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
"My remarks stand"...that's stupid and ossified.
His response was funny and on the mark, but I can understand your not liking it.
You understand nothing about me, thats obvious....your ignorance about other people appears to keep you happy...that says quite a bit about you and its not a nice picture...but you are happy with it, and I am so happy for you...
"His response was funny and on the mark, but I can understand your not liking it."
In order for something to be funny, it needs to have a basis in fact. His post had none. It did have a more, shall we say, chemical basis though. :)
Apparently, it is. Where is your proof that I'm a liar? I see no proof, just an obnoxious repeat of the original slander.
Here is where YOU started it!!! (I let you slide on the S&M thing)
Well, of course you did. Thru the careful selection of your biblical postings, you have clearly shown that the (S&M thing) was on target to the extent that I could easily show it's accuracy in a court of law, if you unwisely chose to pursue a court claim of slander.
Being wrong about your expressed convictions (which I'm probably not) is not slander, calling me a liar in big red type is.
You have publicly called me a liar with inadequate evidence, as you have just plainly demonstrated.
The list in your link says it welcomes the names of scientists the both acknowledge and deny evolution. Here's a list of 600+ scientists named Steve that acknowledge the science behind evolution - maybe these should be submitted to be added to better represent the truth. Considering that this list takes only scientists named Steve (or Stephanie), it kind of trivializes the list you showed, doesn't it?
Also, a 1997 Gallup Poll shows the truth - scientists are nearly unanimous in support of evolutionary theory.
it's been "nice" chatting with such an old meanie!
"Meanie" yourself...(now we both sound like two kindergarden children)...
"I wanna new drug" placemark
Great names to call someone....'Poop', always makes its way into name calling festivals...
Apology accepted, but I wanted to hear your point, after quoting scripture about Jews melting as in a furnace by the hand of the Lord, in bringing up Nazi furnaces.
________________________________
Me: Were the Nazis doing the Lord's work in melting those Jews (who you say are going to Hell)?
You tell me if the Pharoh & the EGYPTIANS (No, not a rock band) were 'doing HIS work',
Is that a "yes" or a "no", as to whether the Nazis were doing the Lord's work, in your opinion?
______________________________
Sorry again,
Apology accepted.
but it isn't I that says 'they are going to hell:
Did you forget this exchange:
Me: Are Jews who died without accepting Christ doomed to Hell?
Elsie: Yes
Did someone else type that response?
My two boys were never much on inventing names to call someone...usually they just called each other 'butt-face'...
Additionally a cubit is hardly an exact measurement. Quite frankly if two people with different arm lengths measured the bowl, a short armed carpenter measuring the diameter and a long armed man measuring the circumference, then if the short armed man's arm was exactly 95.49% as long as the other carpenter's arm, then the measurments would be exact. IOW if one carpenter's arm was 18 inches from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger and the other carpenter's arm was 17.189 inches from elbow to the tip of his middle finger, then the measurements would be correct.
Regardless there is simply no way of using this verse to show that the Bible is unreliable.
If that is your purpose then you have failed.
And if and when that outburst comes, it will come at the most inopportune time...like, when sitting in church...
That reminds me of that scene in A Christmas Story, when Ralphie lets go with the 'F' word, while helping his dad change the flat tire...and then his mom wants to know where in the world he learned that language(she, of course, would never admit he learned it from his dad, who used that word several times a day)...kids are like sponges, they soak up everything you say and do, and then wham...they let go, and embarrass the parents...its all part of the game...
And yet, the Indiana legislature tried to make pi=3 by law. Out of respect for the biblical measure. And now, there have been legal attempts to demolish evolutionary theory in science class, all due to biblical in-errancy. Forgive me if I am unpersuaded that there's no tangible concern here.
LOL!!! What a crock!!!
You've just discredited your entire cause here, don.
Hey everyone, it looks like we have a documented "evo" "LIAR" confirmed here!
BTW the official rumor was that it was Alabama.
LOL!
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