Posted on 04/16/2009 8:59:36 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts
Anti-creationists: do they fear an overthrow of Darwin in the U.S.?
by Russ Humphreys
Published: 16 April 2009
This year, as has been happening every year for several decades, various U.S. states are introducing legislation encouraging public-school students to examine scientific evidence against Darwinism. And again, anti-creationist lobby groups, such as the National Center for Science Education,[1] are pushing the panic button, claiming that such efforts aim to introduce Christianity into government-run schools.
This year, however, the anti-creationists seem to be pushing the button harder, saying that such bills “are multiplying out of control”.[2] Perhaps that is because more states now seem to be involved. Bills are pending or currently passed in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida, while more are sprouting in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Michigan, Missouri, and South Carolina. As usual, one tactic the anti-creationists are using is to label such efforts as “creationist” and therefore “religion”, even though the bills only propose teaching more science evidence...
(Excerpt) Read more at creation.com ...
Is that a reference to GGG's posts?
Ok, sure TE. Hmm should I walk 3 ft behind you too? WEFG
The universe is somewhat indifferent to what people feel should be true
Why?
I knew you would understand. I have some deer hides that need chewing too.
DHS has determined that wanting state and local control is a sign of right-wing extremism and you're ripe to become a terrorist. Put down that bottle of cleaning solution.
They won’t be soft enough if you don’t chew them. I’ll need moccasins, leggings, a shirt, a vest, a jacket and a rifle sack. Do you know how to do hand beading?
For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. - Mal 3:6
Sure can do bead work & I can weave too if you have a loom.
Can you gut a buffler with a flint knife?
How sharp is it? You even got a buffler?
Sure, it has lots of places. Teaching its creation account in science class isn't one of them, though.
Teaching creation is not establishing a religion,
By most courts' interpretation for some 40 years now, it is. I happen to agree with them.
Whatever happened to the free exercise part of the First Amendment?
It's still there, and those same courts have protected it. The Department of Education, drawing on numerous court cases, issued a "Guidance on Constitutionally Protected Prayer in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools" in 2003. Among other things, it said
students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," and the Supreme Court has made clear that "private religious speech, far from being a First Amendment orphan, is as fully protected under the Free Speech Clause as secular private expression."...For example, "nothing in the Constitution ... prohibits any public school student from voluntarily praying at any time before, during, or after the school day," and students may pray with fellow students during the school day on the same terms and conditions that they may engage in other conversation or speech. Likewise, local school authorities...may not structure or administer such rules to discriminate against student prayer or religious speech...So students can pray on their own, pray together, pray out loud, read the Bible, organize prayer groups, and meet before school to pray, and they can use school facilities for prayer and announce their prayer meetings over the P.A. system. Is that really not enough free exercise for you?Students may pray when not engaged in school activities or instruction, subject to the same rules designed to prevent material disruption of the educational program that are applied to other privately initiated expressive activities. Among other things, students may read their Bibles or other scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray or study religious materials with fellow students during recess, the lunch hour, or other noninstructional time to the same extent that they may engage in nonreligious activities....Students may organize prayer groups, religious clubs, and "see you at the pole" gatherings before school to the same extent that students are permitted to organize other non-curricular student activities groups. Such groups must be given the same access to school facilities for assembling as is given to other non-curricular groups, without discrimination because of the religious content of their expression....where student groups that meet for nonreligious activities are permitted to advertise or announce their meetings—for example, by advertising in a student newspaper, making announcements on a student activities bulletin board or public address system, or handing out leaflets—school authorities may not discriminate against groups who meet to pray.
Nope.
“Hmmm, I might have to take another look at you.
Can you gut a buffler with a flint knife?”
This is starting to remind me of some joke I once heard about the lonely bachelor farmer far back in the hill country placing a personal ad: “WANTED TO MARRY: Lady with dog. Pls. send picture of dog.”
It's better than nothing, which so far is the alternative.
>>The determination of what gets taught in the public schools should rest with the local taxpayers and the local board. It should not be based on some other arbitrary factor, such as agreement with the latest scientific consensus, forced on unwilling parents and students just because someone else thinks that they know better what is good for everyone and forces it on them through litigation.<<
Depending on that state constitution the state may be able to set standards.
But another motivating factor is the ability to get good colleges to accept your kids and to get get credits to transfer to other schools.
If they choose to teach AP physics without calculus, that’s their right but they shouldn’t be surprised when they don’t get credit elsewhere.
Likewise, if they teach biology without fundamental developmental biology then likewise, they are certainly within their rights but shouldn’t expect to be credited with a full biology course if they go elsewhere.
Depends on what you mean by evolve..
Does anything remain the same moment to moment?..
Yes; and "evolution," too.
So here's a scenario: A seed falls into good soil; it germinates, then grows, and ultimately brings forth fruit. What do we call this process — Evolution? Growth? Change?
It doesn't look like "evolution" to me; for the seed–to–fruit system is not one in which one thing leads to another distinctly different entity (species), which is what Darwinists claim evolution involves. Rather, it looks to me like one single entity viewed at different stages at various times. To me, that doesn't qualify as "evolution," though it is clearly a type of change.
You wrote, "Am I soul/spirit or physical?" Well, since you're a human being, I imagine you are both. Or to put it another way, you are an incarnated soul. The "carnate part" — the body — is mortal, finite, perishable; the "soul part" is not. Rather, it is eternal, imperishable.
Interestingly, some classical Greek philosophers held that the soul is the "form" of the body. In Aristotelian language, the soul would be the formal cause of the physical body. In the seed–to–fruit system just mentioned, the change that we observe is guided as if by an unseen hand, some "instruction set" that tells the plant at its various stages "what to do." This would be the formal cause — or the "form" as Plato called it — of the plant thoughout all its life stages.
The interesting difference between Plato and Aristotle in this matter is that Plato regarded the Forms as transcendent to physical nature. Aristotle regarded the Forms as immanent in the entities themselves. Perhaps both men were onto something here.... But I digress.
In any case, to Christians, the soul is ever so much more than merely "the form of the body."
Thank you, dear brother in Christ, for your fascinating essay/post!
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