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Churches urged to back evolution
British Broadcasting Corporation ^ | 20 February 2006 | Paul Rincon

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


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: bearingfalsewitness; crevolist; darwin; evolution; freeperclaimstobegod; goddooditamen; godknowsthatiderslie; idoogabooga; ignoranceisstrength; intelligentdesign; liarsforthelord; ludditesimpletons; monkeygod; scienceeducation; soupmyth; superstitiousnuts; youngearthcultists
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To: Jo Nuvark
"If I am a beast, then I am accountable to nothing but "instinct"
and my behavior is excused."

Evolution doesn't say you are a *beast*; it says you are a human. You are getting so caught up in the steps that got you here and forgetting where *here* is. Whether a God made me or I evolved, I am what I am. (Yes, I am quoting the eminent philosopher, Popeye :).
621 posted on 02/20/2006 5:24:05 PM PST by CarolinaGuitarman ("There is grandeur in this view of life...")
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To: Dimensio; Jo Nuvark; nmh
Well 'artists concept' does not qualify as evidence for one.

He saw the exhibits, I did too. That's eyewitness testimony, not something you twist into 'vague anecdotal tales'. But twisting is pretty much what you are about. Its not our fault the evolutionists want to wipe away parts of their legacy.

You still have your artists concepts, for one look at the dino-raptor illustrations against the fossils
622 posted on 02/20/2006 5:24:05 PM PST by RunningWolf (Vet US Army Air Cav 1975)
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To: WildHorseCrash
The Bible's references to the earth's four corners, its "foundations", about a tree so high that it could be seen from the furthest reaches of the Earth, a mountain so high that the ends of the earth could be seen by someone on the mountain, that the earth is fixed and immovable, that the heavens are a "vault" etc. are totally consistent with a flat earth cosmology. (emphasis mine)

Without context, your opinion of these references is rather meaningless, but even taking them at face value, the two that are underlined actually suggest the relationship of a [raised] point on a curve, rather than a [raised point on a straight line.

623 posted on 02/20/2006 5:26:30 PM PST by csense
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To: wallcrawlr
Do you pay to stay on this forum? Its obviously not due to your charm that youre allowed to stay.

It obviously takes more than constant badgering of the mods by a bunch of lying snitching whiny crybaby losers to get someone who knows his subject banned.

624 posted on 02/20/2006 5:34:39 PM PST by shuckmaster (An oak tree is an acorns way of making more acorns)
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To: editor-surveyor
The book of Enoch describes a flat, circular Earth capped by the dome of the sky. The stars are the equivalent of angels who travel from doors in the base of the dome and travel across the sky in pre-arranged routes (a couple of stars were punished for failing to go to their assigned spots). The sun and moon likewise enter the dome through doors in its base, travel across the sky, and leave through doors in the opposite side.

Check out this thread on the very subject: Freeper Research Project: Enoch and Astronomy

625 posted on 02/20/2006 5:35:52 PM PST by Junior (Identical fecal matter, alternate diurnal period)
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To: ToryHeartland
I do not understand why such an enlightened nation is embroiled in a senseless science vs. religion turmoil

It's probably a simple misreading of what America is about. It's commerce, same as England. For commerce, a deep and subtle understanding of science and philosophy is not necessary, but a knowledge of finance, marketing and engineering is required. Both science and religion are peripheral interests and can be argued and confused all daylong without affecting vital issues of commerce. We don't argue much about engineering and bank loans.

626 posted on 02/20/2006 5:36:20 PM PST by RightWhale (pas de lieu, Rhone que nous)
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To: metmom
How can you believe in God (capital G as in the God of the Bible) if you don't see Him is Scripture? If it weren't for the Bible and what He revealed to us in it, we would know next to nothing about Him. The Bible, which is what you dismiss as "the ramblings of the primitive people", is the only source of information about Him. And it's hardly *ramblings*. It's written at a level that most people can't even attain these days. Ramblings don't include such specific references to people, dates, and events, and it has found to be historically very accurate. It makes no sense to claim to believe in God and yet reject the very source of the information about Him. . I guess the lord works in mysterious ways.
627 posted on 02/20/2006 5:36:41 PM PST by Vaquero (time again for the Crusades.)
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To: dread78645

wrap some 'Beaumont rags' around em.


628 posted on 02/20/2006 5:38:23 PM PST by Vaquero (time again for the Crusades.)
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To: CarolinaGuitarman

I yam, what I yam, what I yam. LOL!

An ape for an ancestor makes a monkey out of you and me. Ape... Monkey... Animal. When does the animal become human? If we are not created, then we a not accountable to our Creator. I'm quite happy to be subject to my God.


629 posted on 02/20/2006 5:40:36 PM PST by Jo Nuvark ((Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. Gen 12:3))
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To: Vicomte13

Wow -- what a fabulous post.

Sometimes, when I think I might be pretty sharp (or at least not a dull point), I see a post like yours and feel like I am Jethroe Bodine.

I have read it three times and and still am gleaning new information from the well-written and reasoned data posted.

Are you a historian and writer by profession?


630 posted on 02/20/2006 5:41:58 PM PST by freedumb2003 (American troops cannot be defeated. American Politicians can.)
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To: WildHorseCrash
I wonder why all copies weren't lost in Noah's flood?

"Keep your sacred texts dry during those world-changing floods..."

631 posted on 02/20/2006 5:45:09 PM PST by freedumb2003 (American troops cannot be defeated. American Politicians can.)
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To: joseph20
Take your Bible-bashing elsewhere. You are not welcome.

Listen up fella, last I checked this ain't your forum. It's JimRob's. And unless you happen to be a mod, your opinion means nothing to me.

And no personal beliefs (except leftism) are outlawed.

I didn't bash your Bible, so get over yourself. Even my Christian minister friend thinks I'm entitled to my own opinion.(And prays for my soul every night most likely) Your hostility towards me shows that you don't agree.

Well, bathe in your hostility, if you so desire.

632 posted on 02/20/2006 5:45:44 PM PST by stands2reason (It's now 2006, and two wrongs still don't make a right.)
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To: RunningWolf

Thank you for your "artist's concept" remarks.

I'm just asking for someone to prove Evolution exists. Sheesh. Is that so difficult?
I can prove God exists with every breath I take. "I am" witness to God's existence.


633 posted on 02/20/2006 5:48:08 PM PST by Jo Nuvark ((Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. Gen 12:3))
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To: Jo Nuvark

"An ape for an ancestor makes a monkey out of you and me."

Besides the fact we are apes, we are also human. That is specifically what we are. We are not monkeys no matter what our ancestry is.

"When does the animal become human?"

We are human animals.

" If we are not created, then we a not accountable to our Creator."

Granted. But we ARE accountable to reality. It truly is a harsh mistress.


634 posted on 02/20/2006 5:49:11 PM PST by CarolinaGuitarman ("There is grandeur in this view of life...")
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To: wallcrawlr; Dimensio
Do you pay to stay on this forum? Its obviously not due to your charm that youre allowed to stay.

Yeah Dimensio! Quit posting facts and exposing Creationist' lies and logical fallacies by throwing their words in their face.

I mean just because you have facts, truth and reasoning on your side, that doesn't mean you get to just SAY it!! You have to imply it or else you will insult people who have to rely on lies to debate.

Now, you knock that off ;)

635 posted on 02/20/2006 5:49:56 PM PST by freedumb2003 (American troops cannot be defeated. American Politicians can.)
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To: freedumb2003
Agreed, so long as the topic at hand is subject to "viewpoints." Viewpoints about string theory may be subject to debate, but that debate is amongst scientists with the proper background and knowledge. Pastry Chefs (for example) with no scientific knowledge are not qualified to present a "viewpoint" on string theory even if they hold an opinion on it.

This type of attitude is just nonsense, and people such as Gregor Johann Mendel, David H. Levy, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Joseph Priestley, Michael Faraday, Grote Reber, Arthur C. Clarke, Thomas Jefferson, Susan Hendrickson and Felix d'Herelle is evidnece of that. (source)

636 posted on 02/20/2006 5:51:34 PM PST by csense
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To: Jo Nuvark
If I am a beast, then I am accountable to nothing but "instinct" and my behavior is excused.

Codswallop. I know of no rational biologist who would suggest that the placement of homo sapiens sapiens in kingdom Animalia in any way excuses or justifies any kind of behaviour.

Even if this were true (and it is not), it would have no bearing on the validity of the claim that humans are animals. You are appealing to consequence and wishful thinking. You are not making a rational argument to show that humans are not animals.
637 posted on 02/20/2006 5:51:50 PM PST by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: Jo Nuvark
Oops. In my reply I mistakenly believed you were also the poster who claimed that humans are not animals. I apologize for the portion of my reply that relates to that assumption.

I maintain my claim that no rational biologist would suggest that human origins sharing common ancestry with apes in any way justifies any kind of behavior.
638 posted on 02/20/2006 5:53:30 PM PST by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: Dimensio

Hey, man, don't dis the Monera. They have a way of getting back at you.


639 posted on 02/20/2006 5:53:39 PM PST by furball4paws (Awful Offal)
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To: Jo Nuvark
This personal "anecdote" is a fact that I observed.

What museum? When was this? How were the drawings labelled?

Evidence should be observable, repeatable and documentable.

You mean like the extensive fossil record, and ERV insertions discovered through gene sequencing of humans and other ape species?
640 posted on 02/20/2006 5:54:47 PM PST by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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