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
2000
Hah!
Sloppy, but I nailed it anyway.
You just can't stand it that this verse may just be true, can you?
And you REFUSED to answer my question! How many cubits is the usable circumference of the bowl, Prof?
If the thickness is a hand's breadth as is shown in the subsequent verse, then what is the usable circumference of the bowl?
You can ridicule me all you want, but just answer the question first.
OH?
Why?
If someone is going to describe the volume of something, it is the INSIDE measurement that is important. The outer walls could have been 14 cubits thick, but that still would not change the carrying capacity of the interior.
Shabbot Shalom
The poster claimed that Nazis were doing the Lord's work link; and that the Jewish holocaust victims brought the suffering on themselves by turning from God link; and that those victims are doomed to Hell forever link.
What are your thoughts on those claims?
Truth is an adequate defense against charges of slander...I have accurately characterized your oft stated opinions...as you know, ms. bluff and bluster, because you refuse to state otherwise.
And I have given you ample time to say you have made an error, a mistake or even a misjudgement; but you hang on like a snapping turtle to your original claim, that I said those things in this thread.
You sir, are the wrong one to try to be pointing out other peoples errors.
Why should I have to 'correct' words YOU put in my mouth?
Audacity is thy name!
You are SO lucky!! ;^)
(At least he's learned to preface his 'characterizations' with 'IF'!)
(Not really much to say about this!)
I need folks like you, to pray for me, that in my frustration at times, I don't get nasty.
The poster claimed that Nazis were doing the Lord's work link;
and that the Jewish holocaust victims brought the suffering on themselves by turning from God link;
and that those victims are doomed to Hell forever link.
NIV Deuteronomy 30:19-20 19. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20. and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. NIV Exodus 15:26 He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you." NIV Exodus 19:5-6 5. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6. you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." NIV Exodus 23:22-23 22. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23. My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. NIV Deuteronomy 11:26-28 26. See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse-- 27. the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; 28. the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. NIV Deuteronomy 30:1-5 1. When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, 2. and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3. then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. (1948??) 5. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. NIV Joshua 8:34
Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law--the blessings and the curses--just as it is written in the Book of the Law. NIV Psalms 37:21-22 21. The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously; 22. those the LORD blesses will inherit the land, but those he curses will be cut off. NIV Malachi 2:1-2 1. "And now this admonition is for you, O priests. 2. If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name," says the LORD Almighty, "I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me. |
Ramen.
I did in post 1924, and you acknowledged my answer in 1933. So stop being a complete and total jackass. Or at least give it the old college try.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19-20, Oxford University Press, 1942)
I find it amusing you and your bud P Markowe will stretch the meaning of any word you can to try to make an obviously false statement appear true. If Pi can be three and 'encompass' mean something other than it does, why can't a day be 4 billion years?
As I stated before a cubit is an approximation and not an exact measurement, therefore your previous answer was incorrect. So what is the number of cubits? Hint: You have to round it off.
Oh yeah, I told you you could ridicule me all you wanted but I prefaced that with a request that you answer my question first. You didn't answer it first.
So before you call me a jackass again, please answer the question posed in post number 2004.
Your anticipated courtesy and cooperation will be much appreciated.
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