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
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.
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.
Check out this thread on the very subject: Freeper Research Project: Enoch and Astronomy
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.
wrap some 'Beaumont rags' around em.
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.
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?
"Keep your sacred texts dry during those world-changing floods..."
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.
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.
"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.
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 ;)
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)
Hey, man, don't dis the Monera. They have a way of getting back at you.
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