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."
So materialism is "evolving" also? What's the new definition? Why did it evolve?
Thanks. However, not sure that evolutionists would consider that a falsification. They would just say 'the dog ate the bones'.
Either way it seems to me that you are admitting the existence of God and that the Universe was created by God.
From the article obviously you can't read as well as being a Liar. What you posted from the article was the amount og time and how often ice ages occurred you LIE.Yu LIE almost everytime you post on this forum. If you can't stop LYING you should shut the hell up. YOU are a LIAR.
The above sentence does not contradict mine that ice ages are slow moving things. Trees cannot get out of the way, but animals facing a mountain of ice can do so. The ice ages, as the article said, are caused by the earth's tilt in relation to the sun, this is a slow process, not a sudden one.
Now let me say one more thing, you started all this because of my statement that Malthusianism in nature has been refuted. This was a complete digression which had nothing to do with the matter of the Darwinian 'struggle for life' which this Malthusianism is supposed to support. As I have explained before there is plenty of fish in the sea and plenty of plants all over which could serve to support much more life than exists nowadays. We also do not see animals and plants dying of hunger or lack of nourishment except in very, very exceptional cases. Clearly if this Malthusian struggle was going on all the time, there should be a lot of this happening all over. It does not. The reason for it, as any farmer or anyone who has house plants knows, is that plants adjust to the amount of nourishment available to them and just grow smaller. Goldfish also behave this way, a goldfish in a small tank stays small, in a lake it grows pretty large. Animals also have a mechanism by which if they are not well nourished, they reproduce less, thus avoiding the struggle for life which Darwin unscientifically and without any evidence, claimed.
Well, in that case, remind me to never let you rub up against my leg!
;-)
The definition of matter changed fundamentally in the period 1899-1928 due to quantum mechanics, in case you missed the news. It changed due to evidence.
Just goes to show you that those blowhard scientists are always wrong.
</flaming idiot mode>
Hah! What kind of "science" changes its doctrine for any reason, much less to accomodate so-called "evidence?" </flaming idiot mode>
Sorry, I already did a flaming idiot impression tonight.
We have a system in place that equates the celestial equator to the plane defined by our equator. Remember, the Earth is tilted by approximately 23.5 degrees from the plane of the ecliptic which is a plane described by the Earth’s orbit, not the average of all the orbits of the planet. If you took a picture of a star from the Earth at opposite sides of the Sun (6 months apart), the parallax angle is ½ the total angular shift since we use 1 Astronomical Unit (AU) is 93,000,000 million miles (the distance from the Sun to the Earth) as the basline. Since even the nearest star is so far away, ALL stars have a parallax angle of less than one second of arc. A single parsec equals 206,265 AUs or in other words 3.26 light years.
If you were to measure the distance to the nearest star from the Earth, Sun or even Pluto the distance would still be smaller than 5 decimal places when measured in parsecs (1.31228).
The solar equator off by 7.25 degrees from the ecliptic, however there are coordinate systems that use The Sun at the reference. Two of these are; the Heliographic Inertial Coordinate System (HGI) and the Heliographic (rotating) Coordinate System (HG).
Spacecraft use their own coordinate systems when “flying”. Some of them have bright star catalogs loaded and use stars as a reference point to determine their location and attitude.
But as I see it, the object is to live one's life so well that judgment is not to be feared, and mercy isn't required.
You are not alone in your views. A lot of Christians feel this way today, a lot of Jews felt that way in the days of Paul.
In my view, there is nothing we can say or do (or not say or do) to earn a place as one of God's children in the spiritual realm. In other words, if it were possible to be good enough to get to heaven then Christ died for nothing.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9
Where did bevatronness exist during the 18th century?
For lurkers, The Bevatron
Indeed, the Southern Baptist reading with which I grew up - takes the importance of forgiveness as seriously as a heart attack. So do I:
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. - Matthew 18:21-22
Indeed, the very chapter of the Sermon on the Mount that begins at verse one with "Judge not, that ye be not judged." - at verse fifteen gives us this exemption: we are to judge the truth/falseness of doctrine by looking at the fruits of the person speaking:
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. - Matthew 7:15-20
For lurkers, I repeat it here along with the other verses that comprise the thought:
And account [that] the longsuffering of our Lord [is] salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all [his] epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as [they do] also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know [these things] before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and [in] the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him [be] glory both now and for ever. Amen. - 2 Peter 3:15-18
There have been, I believe, huge threads in the religion forum on this topic (salvation through works or grace), and of course, denominational splits. We won't settle it here, and I don't think it would be appropriate to debate the subject in a science thread. We couldn't settle it in the religion forum either, really, so we'll just have to leave it as it is. The issue of grace is out of my hands, but whether I live a good life is up to me, so that's what I focus on. [Hugs.]
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