Intelligent Design Theory: Science or Religion?

Anti-evolution bills defy science
(Daytona Beach News-Journal Editorial, April 30, 2008)

Florida wants to be known as a high-tech state. It's spent millions luring a renowned research institute, fought to hold on to its space industry and worked to attract electronics and defense contractors.

So why should the state's public-school teachers pretend there's credible scientific debate about the origins of species on this planet? It makes no sense -- unless you're a member of the Florida Legislature or the religious fundamentalists pushing lawmakers on the issue.

Lawmakers don't seem to be questioning the validity of "alternative theories" to evolution. Instead, they're bickering over how far they should push public schools to allow those alternatives -- which don't qualify as valid scientific theories -- to be taught. In the process, lawmakers strain the credibility of an education system that already ranks among the most distressed in the nation.

And they try their constituents' patience. Those listening to the debate on the House version of the evolution bill undoubtably came away with a poorer opinion of their elected leaders; the discussion was rancorous, peppered with sanctimony and disdain for established scientific standards.

That's in keeping with the actual text of the House bill. Sponsored by Rep. Alan Hayes, R-Umatilla, it requires teachers to present "scientific critical analysis" of evolution, including explaining alternatives like intelligent design. As Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller pointed out, the House bill could well require teachers to discuss the beliefs of cult groups that espouse the notion that life on earth began with the arrival of extraterrestial aliens.

In comparison -- but only in comparison -- the Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, is better. It would prevent school systems from disciplining teachers who espouse alternatives to evolution. That bill still defies state science standards, which explicitly (and correctly) acknowledge that evolution is the only species-origination theory supported by empirical evidence and accepted by the vast majority of scientists worldwide. But the Senate bill wouldn't require professionals to teach intelligent design or other scientifically unsupported alternatives.

Ironically, the squabble over the differences in the House and Senate versions might well kill any chance of passing anti-evolution legislation this session. If neither Sen. Storms nor Rep. Hayes backs down, Florida schools win.

The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in the glass. The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in the glass.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. That is a fault.

Tyre and Mobile Fitting Specialists.

Schools evolution proposal could die
(By Steve Patterson, The Florida Times-Union, May 1, 2008)

TALLAHASSEE - A proposal to let schoolteachers criticize the scientific basis of evolution may die in the Legislature because dueling plans haven't been reconciled into a single bill.

With the Legislature poised to adjourn this week, supporters doubted on Wednesday that the issue would be resolved.

"Tomorrow [today] is the day - or not. And then it's over," said Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon, who sponsored the Evolution Academic Freedom Act (CS/SB 2692) with Sen. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville.

That bill said teachers in public schools couldn't be punished for presenting scientific evidence in class about shortcomings in evolutionary theory. It passed the Senate last week.

The bill said it didn't change state curriculum standards, and that any evidence teachers used should be "germane current facts, data, and peer-reviewed research" specifically about evolution.

But a companion bill in the House was toughened to require that teachers provide "critical analysis" of the theory as part of their instruction. The House passed that bill after significant debate Monday, but Storms said she can't understand why it was changed.

"I have no idea," she said, comparing the situation to having two cars traveling together as a caravan. "Suddenly the car behind us veered off the road and into the bushes."

She said the Senate won't pass that bill.

Others questioned whether the House effort was sabotaged.

"I'd say someone in the House, in the name of trying to push this bill, is actually trying to kill it," said John West, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based organization that developed a model evolution-debate law that was the basis for Florida's legislation.

"If nothing passes, I think there will be a lot of explaining to do," he said.
West said teachers in a lot of places are either afraid they'll get in trouble if they criticize evolution or, in some cases, say they actually were punished.

He said laws that protect criticism when it's based on scientific research are good for teaching, and that teachers challenging the theory have to give a balanced, objective explanation of evolution.

But critics of the legislation said it's giving cover to a religious debate that began when Florida's education system updated curriculum and explicitly included evolution.

"We saw this coming," said Brandon Haught, a member of Florida Citizens for Science, a loose-knit group supportive of teaching evolution. He said some religious groups have been promoting the legislation.

Haught, a police agency employee taking night classes to become a science teacher, said he wants to be sure his children, now in middle and high school, are taught objective science. He said some supporters of the legislation don't know enough about science or evolution to know there's good evidence behind the theory, and that all theories have some weak spots that scientists continuously challenge.

FLORIDA UPDATE

Quote:

Schools evolution proposal could die
(By Steve Patterson, The Florida Times-Union, May 1, 2008)

"I'd say someone in the House, in the name of trying to push this bill, is actually trying to kill it," said John West, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based organization that developed a model evolution-debate law that was the basis for Florida's legislation.

You have my permission to continue talking out your ass there spendi.. CArry on.