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
I once saw a mystery on the BBC, entitled, 'The Scolds Bridle'....I thought, what an odd title for a story, as I had no idea what they were talking about...this involved some sort of horrendous, vile, head-gear type contraption, useful for shutting folks up....
Should you ever get the chance, see this mystery, if only to view the head gear...
I vote for that as well...it has a nice ring to it...
Does it work?
Well, now, this is very similar, tho not quite the contraption in the mystery...good grief, I suppose there are many and varying models, just like with cars...
But thanks for this pic, we can all see the general look of the 'scolds bridle'...
It worked in the movie...but instead of there being a solid piece across the mouth, it was more a split type thing over the lips, with a sharp prong on the upper lip portion, that somehow I think dug into the upper portion of ones lip or upper roof of the mouth...painful I am sure...and prevents one from talking...
Who thinks up these things?
These people condemn it as a heresy.
(Yes, I realize it's a parody site. Until I posted this, I thought they had mad up the word.)
Who thinks up these things?
People with creative fertile imaginations who have had to live with common old scolds?
Ah, perhaps you are correct...it just seems like such a torturous way to silence someone for a while...but then, I have never had to live with a common old scold, so what would I know?
Yes, that looks more like the contraption I saw in the movie...thanks...
I hate being in the dark. What ARE you people talking about!!!?
"I hate being in the dark. What ARE you people talking about!!!?"
:)
:(
Indeed.
The time delay really messes up any chance of a meaniful exchange.
I find many times, that if I post a s I read along, just a few replies later someone ELSE has done a much better job, and my stuff is superficalous (SP?)
"If you have nothing good to say about someone..."
"Well, it looks like something that would be needed for someone who keeps forgetting the old adage:
"If you have nothing good to say about someone...""
That's what makes it so appropriate. :)
I dont know if I can explain this at all...we were just talking about the term 'old scold', and I thought the term was 'common scold'...now you are going to have to look all this up...scolds I guess were yappering, gossipy, whiny, rumor mongering ladies in the days of old...people would call them scolds...I take it that the common scold, was some sort of device that the village people would hoist the busybody lady upon, and duck her into the river, as a type of punishment for running her mouth...
That brought to my mind, the title of a movie I had seen called the Scolds Bridle, which involve the headgear that you are now seeing in the various pictures...
Certainly this has nothing to do with the general train of thought of this thread, it was kind of a little side subject, which wound up being discussed...all this revolved around the word 'scold'....
Hope that somewhat helps...
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