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
That is nonsense. I know quite a number of biologists, a number of whom are active in genetic reasearch in a leading firm, (in which we hold stock, and go to stockholders open house days) and most of them are of the opinion that the question of evolution is irrelevant to their work.
"And scientists is whom we consult on the subject of what is and isn't science."
No comment necessary! ;o)
"He who knew not sin, became sin for our sake."
Sheesh! (And no I can't quote chapter and verse--the Holy Apostle Paul wrote words to that effect, find a sola scriptura protestant if you want a footnote.)
Did this *becoming* sin mean Jesus sinned?
Yes, but how many signed the Evo Loyalty Oath?
I think we're arguing apples and oranges here. Claiming he was arrogant and delusional IS NOT a logical fallacy. It's an accurate description. Not being allowed to post because one is arrogant and delusional is another matter altogether.
How ignorant of you! - The Lord is in constant communication to all that are his. He keeps us safe, and healthy, and that is a promise he made to us in his word. Gnostics don't even believe that the Lord came to this earth and died on the cross. They also don't believe that he would talk to them (and they're probably right).
"I wonder if my friend the Christian minister knows God is supposed to talk to him..."
If your minister is not in constant communication with the Lord, then I'd be looking for another minister.
The preposterous "PresbyRev" needs to get up to speed with reality and truth:
The Divine Claims of Jesus
The "Son of Man" Title J. P. Holding
http://www.tektonics.org/jesusclaims/sonofman.html
If I walk up to you, say "The earth is flat," and walk away without saying anything, I have lied without presenting an argument.
Uh huh. How many would that be by actual count, and of those who have voiced an opinion to you that it's irrelevant, how many think it incorrect, and what do you imagine is the ratio of a few of your acquaintences, to the number of working biologists who embrace darwin's theory? You certainly know how to push poppycock with assured air of confidence.
I will leave you to argue against the others who are hawking the 'substitutionary atonement' theory of Christ's work of salvation.
I would like to point out to you, though, that those of us who follow Christ in what is arguably the living continuation of the original Church (commonly called the Orthodox Church now) find the theory of God providing Himself a blood sacrifice barbarous. Our hymnogaphy speaks of Christ "trampling down death by death," and sees the fundamentals of our salvation in the uniting of human nature to the Divine nature in the person of Christ.
The theory the others present ignorantly as standard Christian doctrine is actually a rather late and provincial development, being first proposed by Anselm of Canterbury after the Latin church had already fallen into heresy and schism. It is quite unknown in the Christian East (whether among Orthodox, Monophysite or Nestorian), and not universally accepted in the West, though one can find exponents of it in most Western confessions.
He's not my minister, he's my friend. And prayer is not like a phone call.
No, I have not moved any goalpost; those that have been willing to speak on the subject seem to feel that evolution is not the answer, but that does not necessarily mean that they are creationists in the context that we hold on these threads.
I'm not talking about prayer in the specific sense.
Read the whole quote.
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