Last week, Utah's Board of Education rejected an attempt to include the teaching of intelligent design theory. Below are excerpts from a news story in the Salt Lake Tribune:
Quote:School board: Intelligent design isn't
(By Mike Cronin, Salt Lake Tribune, September 3, 2005)
Unlike the Kansas School Board, which earlier this summer approved allowing educators to teach theories in addition to evolution that explain life on Earth, the Utah Board of Education on Friday unanimously approved a position statement supporting the continued exclusive teaching of evolution in state classrooms.
Only two people out of the dozens who attended Friday's meeting sided with Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, and his proposal to allow teaching "intelligent design" as a theory to explain the origins of life.
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Speaking to board members, 10 scientists and researchers representing disciplines including biology, chemistry, geology, paleontology and engineering tried to dismantle the contention that intelligent design is based on sound science.
Instead, many called it pseudoscience and agreed with Duane Jeffery, a Brigham Young University biology professor, who put it in the same category as astrology and pyramid power.
"By definition, science does not attempt to explain the world by invoking the supernatural," University of Utah bioengineering professor Gregory Clark told the board.
"Intelligent design fails as science because it does exactly that - it posits that life is too complex to have arisen from natural causes, and instead requires the intervention of an intelligent designer who is beyond natural explanation. Invoking the supernatural can explain anything, and hence explains nothing."
That must be why Utah is so well-known for its atheism.
Ironic isn't it? (Utah is headquarters for the Mormon Church.) Utah educators simply feel that intelligent design theory is bad science.
From what I gathered reading Mailer Utah is pretty religious at official levels.The 2nd half of Executioner's Song makes that plain.
There might be another reason for the vote wande reports.Officials in Utah might have been wary of being made to look ridiculous in a challenge in a higher level or possibly wary of having the issues more fully exposed and thus buried.
And another reason might be a threat of an exodus of scientific personel from the state.
As a matter of interest the Mormons erected an £800 million church in northern England which can be seen from many miles away.The ID issue wouldn't even get off the ground here.It isn't bad science so much as anti-science.Surely it results in paralysis of motivation.It seems to me parasitical or a symptom of an organised awkward squad.
In an historical context, the Mormons twice rebelled against United States authority, and their murder of federal judges and marshalls resulted in the Mormon War, which saw the Second Cavalry dispatched to put down the rebellion.
Since that time, their resentment simmered, but cooler heads prevailed, and they recognized the need to attract settlers other than Mormons. As they entered the twentieth century, they began to push the fundamentalist wacko wing of their confession further and further into the mountains to the south, not interferring in the misogynist lifestyle, with plural marriages and incestuous rape, but not wishing to have it on public display, either. In the technology boom of the latter twentieth century, they made two moves which enriched the state immensely, writing tax codes and providing public services to attract high-tech industry, and making tourist destinations of their mountains, which now have large ski resorts renowned for their challenging slopes.
The Mormons have seen the handwriting on the wall, and know that their bread is buttered on a "liberal" side, so they take care not to be seen as fundy lunatics.
Setanta
Setanta, Dyslexia and Diane, the power couple. They've only been in Utah for a day or so and they've already contaminated the population with anarchy and liberalism.
Sheesh, I didn't know they were so powerful. I'd better be careful of them when they return to Albuquerque.
BBB
"Setanta, Dyslexia and Diane, the power couple"
like BBB
the bee duet?
The Pennsylvania intelligent design court case involves a school board in York County. A school board in a different Pennsylvania county has rejected intelligent design. Below are excerpts from a news report:
Quote:
Board members bash Intelligent Design (Delaware County News, September 7, 2005)
HAVERFORD TWP. - Following a review of curriculum standards and testing, recent school maintenance and the effect of rising oil prices on district transportation costs, the Sept. 1 school board meeting was capped off with a discussion on the instruction of intelligent design in Pennsylvania schools.
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"Over the course of the summer, President Bush, and [Pennsylvania] senators [Rick] Santorum and [Arlen] Specter endorsed policies that would require the teaching of Intelligent Design in the science curriculum," Feinberg said. "I can't stress how strongly I object to that, especially at a time when we need scientists in this country. To adulterate the curriculum like this, it's reprehensible."
Intelligent Design is the theory that nature and complex biological structures were designed by an intelligent being and not created by chance.
"I have no problem with people practicing whatever religion they want and believing whatever they want, but it's not like we're going into churches and teaching science," Feinberg said.
Member Philip Hopkins agreed, adding that, "As school board members, we realize they're using seductive language, they want us to think all they're trying to do is get people to 'teach the controversy' - it's a way of tricking us, there is no controversy within the scientific community.
"They want us to give equal weight to wrong ideas, and we're derelict in our duties if we let this happen. They try to use scientific arguments against evolution; but the standard they hold evolution to is one they can't live up to themselves," Hopkins said.
"If you had proponents of this ... theory, who were motivated enough to run some folks for school board, well all it takes is five people to make the change. There's nine on the board and five votes is all it takes," Feinberg said.
Building The Desert Kingdom is a really good book of the growth of Mormonism and the Founding and "defending" theDeseretState .Its by Claudia and Richard Bushman.
The intelligent design court trial will begin soon. The judge has denied a request to televise the proceedings. That decision and dispositions on earlier matters can be viewed at the website for the United States District Court for Middle Pennsylvania (Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District).
Dangnabbit. Would have loved to have this televised. Anything to get the first shots fired in the New American Civil War. Maybe I can talk Barbara Steisand into smearing menstral blood on the Alamo. Or get those photos released of Jeff Gannon porking Cheney's wobbling fat white ass.
The Australia Science Teacher's Association has now also stated a position on intelligent design:
Quote:ASTA's Response on Intelligent Design
The study of Science is about what is measurable, testable and evidence-based.
Scientific theories are subject to testing and are modified on the basis of facts and experimental evidence. The theory of evolution is the best scientific explanation for explaining the changes in life on Earth. As with any scientific theory, the theory of Evolution will continue to be modified as new observations and discoveries are made.
Intelligent Design is a belief system that maintains that certain features of the universe and living things are best explained by the intervention of an intelligent cause. As with any religion or system of belief, it may warrant a place in a religious or cultural studies curriculum. It does not have a place in a science curriculum, alongside scientific theories such as evolution.
As it is not possible to set up an experiment to test Intelligent Design, it cannot have any status as a scientific theory and hence has not been included in science curriculum in Australia. While Intelligent Design has no status as a scientific theory, teachers of science may wish to contrast it or other belief systems with scientific theories like Evolution as a means of assisting students to understand better the nature of science.
wandeljw wrote:The intelligent design court trial will begin soon. The judge has denied a request to televise the proceedings.
Awww, Bummer. You would think that with all the "reality" shows out there that this one would be perfect for prime time.
rosborne & blatham,
Since it won't be on tv, you can follow all the action by reading documents on the court's website. (If you like that kind of reading.)
wandeljw
I'm actually not looking for reasoned argument. Knife-deep civil disruption is my thing.
blatham,
You provided links to a lot of scientific essays that were extremely well-reasoned.
(on the other hand, you were also the person responsible for the rubber chicken disruption)
Gee!-that blatham guy.
He certainly has a right wing undertow.
Just in the last few days he has done-
"shooting the bastard"
"drinking iron" a particularly nasty form of execution whether in Latin or not.
"poking Mr Cheyney"
"Starting a civil war"
and now-the latest "knife deep".
I think Genghis Khan might have drawn the line at that lot spilling out in so short a time span.
Liberal he ain't.
Now now wande.
Jokes of that nature are in bad taste.
The Bush administration doesn't want to publicize anything that contradicts their political or "religious' beliefs," because it'll make them look dumber and dumber - but I repeat myself.
spendius wrote:Gee!-that blatham guy.
He certainly has a right wing undertow.
Just in the last few days he has done-
"shooting the bastard"
"drinking iron" a particularly nasty form of execution whether in Latin or not.
"poking Mr Cheyney"
"Starting a civil war"
and now-the latest "knife deep".
I think Genghis Khan might have drawn the line at that lot spilling out in so short a time span.
Liberal he ain't.
I said something about 'drinking iron'? Can't recall that. I did say something about smearing an iron-rich celebrity effluvium all over the walls and doorhandles of the Sacred Alamo.
And the verb was 'porking', not 'poking'.
