Posted on 12/11/2002 6:28:08 AM PST by A2J
By WILL SENTELL
wsentell@theadvocate.com
Capitol news bureau
High school biology textbooks would include a disclaimer that evolution is only a theory under a change approved Tuesday by a committee of the state's top school board.
If the disclaimer wins final approval, it would apparently make Louisiana just the second state in the nation with such a provision. The other is Alabama, which is the model for the disclaimer backers want in Louisiana.
Alabama approved its policy six or seven years ago after extensive controversy that included questions over the religious overtones of the issue.
The change approved Tuesday requires Louisiana education officials to check on details for getting publishers to add the disclaimer to biology textbooks.
It won approval in the board's Student and School Standards/ Instruction Committee after a sometimes contentious session.
"I don't believe I evolved from some primate," said Jim Stafford, a board member from Monroe. Stafford said evolution should be offered as a theory, not fact.
Whether the proposal will win approval by the full state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday is unclear.
Paul Pastorek of New Orleans, president of the board, said he will oppose the addition.
"I am not prepared to go back to the Dark Ages," Pastorek said.
"I don't think state boards should dictate editorial content of school textbooks," he said. "We shouldn't be involved with that."
Donna Contois of Metairie, chairwoman of the committee that approved the change, said afterward she could not say whether it will win approval by the full board.
The disclaimer under consideration says the theory of evolution "still leaves many unanswered questions about the origin of life.
"Study hard and keep an open mind," it says. "Someday you may contribute to the theories of how living things appeared on earth."
Backers say the addition would be inserted in the front of biology textbooks used by students in grades 9-12, possibly next fall.
The issue surfaced when a committee of the board prepared to approve dozens of textbooks used by both public and nonpublic schools. The list was recommended by a separate panel that reviews textbooks every seven years.
A handful of citizens, one armed with a copy of Charles Darwin's "Origin of the Species," complained that biology textbooks used now are one-sided in promoting evolution uncritically and are riddled with factual errors.
"If we give them all the facts to make up their mind, we have educated them," Darrell White of Baton Rouge said of students. "Otherwise we have indoctrinated them."
Darwin wrote that individuals with certain characteristics enjoy an edge over their peers and life forms developed gradually millions of years ago.
Backers bristled at suggestions that they favor the teaching of creationism, which says that life began about 6,000 years ago in a process described in the Bible's Book of Genesis.
White said he is the father of seven children, including a 10th-grader at a public high school in Baton Rouge.
He said he reviewed 21 science textbooks for use by middle and high school students. White called Darwin's book "racist and sexist" and said students are entitled to know more about controversy that swirls around the theory.
"If nothing else, put a disclaimer in the front of the textbooks," White said.
John Oller Jr., a professor at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, also criticized the accuracy of science textbooks under review. Oller said he was appearing on behalf of the Louisiana Family Forum, a Christian lobbying group.
Oller said the state should force publishers to offer alternatives, correct mistakes in textbooks and fill in gaps in science teachings. "We are talking about major falsehoods that should be addressed," he said.
Linda Johnson of Plaquemine, a member of the board, said she supports the change. Johnson said the new message of evolution "will encourage students to go after the facts."
Allowing for the fact that "matter" is pretty weird stuff at the quantum level.
Aside from the fact that we can't model the observable behavior of the brain, do you personally believe there is something going on other than material processes?
Since you are I are polar opposites in our basic worldview (you believe the material world is all that there is) - I don't expect you to agree with me on anything. But here goes...
I perceive a spiritual realm which is separated from the natural realm by the 'firmament.' The brain acts like a receiver for the spirit in addition to performing command functions, synchronizations and data acquisition for the physical body.
The word "set" has many meanings ranging from an action to an Egyptian god to a mathematical concept to an army of chess pieces. Debit and Credit are not quite what one might think in accounting.
OK, what does Dawkins really mean when he titles his book: The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design?
Not quite true. Prior to quantum theory, a meterialist would have a tough time tryoing to fit all phenomena into the matter box. But matter, as we now see it, is a lot closer to what was traditionally called spirit. It has all the spookiness of spirit but none of the hokiness.
However, in a debate - it baffles me when a participant uses one word in a technical sense, but another in a common sense. I would expect more consistency. Also, it is troubling to me when a participant uses the same word alternately - technical then common.
I am willing to keep an open with evolution as a theory of biology albeit it should certainly not be above criticism or questioning or assumed as true.
What concerns me are those who use evolution as an excuse to deny God's existence. What concerns me even more is that there are those who deny that some expand the theory of evolution to cosmology in an attempt to do so.
How this can be denied so vehmenently boggles my mind.
Not to initiate a game of phone tag -- but about what?
I believe that matter, as presently understood, will occupy the best minds for the foreseeable future. What is the point of speculating about unseen spirits when everyday materialism contains such mysteries as vacuum energy, virtual particles, quantum entanglement -- all great mysteries worthy of religious awe -- with the added benefit of being accessible to study. The material phenomena have features that lend thamselves to laboratory study with experiments that can be replicated and verified. They do not depend on singular events witnessed by people of unverifiable reliability.
I accept the knowledge of your heart. I do not deny it. But overall I am troubled by the attempt to spread the word of one's personal revelations. Too many charismatic bullies have taken this path.
Science has bred its share of bullies, as several on this thread have taken delight in pointing out. But bullies who preach falsehoods that are subject to verification are, in the long run, less dangerous.
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