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."
Of course, and the authors did not know each other yet they agree with each other. This is very strong proof. It is also very hard to believe that the apostles and others who helped spread Christianity so fast and so far would have been risking their lives to spread something they knew was untrue.
Nothing he can "dig up" worries me in the least. I know what happened and so do enough other people. It's what I said.
Another oft-made prediction fulfilled: when the Technicolor-text boys come back, the thread goes bad.
Tribune7 is not dismissing Caesar's writings. He is saying that the New Testament by any way you can think of, deserves to be considered historical as much as at least as any other of the ancient writings we call history.
Also BTW - Caesar's writings were intended as propaganda to make himself look good and build popularity.
I'm sorry, VR, but this puts you squarely in a camp of oddities. That you would continue to play that No-Kin is C-sider is not funny. It's weird. Pathologic.
This thread (revisionist comment)--
Accused of being that impostor, I authorized the mods to check. I was innocent but somebody else presumably got yelled at.
Someone "talking" to you. The you that "allowed" the mods to check that you were not No-kin. This is a period after the original "Sparticus" episode here --
| To: VadeRetro You caught me. I'm really JediGirl, too. I'm Sparticus! 2026 posted on 3/26/02 11:56 AM Central by PatrickHenry |
| To: PatrickHenry I'm Sparticus! No! I am Sparticus! (and, from the dubbed German version of the film): "Nein! Ich bin Sparticus!" 2064 posted on 3/26/02 1:50 PM Central by longshadow |
In particular, Nebullis was talking to me. I had indeed failed to see that No-Kin had done a thing no creo would ever do. I was still giving creos too much credit at the time. But that for sure is one way to know them. In a Holy War, you don't drop friendly fire on an ally.
This is exactly what I'm saying in 4625. It took the mods to assure me that you and Nebullis were right. Are you pretending that the Nebullis quote in any way contradicts mine? It's incredulous at my naivete, probably. No-Kin had blown it by being visibly repulsed by your sneering lawyer games.
You guys may kill each other in your "How Many Angels Dance on a Pin-Head?" threads, but you keep it off the crevo threads extremely well.
Why so cutesy-cagey vague about who's talking to whom and what it's supposed to mean? Can't help it by now? Why don't you just post a Rorshach blot?
You needed the mods to convince you that you were not No-kin?
How "AndrewC" of you. You'll excuse me if I just let that one hang there for us all to admire.
Some times I wonder where Uriel1975 (creo) and VoiceoftheFarRight (evo) went.
Pointing out your misrepresentation. What information that you could "authorize" would the mods provide to you and when would they provide it? You tried to make it sound as if this happened immediately. You and your gang proceeded in the denial game for days if not weeks.
You have difficulty in recognizing imposters so it is unstandable that you have the same blindness to sarcasm.
Not likely.
The timing was not important to my point. I eventually grew tired of your baseless accusations. Still am.
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