Posted on 11/12/2005 4:16:49 AM PST by PatrickHenry
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Friday called the state's new science standards a "step in the wrong direction."
Her comments follow a week in which the Kansas Board of Education adopted new science standards Tuesday that portray evolution as being in doubt and change the definition of science to allow for supernatural explanations.
In her lengthiest public comments yet on the controversy, Sebelius said she worries the changes will undermine science education and send the message that Kansas doesn't welcome high-tech firms and research. She pointed to the state's efforts to recruit bioscience companies, while the board votes to move "away from well-known, proven facts in science class."
Her comments also came as more candidates have stepped forward to challenge Board of Education members who approved the standards earlier this week.
Though the standards make no mention of creationism or intelligent design, they were sought by members of the intelligent design movement, which believes scientific evidence shows that nature was designed by a creator.
Four of the six conservative board members who voted to approve the changes are up for election next November. Moderate Republicans and Democrats are aiming to unseat conservatives, take control of the board and remove the new science standards before they go into effect in 2007.
In a closely watched race in Pennsylvania, voters in the town of Dover on Tuesday did what opponents of the intelligent design standards hope will happen here.
Voters there ousted most of that city's school board, which had voted to put intelligent design in the curriculum.
The latest two people to announce campaigns for state school board are Don Weiss, an Olathe resident, and Kent Runyan, a Pittsburg State University education professor.
Weiss will run as a Democrat against board member John Bacon, an Olathe Republican. Runyan will run as a Democrat against Republican board member Iris Van Meter. Bacon and Van Meter supported the standards.
Olathe resident Harry McDonald has already announced his plans to challenge Bacon in the primary election. Other candidates have popped up in other districts as well.
Bacon, who hasn't announced his re-election plans, said he's not concerned about his challengers and doesn't believe any political lessons from Dover, Pa., are relevant to Kansas. He said the Kansas school standards do not mandate the teaching of intelligent design like the ones in Dover. And he said he believes most Kansans will support the board's decision.
"There are holes in evolution," he said. "Any good scientist will admit to that."
Sebelius said she was "baffled" by the Board of Education's yearlong debate about evolution, and that as a Catholic who attended religious schools, she sees no contradiction between faith and scientific explanations of nature.
"I was taught that God created the universe," she said. "I was also taught science in science class."
Bacon said Sebelius doesn't understand that the board changed the standards to allow students to make up their own minds about evolution. He said worries about the changes' effects on the economy, public education and the state's reputation amount to "scare tactics."
This thread to needs to ferment a little longer.
[Null response!]
So why emulate nazi propaganda tactics?
All I ask is that scientists stick to examining proximate material causes for things, and that high school science textbooks stick to reporting only the most well-established of those.
There is a non-functional L-GLO gene in humans and great apes. It is there, it just doesnt produce the enzyme necessary of vitamin C synthesis. It is broken.
The defect has been mapped to a deletion at a specific locus (found in exactly the same position in humans, gorillas and chimps).
I don't think you're reading with your brights on. This is not a restatement of your contention.
Divine intervention denounces scientists? I'll be darned. There is no pitched battle going on between science and God, except in the minds of creationists.
I recommend Allstate. The premiums might be steep, but the payout ought to be pretty darn sizeable, considering the real estate losses.
Huh. You're looking forward to being up to your eyeballs in earthworms?
Like, for example, during the Spanish Inquisition, or when the Popes burned scientists, witches and other misc. peoples with whom they disagreed at the stake? Or like when the 100 years war depopulated Northern Europe into an ungoverned wilderness? Or, wait, maybe you mean like when the 1st Crusaders massacred jewish communities wholesale on their way to the holy lands?
They do. Science undergos periodic revolutions. Consider what the large-scale universe looked like in 1900 vs. now. It's expected, unlike the case with religious precepts.
As I thought. You were lying when you claimed to have rational arguments. You just came in to insult people who accept real science.
Attack of the Phorids.
http://www.deathonline.net/decomposition/corpse_fauna/flies/coffin.htm
Can't decompose what's not there.
My brights are on and there is a deer staring at my headlights.
You have succeeded in reducing the conversation lower than my attention will endure.
Conversation over.
Since you are totally lacking in scientific query you might as well go home.
I wonder if LS's other brother got ahold of his password? Or is LS a total creo?
Ooh, that could be good. Too bad the page doesn't have any samples. I'll have to try to remember that one next time I'm at the Barnes & Noble.How about this one?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00075XB0O/qid%3D1131898634/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/104-9013548-3133519#product-details
I'll probably be getting the new classic Christmas album this year.
The Cadillacs do a really stupid version White Christmas that'll have you literally ROTFLYAO.
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