Posted on 07/27/2006 3:00:03 PM PDT by BrandtMichaels
What are Darwinists so afraid of?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 27, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jonathan Witt © 2006
As a doctoral student at the University of Kansas in the '90s, I found that my professors came in all stripes, and that lazy ideas didn't get off easy. If some professor wanted to preach the virtues of communism after it had failed miserably in the Soviet Union, he was free to do so, but students were also free to hear from other professors who critically analyzed that position.
Conversely, students who believed capitalism and democracy were the great engines of human progress had to grapple with the best arguments against that view, meaning that in the end, they were better able to defend their beliefs.
Such a free marketplace of ideas is crucial to a solid education, and it's what the current Kansas science standards promote. These standards, like those adopted in other states and supported by a three-to-one margin among U.S. voters, don't call for teaching intelligent design. They call for schools to equip students to critically analyze modern evolutionary theory by teaching the evidence both for and against it.
The standards are good for students and good for science.
Some want to protect Darwinism from the competitive marketplace by overturning the critical-analysis standards. My hope is that these efforts will merely lead students to ask, What's the evidence they don't want us to see?
Under the new standards, they'll get an answer. For starters, many high-school biology textbooks have presented Haeckel's 19th century embryo drawings, the four-winged fruit fly, peppered moths hidden on tree trunks and the evolving beak of the Galapagos finch as knockdown evidence for Darwinian evolution. What they don't tell students is that these icons of evolution have been discredited, not by Christian fundamentalists but by mainstream evolutionists.
We now know that 1) Haeckel faked his embryo drawings; 2) Anatomically mutant fruit flies are always dysfunctional; 3) Peppered moths don't rest on tree trunks (the photographs were staged); and 4) the finch beaks returned to normal after the rains returned – no net evolution occurred. Like many species, the average size fluctuates within a given range.
This is microevolution, the age-old observation of change within species. Macroevolution refers to the evolution of fundamentally new body plans and anatomical parts. Biology textbooks use instances of microevolution such as the Galapagos finches to paper over the fact that biologists have never observed, or even described in theoretical terms, a detailed, continually functional pathway to fundamentally new forms like mammals, wings and bats. This is significant because modern Darwinism claims that all life evolved from a common ancestor by a series of tiny, useful genetic mutations.
Textbooks also trumpet a few "missing links" discovered between groups. What they don't mention is that Darwin's theory requires untold millions of missing links, evolving one tiny step at a time. Yes, the fossil record is incomplete, but even mainstream evolutionists have asked, why is it selectively incomplete in just those places where the need for evidence is most crucial?
Opponents of the new science standards don't want Kansas high-school students grappling with that question. They argue that such problems aren't worth bothering with because Darwinism is supported by "overwhelming evidence." But if the evidence is overwhelming, why shield the theory from informed critical analysis? Why the campaign to mischaracterize the current standards and replace them with a plan to spoon-feed students Darwinian pabulum strained of uncooperative evidence?
The truly confident Darwinist should be eager to tell students, "Hey, notice these crucial unsolved problems in modern evolutionary theory. Maybe one day you'll be one of the scientists who discovers a solution."
Confidence is as confidence does.
I surpassed you - I found The Truth while you are still looking, discovering, evolving.
And I have surpassed you - I found The Higher Truth while you weren't looking, discovering, or evolving.
Not true, the swastika was found in the Himalayas and is a sign of reincarnation. It is a Buddhist symbol, nice try.
He speaks Sacrilege, Stone Him!!
Pray for W and Our Troops
Shalom Israel
"There is ONLY one book that is w/o error and that is God's Word, The Bible."
That's as ridiculous as claiming a DVD or a piece of software could be divinely inspired. Like books, these are necessarily man-made creations.
The issue in this debate *is* about the inerrancy of religious texts, and not evolution. I'm not limiting myself to the Bible, since many of the IDers I argue with online are Muslims living in Europe who base their case against evolution in their deep faith in Koranic inerrancy.
Standard CR/Ider tactic. You ask for some "proof." You are given the proof and then say "no, I don't like that proof" then conclude "there is no proof."
Logical Fallacies: Standard CR/Ider stock in trade.
At least be honest: state up front that you won't believe any facts present, not matter what.
Then you can go back to your outhouse, since the science behind indoor plumbing also isn't in the Bible.
Dishonesty is also Satan's stock in trade.
Look at it. It's a cross.
Pretty much everyone skewered by Ann thinks she got her facts wrong in "their section". The evolutionists are no different. Frankly, I was shocked by just how much of the book focussed on it.
Is she infallable? No. Is her general point well supported? Yes. VERY WELL.
Not by facts, it isn't.
No, the only correct thing to do is to change science, then the stuff taught in elementary classes will automatically change with it after a few years. So far, no one has even proposed a testable hypothesis to challenge evolution. Science classes are for science.
I have no problem with upholding the US Constitution, and it spells out my God-given right to freely exercise my religion.
My interpretation really has nothing to do with your destiny.
Whether you believe or not is already known. You will get at least one chance to settle into God's salvation for you.
God already knows if you will fight Him or go along with what's He would do with you.
"It is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God; not of works so that no man can boast."
YEC SPOTREP
How can it be well supported when she got so much of it wrong?
No actually I found evidence that the evidence was fake. You have no fossil evidence or transitional animals. YOu would think the world would be overflowing with transitional animals yet nada. Your faith in Darwin is impressive though.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Shalom Israel
lol read DWARFS for some reason - nevermind
I use KJV and NIV and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance with Hebrew and Greek Dictionary.
"wow. have you ever looked at your hand? I mean have you really looked at your hand? Man It's like - wow!
Pray for W and Our Troops
Shalom Israel
Willful ignorance. You are not in a position to "find" anything fake. You can close your eyes but thay won't change a thing.
You are entitled to an opinion -- but is an opinion of the ignorant.
Yes, indeedy, there is an international conspiracy of socialists, Marxists, Stalinists, Nazis, anti-Christians, darwinists, Jewish bankers, and they plan to fluoridate the water supply. You can join this plot or oppose it.
Opposition is futile. The Lord God Himself created flourine, and it is nestled right there in atomic number 9 in the chemical tables. F-19 is not in the Bible, has no known decay rates, so it seems eternal for practical purposes.
Never heard of him. What I've read since you mentioned it means that I want to read more. Fascinating. Thanks.
>> Not by facts, it isn't.<<
Is too!
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