Intelligent Design Theory: Science or Religion?

Government schools have been controlled by evolutionists for decades.

It is hilarious to hear them moan about 'scientific illiteracy'.

This bears acknowledgement I think.

Why is it that as whatever could even possibly be identifiable with or have any bearing on religious faith/belief has been systematically removed from the public classroom if not actually declared taboo and this left the indoctrinators free to fill kids' heads full of pure science, etc.; yet we seem to be becoming more scientifically illiterate all the time and generally more poorly educated in all other disciplines as well.

Sorta makes my suggestion that a more open minded approach might be beneficial, eh?

Einstein married Mileva on January 6, 1903, although Einstein's mother had objected to the match because she thought Marić "too old", not Jewish, and "physically defective." Their relationship was for a time a personal and intellectual partnership. In a letter to her, Einstein wrote of Marić as "a creature who is my equal and who is as strong and independent as I am." There has been debate about whether Marić influenced Einstein's work; however, most historians do not think she made major contributions. On May 14, 1904, Albert and Mileva's first son, Hans Albert Einstein, was born in Bern, Switzerland. After the death of Albert's father in 1910, Albert's second son, Eduard, was born in Munich.

Einstein and Marić divorced on February 14, 1919, having lived apart for five years. On June 2 of that year, Einstein married Elsa Löwenthal, who had nursed him through an illness. Elsa was Albert's first cousin maternally and his second cousin paternally. Together the Einsteins raised Margot and Ilse, Elsa's daughters from her first marriage. Their union produced no children.

Without a profit motive, we'd still be living in caves. I prefer the present living conditions.

c.i. wrote-

Quote:

Without a profit motive, we'd still be living in caves. I prefer the present living conditions.

I couldn't agree more.

Why do you AIDs-ers want to rock the boat?

Are you being cut out of the profits?

real life wrote:

Government schools have been controlled by evolutionists for decades.

It is hilarious to hear them moan about 'scientific illiteracy'.

indoctrinators ... fill kids' heads full of pure science, etc.; yet we seem to be becoming more scientifically illiterate all the time

Foxfyre wrote:

real life wrote:

Government schools have been controlled by evolutionists for decades.

It is hilarious to hear them moan about 'scientific illiteracy'.

indoctrinators ... fill kids' heads full of pure science, etc.; yet we seem to be becoming more scientifically illiterate all the time

I wouldn't agree that the schools teach 'pure science'. And IMO that's why the sciences aren't well understood.

Evolutionary dogma is used to coerce students to accept circumstantial evidence as conclusive without allowing any hard questions or real examination of the underlying assumptions.

Calling evolution a 'theory' won't end debate
(By Joëlle Anne Moreno, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Opinion, March 2, 2008)

Florida's public school science standards have just been updated for the first time since 1996, and no one is happy.

Under the new standards, teachers will be required to introduce core concepts of evolution and natural selection starting in the sixth grade. High school students will study more complex aspects of evolutionary science starting in ninth grade. Although students will be told that evolution is "the fundamental concept underlying all of biology," they must also be told that evolution is a scientific theory.

No legitimate scientist can, or should, object to the classification of evolution as theory. Scientists understand that evolution is a theory because it is a unifying set of observations and measurements that have been tested repeatedly and accepted by the vast majority of the scientific community. Evolution, gravity and plate tectonics are all theories.

So why object to the new requirement that public school teachers label evolution as "theory"?

There are two reasons to oppose the new mandatory characterization of evolution as theory. The first is that non-scientists often use the word "theory" to describe assumptions based on limited information or knowledge, and public school classrooms are filled with kids, not scientists. Forcing this new theory label into the science curriculum is a transparent effort to confuse our children.

In 2005, when the Cobb County School District in Georgia tried to place stickers in all biology textbooks that said "evolution is a theory, not a fact," the federal court concluded that this statement "has the effect of implicitly bolstering alternative religious theories of origin by suggesting that evolution is a problematic theory even in the field of science." Florida's new standards serve similar religious objectives by undermining Darwin's explanations of natural phenomena, which have been supported by a century of empirical evidence.

To the extent this is a war of ideas fought with words, Florida has opened the classroom door for pseudoscientific ideology-based alternative theories for the origin of natural life, such as arguments based on irreducible complexity, creationism or "intelligent design."

The second reason to oppose the theory label is we should not teach our children that faith and reason are interchangeable. Recent polls reveal that approximately half of all Americans adults do not "believe" in evolution. When children are encouraged to discount evolution as "only" a theory, they learn to approach all science-based controversies, not with an appropriately healthy level of skepticism and critical thinking skills, but with the dangerous and profound misconception that belief and proof are interchangeable.

Technically, evolution is a theory and, for now, teachers will follow new Florida standards. But this debate is far from over.

School boards around the country should learn from Florida's example. Evolution is not dogma. It is, according to the late Stephen J. Gould, Harvard University's most prolific and influential evolutionary biologist and paleontologist, "one of the half dozen 'great ideas' developed by science."

Perhaps our public school teachers will accurately communicate that, to scientists, the word "theory" is not pejorative. But if they fail or refuse to do this, our children will suffer. Public schools cannot accommodate theistic, partisan and non-scientific objectives, unless we are willing to risk our commitment to the principle that church and state must remain separate and our opportunity to raise children trained to think, to think critically, and to think for themselves.

raise children trained to think, to think critically, and to think for themselves.

TRIBUNE is America's largest employee-owned media company, operating businesses in publishing, interactive and broadcasting. In publishing, Tribune's leading daily newspapers include the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.), The Sun (Baltimore), South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel and Hartford Courant. The company's broadcasting group operates 23 television stations, Superstation WGN on national cable, Chicago's WGN-AM and the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Popular news and information websites complement Tribune's print and broadcast properties and extend the company's nationwide audience.

Last week you may have encountered some colorful uses of the lexicon from Sam Zell that we are not used to hearing at the Times...But of course we still have the same expectations at the Times of what is correct in the workplace. It's not good judgment to use profane or hostile language and we can't tolerate that...In short, nothing changes; the fundamental rules of decorum and decency apply...Sam is a force of a nature; the rest of us are bound by the normal conventions of society.

I checked the South Florida Sun-Sentinel web site's list of classified advertising and there were no Personal Services, Escort Agencies, Datelines, Massage Parlours, or anything remotely connected to sex.

I recently saw a copy of a Vancouver newspaper which had many pages of such things. Is there this amazing difference between Vancouver mores and South Florida mores?

Keep your word,
presume nothing,
take nothing personally,
do your best.
Run. Run for your life.