Posted on 05/22/2006 8:14:10 AM PDT by RightWingAtheist
A high school science teacher vowed yesterday to continue telling his Inuit students about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, despite complaints from parents in the northern Quebec community of Salluit.
Science teacher Alexandre April was given a written reprimand last month by his principal at Ikusik High School for discussing evolution in class.
Parents in the village 1,860 kilometres north of Montreal complained their children had been told they came from apes.
"I am a biologist. ... This is what I'm passionate about," said April, who teaches Grades 7 and 8. "It interests the students. It gets them asking questions.
"They laugh and they call me 'ape,' but I don't mind. If I stopped, they would lose out."
April, who is leaving the town when his contract runs out at the end of the school year, said the principal first told teachers last fall not to talk about evolution.
Debate over the teaching of evolution in Salluit - a village of 1,150 located along the northern coast of Quebec, between Ungava and Hudson bays - is pitting an increasingly religious Inuit population against a Quebec education system that's becoming more and more secular.
Although April, 32, won't be punished, his reprimand has outraged Quebec's scientific community.
"What he's doing is right and it's best for the kids," said Brian Alters, director of the Evolution Education Research Centre at McGill University. "Science should not be de-emphasized for non-science."
Over the years, controversy over the teaching of evolution has erupted in Pennsylvania, along with U.S. states in the so-called Bible Belt. In November, the Kansas State Board of Education approved science standards that cast doubt on evolution.
But with heightened religious fervour among the Inuit and Cree in northern communities, some observers suggest Canada might have its own Bible North.
Molly Tayara, a member of the Salluit school's volunteer education committee, said she'd tell her four school-age children to walk out of a lesson on Darwin.
"The minister (of education) may have come from apes, but we're Inuit and we've always been human," she told The Gazette in a phone interview.
"Most of us rely on God's word. ... God made Adam and Eve and they weren't animals."
Legally, Inuit schools in Quebec's north must teach evolution, as it's part of the provincial curriculum. After April's story came out this week in the magazine Quebec Science, Education Department officials immediately called the school to ensure the curriculum was followed.
Topics like reproduction and diversity of species are part of Science and Technology, a course for Grades 7 and 8. Darwin's work, based on the premise that humans and other animals have evolved over time, is further covered in Grade 11 biology - an elective course.
"We want the curriculum to be applied. We're just saying the theory of evolution could be taught more delicately to students," said Gaston Pelletier, director of educational services for the Kativik School Board, which serves northern Quebec's 14 Inuit communities. "We have to respect their view."
//The ACLU just found a bunch of useful idiots in the evos//
Bump
W.
Man you got that right 'bookmark'
W.
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There is a lot of misinformation in that article.
It's the missing link between creationism and religious instruction masquerading as biology. Yes, class, Ms. Cleary sees a place for missing links after all, and it's not pretty.
Creationism takes a literal view of the Bible, so it holds that the Earth and all its creatures were created in one fell, divine swoop 6,000 years ago. Fair enough, but that's a hard sell as must-have information in a sophomore biology course.
Enter intelligent design (ID), an idea that tries to make creationism palatable to adults on school boards who have no scientific training or interests but have the power to tell adults who do have scientific training and interests how to teach science.
Creationism does not necessarily take this view;Creationism takes a literal view of the Bible, so it holds that the Earth and all its creatures were created in one fell, divine swoop 6,000 years ago.
Some agree with that and some don't. He is obviously pro-evo and anti-anything else. His attempts to lump in ID with creation is just what we see here on these threads regularly. ID is not equivalent to creationism, no matter how many times the evolutionists claim it is. IIRC bboop stated it quite clearly recently on another thread that the theory behind ID is that some aspects of the universe show signs of intelligent design which is not the same as the Biblical creation account. Although most evolutionists vehemently disagree, the understanding I have of ID is that it does not preclude evolution at all. All it states is that it got started somehow, and occasionally needed a bump along, but makes no statement about who the designer is or was. In spite of the fact that most IDers I've seen state this, the evolutionists still like to insist that ID is creation in disguise. There is no doubt that ID helps the creation cause but ID in the form that I originally read about it as, is not creation.
After creation science was tossed, there just had to be another vehicle to carry the message, hence ID was dusted off and reborn. All of the details are laid out in the embarrassing Wedge Strategy, which was promptly leaked on the net.
...the understanding I have of ID is that it does not preclude evolution at all. All it states is that it got started somehow, and occasionally needed a bump along, but makes no statement about who the designer is or was.
In the US, and on these threads, ID is synonymous with creation science and creationism. (However, the exact details of that creation may vary from 6000 to 4.5 billion years.)
Many is the time that posters who disagreed with ID have been challenged for "bashing religion." Many is the time that biblical quotations have been posted to support the arguments of IDers. Few examples come to mind of pure IDers, and at the moment I can't think of any non-theistic IDers on these threads.
It's not a comparison, it's the "proper subset" relation: All Ts are Cs, but not all Cs are Ts.
<< The evolutionists' standard insult on these threads is that ID is not "science". OK, I'm willing to accept that. >>
Then why do you call it an "insult." It's just a statement of fact.
<< This is the best we humans can do with it today, as it was the best 100, 500 years ago. >>
You have got the gist of it. That is the strength -- and the beauty -- of science. It adjusts to new information and improves itself.
<< The Bible, as you said, never changes. >>
And that is the weakness -- in fact, the fatal flaw -- of creationism. To freeze one's understanding of the natural world, on the basis of a particular interpretation of a religous text written thousands of years ago, is to cut oneself off from reality.
And that is not meant as an "insult."
Good points!
I heard that the ACLU joined forces with the ABOL. I looked it up and found that is stood for "Another Bunch of Losers"....:))) lololol..
<< After creation science was tossed, there just had to be another vehicle to carry the message, hence ID was dusted off and reborn. All of the details are laid out in the embarrassing Wedge Strategy, which was promptly leaked on the net. >>
Good point -- although I would have put quotation marks around the words "creation science." Your facts are fatal to the constant claim in here that ID has nothing to do with creationism or religion. Often, the very same people who say that -- also accuse us of being anti-religion or anti-God by opposing ID.
Here are a few little tid-bits from that Wedge Stategy -- you know, from the Discovery Institute, that place that is just working on getting ID "science" into the schools, not "religion":
Darwin has absolutely nothing to do with nothing.......He is a dreamer who had a limited capacity of the real world but an extreme imagination on the other hand. He would of been a great science fiction writer no kidding. But, he missed his calling and actually tried to use his theories in the real world.
<< I heard that the ACLU joined forces with the ABOL. I looked it up and found that is stood for "Another Bunch of Losers"....:))) lololol.. >>
Not so far. Creationism has lost in every single court case it has been involved in. And the one big case for ID went completely wrong for ID, when several of the ID witnesses were caught lying.
As it stands right now -- the "bunch of losers" is the Discovery Institute, ID, and their creationists partners. If creationism and ID ever get into the schools -- everyone loses.
<< Darwin has absolutely nothing to do with nothing >>
Dja ever read Darwin? Do you have any idea what he said? What he based his theory on? What he predicted? Where he was wrong? Right?
Do you have any idea at all what you are talking about? From your comments so far -- it doesn't look like it. Bluster and rah-rah are fun, but they do not persuade.
Do you have an argument of substance to offer, or are you of the mistaken belief that continuous ridicle will compensate for your lack of education of biology and disprove well-established science?
As I am a Christian I have mixed feelings about creationism and ID to get into schools. This is due to the reality of the mixed religions families have..and keeping up with freedom of religion and free will. Then again, sharing equal air time to the theories of origin....Darwin, ID, Creation, or Extra-terr from a distant galaxy...:)) Creationist believe in the 6 exact days.....however, there are also many of us that believe in 6 days being a relative term of time, but certainly not evolution. A lizard turning into a bird....?? naw.....but, equal time in the classroom. Can a teacher keep their personal opinion to themselves and teach all in a neutral manner.
Personally I do believe strongly in a supernatural force that can formed all we see now......if we believe that is the way life and the universe was created, then why not. If someone believes a fish turned bird and that Lightning created the first sparks of life by accident by striking amino acids or whatever.......then I suppose free will is there too.......The ACLU are still losers, as the legal system is in their favor....as well as strong politics. Nothing to do with science or the truth. Yes, ID'ers are not innocent as well to make their point. There is one truth, we just need to find it.
Yes, I have....it wouldn't matter what proof I offered it would not settle the argument. It's the same in arguing about Islam and the terrorist etc.....911 conspir. etc.....Darwin, in my opinion is all wet and simplistic in his works. He does offer all these links, connections, and so forth and so on..but, it all a lot of smokescreen.
I know exactly what I'm talking about............I've done this too many times. Our frames of reference is in contention, and therefore cannot be accepted by the other. In one post of Darwin theories.....it was page after page of processes, links and stages etc.....that are actually not linked at all in reality.
The science is not well established..it's established by scientist that like all humans are only using 10% of their brain power (as allowed by the nature of things); and have only four frames of reference...length, width, height and time. The supernatural realm has many more dimensions that we cannot conceive of which explains a lot about our beginnings and our existance.....biology was designed by "scientist"....limited by their earthly bounds, and well established science????/ it changes every generation....the earth being flat was well established back before 1492.....:)))) and so on.......
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