Posted on 02/20/2006 5:33:50 AM PST by ToryHeartland
Churches urged to back evolution By Paul Rincon BBC News science reporter, St Louis
US scientists have called on mainstream religious communities to help them fight policies that undermine the teaching of evolution.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) hit out at the "intelligent design" movement at its annual meeting in Missouri.
Teaching the idea threatens scientific literacy among schoolchildren, it said.
Its proponents argue life on Earth is too complex to have evolved on its own.
As the name suggests, intelligent design is a concept invoking the hand of a designer in nature.
It's time to recognise that science and religion should never be pitted against each other Gilbert Omenn AAAS president
There have been several attempts across the US by anti-evolutionists to get intelligent design taught in school science lessons.
At the meeting in St Louis, the AAAS issued a statement strongly condemning the moves.
"Such veiled attempts to wedge religion - actually just one kind of religion - into science classrooms is a disservice to students, parents, teachers and tax payers," said AAAS president Gilbert Omenn.
"It's time to recognise that science and religion should never be pitted against each other.
"They can and do co-exist in the context of most people's lives. Just not in science classrooms, lest we confuse our children."
'Who's kidding whom?'
Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, which campaigns to keep evolution in public schools, said those in mainstream religious communities needed to "step up to the plate" in order to prevent the issue being viewed as a battle between science and religion.
Some have already heeded the warning.
"The intelligent design movement belittles evolution. It makes God a designer - an engineer," said George Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory.
"Intelligent design concentrates on a designer who they do not really identify - but who's kidding whom?"
Last year, a federal judge ruled in favour of 11 parents in Dover, Pennsylvania, who argued that Darwinian evolution must be taught as fact.
Dover school administrators had pushed for intelligent design to be inserted into science teaching. But the judge ruled this violated the constitution, which sets out a clear separation between religion and state.
Despite the ruling, more challenges are on the way.
Fourteen US states are considering bills that scientists say would restrict the teaching of evolution.
These include a legislative bill in Missouri which seeks to ensure that only science which can be proven by experiment is taught in schools.
I think if we look at where the empirical scientific evidence leads us, it leads us towards intelligent design Teacher Mark Gihring "The new strategy is to teach intelligent design without calling it intelligent design," biologist Kenneth Miller, of Brown University in Rhode Island, told the BBC News website.
Dr Miller, an expert witness in the Dover School case, added: "The advocates of intelligent design and creationism have tried to repackage their criticisms, saying they want to teach the evidence for evolution and the evidence against evolution."
However, Mark Gihring, a teacher from Missouri sympathetic to intelligent design, told the BBC: "I think if we look at where the empirical scientific evidence leads us, it leads us towards intelligent design.
"[Intelligent design] ultimately takes us back to why we're here and the value of life... if an individual doesn't have a reason for being, they might carry themselves in a way that is ultimately destructive for society."
Economic risk
The decentralised US education system ensures that intelligent design will remain an issue in the classroom regardless of the decision in the Dover case.
"I think as a legal strategy, intelligent design is dead. That does not mean intelligent design as a social movement is dead," said Ms Scott.
"This is an idea that has real legs and it's going to be around for a long time. It will, however, evolve."
Among the most high-profile champions of intelligent design is US President George W Bush, who has said schools should make students aware of the concept.
But Mr Omenn warned that teaching intelligent design will deprive students of a proper education, ultimately harming the US economy.
"At a time when fewer US students are heading into science, baby boomer scientists are retiring in growing numbers and international students are returning home to work, America can ill afford the time and tax-payer dollars debating the facts of evolution," he said. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4731360.stm
Published: 2006/02/20 10:54:16 GMT
© BBC MMVI
LOL...cute, I like that Elsie.
Changes of that nature are commonly referred to by creationists as "microevolution", and accepted without demur. The significant "macro-evolutionary" changes are less obvious at a casual glance, but are explained in the text.
But then you've had that explained on several occasions in the past, but you still come back, dumb as a stump, with the "I believe this stuff" quip.
Once again; you guys get your own INTERPRETATION of the data: NOT your own data!
Take a look at my 1214 - he was a young priest. And tell me, what are they teaching in seminary these days? One world government includes one world religion, and by the look of all that's been happening in this country lately, it won't be the Christian religion.
It is a lifestyle that is supposed to prepare you for the afterlife.
Hence, religion. You don't have to have prayer for it to be a religion.
And you can support that notion using what principle(s) of Democracy or Conservatism?
And as far as I know, the ark wasn't impaired by Uzzah's hand touching it. The ancient Hebrews still kept using it and didn't throw it away or asked their god to give them a new one because Uzzah, that stupid wretch, left his fingerprints on the gold plating since he forgot to put on gloves.
Furthermore, what I don't understand is that this omnipotent god, who allegedly created this vast universe with all the planets, suns, galaxies, galaxy-clusters, superclusters, etc. gets worked up about something petty like a guy inadvertently touching some wooden artifact. I mean what the...
Look out, Junior; Elsie is going to send God after you.
He was lucky his head didn't melt. I saw a movie about that once so it must be true.
Nice summary.
Elsie: Yes
Me: I guess those Jews got a nasty surprise after they perished in the Holocaust.
Elsie: No more than Joe Blow when he wrecked his car last week!
Suppose Joe Blow was your son. Wouldn't it torment you that he was suffering in Hell forever?
Actually, God didn't get worked up at all to kill Uzzah. He did, however, give instructions to build His Ark in such a way that it was a capacitor.
If you duplicate the instructions, your simulated Ark of the Covenant can store quite a hefty electric charge.
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