... and the rig.
(OK, the guy with the rig doesn't have the hat.)
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."
"they thought that if they sailed the ocean blue they would fall off the earth."
False. Have you ever read the record of the Council of Salamanca, where Columbus's proposed trip was discussed? "Flat earth" is never mentioned at all. It was not an issue. It had not been an issue for hundreds of years.
The issue was the SIZE of the earth, not its shape. And those who opposed Columbus were correct about the size, while Columbus was wrong. His estimate of the size of the earth was only about half its real size. I suggest some reading on the subject instead of all this bluster. You are making an idiot of yourself with these claims.
"Back then some believed the earth to be flat, others did not....It was even put in some text books...."
You said the flat earth was a "well-established fact" before 1492. That is false. All educated people understood the sphericity of the earth long before then.
<< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth >>
Did you even read the article you linked to? It puts the complete lie to your claim. It confirms what I am saying -- that the sphericity of the earth was widely accepted long before 1492 -- and that those who make the claim that it was an issue are mistaken.
You have provided your own refutation of your own argument. Good job.
Get it?
Yep.
It's also interesting to read some of the arguments based on apologetics.
"Of what use are good 'tools', if you do not believe the Bible is divinely inspired? Might as well use 'em to 'analyze' Shakespere!"
That's beside the point. Try to focus. We were talking about "human error" as a "weakness" of science. Human error is a weakness in EVERY area -- science, history, technology, space travel, pizze delivery, baseball, religion, etc.
You implied that the problem of human error was somehow a serious flaw in science. I was pointing out that science has overcome human error to a greater extent than almost any other area of life. I used biblical interpretation as an example for comparison.
The overwhelming majority of Christians DO believe the Bible is divinely inspired -- and they are the ones doing all this interpreting I am talking about. They STILL can't agree on what it means, even when they are using the same interpretive tools.
Using good methods, and with only one source of evidence to deal with -- Christians still have thousands of controversies over virtually every doctrine imaginable.
Assuming that most of them are sincere, and that they are all "relying on the Holy Spirit" as they study -- they still cannot come to agreement. If it's not the fault of the source itself -- the Bible -- we have to chalk it up to human error.
On the other hand, look at science. Using good methods -- and with thousands upon thousands of sources of evidence to deal with -- there are still unanswered questions, of course, and there always will be -- but science has done a much better job of overcoming human error.
That was my point. It has nothing to do with my opinion concerning the inspiration of the Bible.
I assume that you are joking...or this is sarc/..you can't be serious. If you are serious, I even feel silly addressing the issues....Tell me you are kidding.
Evolution has really no basis..it is filled with imagination and a smudgepodge of scientific reasoning by scientist that can only use 10% of their brain power. The smartest of these have used 11%.
The Space aliens, time travel, etc..still doesn't explain the origin of the species. The natural processes that came together by self-replicating etc....is nearly impossible to happen in reality.
Anyway, this is fun in any case, for now. It will get serious shortly. Not far off.....:)
The main disagreement is not actually over scientific interpretation; the scientists have a pretty good method for working that out. It takes a lot of time, careful measurements, peer review, meetings, etc. In time a consensus is reached.
The problem of interpretation in these threads is not that scientists say "our data says this and this and this, and we interpret it as that and that and that" while someone else says "No, its that and that and the other thing."
More often somebody, generally poorly educated in the specific sciences in question, comes by and says "It didn't happen, I won't believe it, you can't prove it, and its all just a theory anyway."
They generally leave out that their interpretation comes entirely from a religious belief, not science. To make it worse, they sometimes attempt to use scientific data, often gleaned from a quick search of creationist websites, but not really understood, to support their beliefs. [Then occasionally they run into a scientist on these threads who really understands the particular issue... but that's another post entirely.]
So, I think its not a question of interpretation of the scientific data and facts, it is more often a stubborn disbelief to accept the fact or interpretations made by scientists because of religious convictions.
Your incredulity does not constitute an argument. Do you actually have some comment you would like to make on the post (#400)?
No. No one does. That's the problem. Google on "textual criticism" if you're interested. If you're TRULY interested, click here.
And Elsie must think the Xerox machine was invented in 302 A.D.
ouuuuuu, testy testy.....no, I'm fair. If you step out of your atheistic values and ego you will see that we both are right. I know for a fact that text books, right or wrong stated that some or a number thought that the earth was flat. Those that said it was a sphere was considered to he heretic, right or wrong. They were using common sense, but at that time it was divided. So, get off you high horse and chill. It's not false.......both are right, sweetpea. If you want to continue with this line of discussion we can...all day long. no problem.
<< If you step out of your atheistic values and ego you will see that we both are right. >>
You are making assumptions without knowledge. You have no idea whether I am atheist or not.
And you proved yourself wrong in your original assertion -- with your own citation. Then you started backpedaling so fast you fell over backwards.
But you can't see that because of your Satanic values. See? It's easy to assume about others, isn't it? You better hope that others don't think you represent Christian values!
Hebrews 2:11
Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
I did?
Where? What reply #?
... and the rig.
(OK, the guy with the rig doesn't have the hat.)
Sorry -- that wasn't you. It was Metmom. My response to her is what you then responded to.
HMmmm...
I guess there ARE 'originals' somewhere!
My poor pate gets COOKED without the hat!
(But my dermatologist loves it! He says I don't have to cover up ALL my skin in the sun; only the places I don't want skin cancer!)
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