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
Then why did you say I hadn't provided the Biblical passage?
(Besides, a link has already been posted that explains it. Did you somehow MISS it?
There are all the posts I could find that seem to have any bearing on Junior's post: 1550 1563 1564 1565. Did I miss one?, because these look more like stalls than answers to me. I found no links, so I suppose someone other than you posted said link?
Not out of control. An analogy: My daughter has been doing stupid things of late. I regret what she's doing to herself, but she is an adult and I will not interfere in her life; she has to make her own choices. I don't love her any less, though. Do you pray to this God? According to your theology he won't answer your prayers anyway.
I pray every day. It doesn't matter that He won't answer my prayers (God is not some magic "gimme" machine) -- I don't pray for anything to come to me anyway. It is simply a comfort knowing He's there. It's the same benefit I offer to my daughter. She can dump on me whenever she wants and I'll listen and be there for her. As adults that's all we really need most of the time.
Methinks your average Christian takes the "child of God" sobriquet far too seriously. It gives him or her an excuse never to mature spiritually. Sure, he or she may claim otherwise, but will still act like a fearful child in the presence of a vengefull father. Like any parent, though, God wants His children to grow up and stand on their own feet.
Nice that you simply blew off the rest of the post and centered on a single word. Of course, you're hoping no one else noticed, I'm sure.
\ For the same reason Moslems must defend what's in the Koran.
The God you described earlier could not care whether or not you grow up, since all he did was set in motion "nature" eons ago and he has done nothing since, except to regret the inevitable loss of every life which sprung from his "creation."
The problem you have with your God is that your God is not based upon anything other than your own unique imagination. In that sense God did not create you in His image, but you created God in your image.
Thus when you "worship" this God you are only paying homage to yourself, since you are the creator of this unique imaginary creature you call God.
BTW the one true and living God does answer prayers. Whether you like it or not he is actively intervening in your life. The fact that you are sitting here typing and not feeding the worms right now is a testament to his longsuffering and mercy. We have all sinned and we are all worthy of the death that will inevitably overtake us someday. You owe your very existence to him and him alone.
Thank him.
Proof positive your reading comprehension is sub-par. Do you care whether your children grow up?
Stalls? From Elsie? I'm shocked and surprised.
Very eloquent insight, IMO.
No, it wasn't; it was a slander, disguised as one.
Which the detractors take as the OUTER most dimension, which illustrates their point that the writer didn't know his PI from a hole in the ground!
If the material was something less strong as bronze, then the thickness would have been greater than a 'handbeardth', making the outer dimension even greater.
However, anyone would know that it's the INNER dimension that is needed, to hold a certain VOLUMN of liquid.
To say otherwise shows a need to 'prove the bible wrong' for some reason or another.
yes. Aren't you reading ALL the things going on in this thread??
It would've been nearly 35 cm (13.5" for you luddites) thick to match the dimensions, interior and exterior. Bronze is tougher than iron, but not as tough as steel -- and it masses about 9 tonnes per cubic meter. The walls would not need to be nearly so thick. IOW, a lot more bronze went into the building of that sea than was absolutely necessary, if you are correct.
Nice that you simply blew off the rest of the post and centered on a single word. Of course, you're hoping no one else noticed, I'm sure.
And just what 'reason' is that?
Insight?
Defend YOUR statement! You who are NOT afraid of your god!
So?
13.77952756 for the rest of your normal people with a calculator...
Fine, declare what tangible evidence you use to presuppose standards of naturalism and I will get back to you. Are you really so dense as not to understand the question?
By the way, one does not "presupposition." A presupposition is an "a priori" assumption one brings to the table. One "presupposes" certain things and adopts them usually without critical analysis. It is like a fish being unaware of the medium in which it swims (to quote another). This is why the modern technocrats splutter so angrily when they are challenged on this issue, and continue to recite the same old cant about science dealing with the observable and quantifiable, as if this were a new vantage point that was heretofore unacknowledged. Naturalistic assumptions are not a part of science, but are simply the philosophical a prioris of many modern scientists.
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