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
Madam, the authors of the piece claimed to have been divinely inspired. Claiming does not make it so. If Christians were to subject the Bible to the same scrutiny they visit upon biology...
But the Walrus was Paul...
Nice.
666, 700, 1400... I'll pop back in at 2100.
Thanks, but my understanding is still struggling.
I can understand (though I do not share their view) that there are those who profess a particular faith which they feel is incompatible with science, and my instinct is, that is a personal matter with which the state must not interfere. What I do not understand is why those of such a faith do not simply choose to ignore science, as they have deemed it irrelevant, rather than to launch a campaign to change the nature of science as if it could be made compatible with their faith.
That seems as bizzare to me as if I were to launch a campaign to make Buddhism compatible with my love of hunting. I've got enough on my plate campaigning against the socialists in power here (who have outlawed things dear to my heart) to worry about Buddhists...
From my point of view on the same side of the pond as you the solution is quite simple. Let US Public Schools have Religious Education Classes and Religious Assemblies before school. These can reflect the dominant religious beliefs of the local area, with a nod towards the beliefs of others. At my school religious jews simply didn't attend the religious assemblies, they came in at the end for school announcements (though they were still required to attend the RE classes) but most catholics did though the service was protestant. I expect that your experience was similar. My parents expected me to attend the assemblies even though my family is atheist; the experience was seen as an important part of understanding our shared culture. Science in science class. Religion (which is an important part of what binds society together) in assemblies that parents can choose to exclude their children from if they wish, but compulsory RE for all. I'm an atheist, but I have no problem with school time for religious instruction and worship, and I expect despite the anti-evolutionists protests about the "scientific assault on their religion" few on the science/evolution/secular/humanism/theistic-evolution side of the debate would object to that.
There may be a downside to my suggestion from the point of view those who would like the USA to be an even more religious society. Most european countries have some level of compulsory religious content in their public schooling system. Perhaps that is why Europe is now full of Godless Atheists. After all "literacy hours" produce an illiterate population; why should "God hours" produce anything but a Godless population?
Hey!
I didn't make the rule!
You, too! ;^)
|
To: Junior
... a truly omnipotent God does not have to resort to theatrics.
Oh yeah: this'll be GREAT theater!!
Revelation 20
11. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. |
Do you REALLY have this much trouble understanding the printed word?
While I'm on this earth; yes.
Later; no.
NIV Revelation 7:17
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
NIV Revelation 21:4-5
4. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
5. He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"
If this stuff ain't true; then my 'poor son' is merely dead.
Just Shocking!!
That was GHOST wasn't it? (with Swayzee and Moore)
False dichotomy. Many other options exist. You are very fond of presenting an "either" "or" view of things that excludes most possibilities.
Let me help!
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
20. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
21. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
"As can be demonstrated, early evolutionary theorists confessed that they were not drawn to the idea of secularist evolution because of any scientific merit, but rather because of its implications in morality."
I hope you don't mean the Huxley nonsense. Neither Julian or Aldous Huxley said anything close to that, as has been demonstrated on these threads.
If your minister is not in constant communication with the Lord, then I'd be looking for another minister.
Maybe, maybe not.
NIV 2 Timothy 4:2-3
2. Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction.
3. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
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