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."
It would require overpowering the Roman guards followed by the hard part. Keeping the secret, not letting anyone find the body or explain what happened to it. All the while being promised bribes for switching sides and being threatened with sever punishment if they didn't. And that doesn't even include the problem of human nature -- temptation to show what a big deal one is to acquaintences, getting ticked at the leaders etc.
There are literally hundreds of empty tombs in Jerusalem.
Not at the time there wasn't.
Jesus in fact may not have even existed as the man portrayed in the Bible.
The Bible is by far the most authenticated book of antiquity. Do you believe that Ceasar's Commentary on the Gallic Wars is accurate?
The accounts of his life are written years after his death
Well, 20 years after His death. The Gospel of Matthew has been reliably dated to have been written between 50 and 65 A.D. The last gospel, John, has been reliably dated to between 90 and 110 A.D. They are remarkably contemporaneous.
and each account of his life is different(and you can read each one in the Bible Matthew Mark Luke and John). Each book gives a different account of the Life and death of Jesus. If the Bible is divinely inspired why would God give each author of each Gospel a widely differing account of jesus' life.
This is actually one of the reasons why I came to believe it. There is a saying in journalism/law/police investigation that the only thing you can be sure of when two witnesses tell the exact same story is that both are lying. It means they would have collaborated. The gospel writers did not collaborate. They wrote independent accounts of events which occurred. They differ on minor details as would be expected of honest witnesses. The important stuff (the Resurrection, the Virgin Birth, the Miracles, the teachings) don't contradict.
I mean no two are the same in fact for all the accounts to be true Jesus would in fact be four different people especially as the accounts of his birth differ. If you don't believe me read that Book.
That may be your problem. You were raised not to question the scholarship. I read the Bible with the expectation that it wasn't true.
God did not write the Bible with his finger. He used men guided by the Holy Spirit. And He allowed the mistakes (how did Judas die? One version is wrong) because God is not a bully nor is he a martinet.
What are the names of these 500 people?
You actually have a surprising number of names (John, Peter, Thomas, Paul) although not 500. And it's bedtime. Forgive the spelling mistakes.
The questions of consciousness which you raise are the subject of Penrose's two books Emporer's New Mind and Shadows of the Mind. I strongly recommend them both.
Francis Crick has taken the materialist view in his book The Astonishing Hypothesis. I read someone bemoaning that to really explore his theory, we'd need human subjects. Kind of a knock-out gene approach on grey matter.
You might be interested in the reasons Penrose gives why consciousness cannot be simulated (automated) - he is not a computationalist, and thus not in favor with A.I. people (LOL!)
But all of this research notwithstanding, there is still the unconscious which is not addressed.
My two cents is that the spiritual realm is separate from the natural realm and that the brain acts as a receiver for the spiritual realm as well as performing functions for the physical body.
Some researchers in near death experiences share this view and are building a body of evidence. Because it smacks of the mystic, I'm not expecting it to be embraced by conventional science. For one thing, it cannot be falsified.
and I listened to so much of this demagoguery(lies // ideology // spin // left rhetoric) that now - - -
with my democratic(conservative // creationist // REPUBLICAN) views - - -
I can no . . . longer(link) - - - stand it,"
No disrespect intended to any Christians, really. BUT the above quote could also refer to the American liberal. Defeated cowards that become a company that nobody can shut up. Socialism and Communism have been defeated on a national level only to be fought again internally. I thought that was what the quote was referring to at first.
materialism - The view that everything that actually exists is material, or physical.
physicalism - The view that everything that is real is, in some sense, really physical.
So spell out two things for me. First give me an example of something that is physical, but not material (don't bother with quantum effects, we've discussed that and you know my position). Then explain to me what part of Penrose's beliefs regarding consciousness (which in his words are summarized as "Appropriate physical action of the brain evokes awareness, but this physical action cannot even be properly simulated computationally.") are not attributable to the action of material, because I'm missing that completely.
And he asserts that consciousness cannot be simulated. He is not a computationalist.
That has nothing to do with materialism. Penrose, in fact, spent at least one chapter giving examples of fully deterministic systems that are not computable.
Subject-verb disagreement. Thirty minutes of penance studying Strunk & White.
Good idea.
To which you replied: Can you say circular?
The charge of circular logic is false.
Yes, the Bible does make the claim for itself that it is the Word of God. If that was the sole piece of evidence upon which Christians based their belief in the Bible as the Word of God, then the charge would carry some weight.
However, the Bible is inextricably linked to historical events and space and time - things outside of itself which powerfully and undeniably substantiate its message.
Archaeological discoveries have confirmed statements in the Bible again and again. The walls of Jericho, ancient civilizations, pottery from King David's time, etc.
Fulfilled prophecy radically confirms the message as divine in origin, for only God knows the future. Isaiah wrote of the birth of Christ to a virgin 700 years before the fact, and Micah wrote of the birthplace - Bethlehem - 500 years prior. David wrote of Christ's crucifixion 1000 years before it occurred, well before it was ever thought of, much less known and practiced.
The unique authorship of the scriptures - that the Bible was written by over 40 men from all walks of life, over a period of 1600 years, in 3 languages, on 3 continents, makes collaboration virtually impossible...and yet the Bible message and theme is consistent throughout, telling one story - God's Redemption At Christ's Expense (GRACE).
The power of its message. There is no other book which can change murderers into Sunday School teachers as the Bible has. Millions upon millions of people can testify to the transforming effect of the Bible's message, changing their lives from ones in which the practice of sinful habits and lifestyles reigned, to ones in which the peace of God and holiness reign.
Now, if you really want to talk about truly circular logic, then you should consider the geologists and the paleontologists. The geologist says the rock is 70 million years old because there is a dinosaur fossil in it which is known to be 70 million years old. The paleontologist says the same dinosaur fossil is 70 million years old because it was found in a rock known to be be 70 million years old. This goes on all the time.
I'm terribly sorry, but this is an old creationist canard that has no basis in reality. Rocks are dated by several methods involving isotopes (and not by the fossils found therein). More than one method of dating is typically used and multiple dating tests are conducted to narrow the margin of error. The whole thing is not arbitrary at all, regardless of what the rumors may be.
I hope this has been a little help in clearing up any possible misunderstandings.
You're not really going to tell me that the dating methods are reliable. All of them are based on arbitrary assumptions which presume long periods of time and uniformitarianism.
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