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."
Your assertion does not prove your assertion.
I wasn't trying prove my assertion to you or anyone. I am not trying to convince you to see things my way. If you had clicked on the Freeper Views thread, you'd realize it is a collection of views from all who wish to contribute.
The sound waves found in the cosmic background microwave radiation is a confirmation of my view. I predicted a year ago that harmonics lie at the inception of the universe. It is integral to my theory and is grounded in Scripture.
I do not have the credentials to formalize my predictions, but yes I do predict there is an algorithm that lies at the inception of the universe, that harmonics are the mechanism of its operation, that fields are the result, which manifest geometry and dimension, particles, energy etc.
The discovery of sound waves in the cosmic microwave background as it captured the harmonics of the inception of light greatly reinforced my view. And of course, numerous credible physicists sense the algorithmic structure of all that there is and are pursuing it even now.
No scientific field is free from religious presupposition. Naturalism permeates all of them (geologic column is naturalistic in its assumptions; evolutionary biology assumes spontaneous generation and a professor at the secular university I attended even wrote in the school paper that Miller's experiment proved life could spontaneously generate - a lie; naturalistic physcisists teach that the universe suddenly sprang into existence from nothing; we have JW Gould, now a theist, who said that people were no more significant in this cosmos than a "dried twig" - no religious assumption there!).
On the other side, in chemistry, we have W. Dembski and ID theory which is theistic in its assumptions, etc. I can cite examples till I'm blue in the face. How many will convince you? In short, yes, no field is exempt from religious presupposition. They ALL have the underlying belief about God's existence.
I appreciate your lack of malice and believe you. However, Jesus himself said that forgiveness can only come if you put your faith in Him. Why? Because God is Holy and just, and all humans have blown it. God does not grade on a curve. Why not? Because He is the perfect judge. Analogy: Say you were a court judge and your son robbed a bank - a felony- and came before you in your courtroom; say he is remorseful and sorry and you know he won't do it again. Do you have to punish him under the law? If you are any kind of judge you would! So, imagine a perfectly just God - do you really think a perfect judge will let you off? No - God cannot go against His own nature. However, God is also merciful and does not want to punish you - that is why he sent His Son to live a perfect life for you and die in YOUR PLACE, satisfying God's justice and imputing Christ's righteousness to all who believe. Those who transfer their trust to Christ (from trusting in their own works to get to heaven) will be viewed by God through Christ and they will be declared not guilty. There was no other way for God to save man other than to send His only son. Save man from what - from God Himself.
However, modern science is based on methodological naturalism (once again: methodological not metaphysical) because it works. You can see this when people with different religious backgrounds arrive at the same results.
Wonderful, A-G! I agree with the above, with one tiny quibble/qualification: It seems to me the world is not ruled by mathematical equations; the equations describe what is going on in the world. FWIW.
BTW, I bookmarked the 5D STM site. So interesting! I'll look in from time to time to see what's going on.
Also, thanks for picking up where I left off with Nebullis and Doctor Stochastic. I simply don't have as much time to attend to all these many wonderful conversations as I would like.
Thanks so much for the links! I'm printing them out. (Hard copy is so much easier for me to deal with than on-screen reading.)
Originally the word liberal meant social conservatives(no govt religion--none) who advocated growth and progress---mostly technological(knowledge being absolute/unchanging)based on law--reality... UNDER GOD---the nature // basis of GOD/man/govt. does not change // evolve! ! !
It seems to me the world is not ruled by mathematical equations; the equations describe what is going on in the world. FWIW.
I agree; equations are the instructions of operations. Governance of operation is functionally separate from the the operation being governed.
I don't want to go over old ground but would you have a problem with the teaching of the Declaration of Independence?
How about Martin Luther King's speeches or Lincoln's Second Inaugural? Would you require qualifiers implying that these men were well-meaning but misguided by ignorance, or maybe that when they said "God" or "Creator" or "Jesus" they were just trying to cynically inspire their sheep-like followers?
God is. It is perfectly right, to treat this as an axiom.
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