as you must know, are quite intimate.

Even though one can be "quite intimate" I don't think one can be "quite irrelevant".