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'm very curious now. You have claimed that humans are not animals. Please tell me (and the world) what we are instead. You only have a few choices.
Then you prattled on to say, "are you house trained or do you just run wild, as in your thinking." So I'm "wild" for thinking that humans are animals?
you are a fascinating lot.
Huh?
[...'they are the god' ...]
It's about truth and sowing seeds.
Don't stop. Be vigilant. Stand firm.
"Are you a historian and writer by profession?"
No.
But I've been told I should be.
For my own edification, to which post were you referring?
(Oh, and please, who is/was Jethro Bodine? Was he Jedd's son?)
I notice that only creationists are welcoming you here.
Is it because they're nicer people, or is it because they want to let everyone else on the thread know you are a newbie, and therefore, not to be trusted?
You decide.
Welcome to FR.
The real issues are turf, egos, status, money, academic tenure and franchise--
The real issue is a way for the left to "pretend" a great alarm at the attack on the Temple of Science to try to make the GOP alienate a formidable constituency--the religious right. The Democrats would just love to chip off enough votes to turn the majority to the left.
It is important to pay attn to a character named Soros--who finances a lot of leftist filmmaking. The guy who made SuperSize Me is in process of making "The Republican War on Science".
There are those here on FR trying to help Soros in his endeavor. Many pretend to be conservatives.
But most of us are not so bold to go back and repeat our lies and then deny having ever heard of the person we are lying about when our lies are preserved on a public forum.
I'm a bigot as well. I won't hire an electrician who thinks electricity is the result of white magic.
Post 510 was the one I was applauding.
Jetho Bodine was Jed Clampett's nephew and the intellectual of the family on account he "got an 8th grade education!"
[...Does God have a hairy chest? Blond hair?
Black hair? Does he have pimples or freckles?...]
Isn't that just like man to imagine God in relationship to who we are?
Isn't that just like God to imagine us in relationship to who He is?
I have enjoyed this immensely, but I must go. Hope to speak with you again soon. May God bring you comfort and pour His favor upon you as you contemplate His power and majesty in your life.
"There is not a shred of evidence that supports the queer notion of life out of nothing, and the fossil/geologic evidence clearly concurrs with the biblical description of the flood. More importantly, God's inerrant word clearly states that evolution did not happen, and the two are mutually exclusive.
Life out of nothing? How about life out of pre-life. How about life out of self-replicating chemicals. How about life out of anything but nothing.
The global flood has been disproved so many times as to be funny. Only the most biased, closed minded person would insist that the scientific evidence supports a global flood. (didn't I sound just like a creationist there?)
If you want to claim the Bible inerrant then go ahead and claim existence is based on miracles, but don't try to make creationism a science, it doesn't work and its feeble attempts to make the data fit the Bible are simply hilarious.
I find it interesting that creationists are not willing to accept abiogenesis (which would follow known physical laws), but are willing to not only accept, but base their living philosophy on, magic.
Now you've gone and done it. What a revolting development this is.
Pretty soon you'll be proving pond scum is the Creator or the pink unicorns on the moon dumped us here.
I didn't realise that ToryHeartland was new here. I'm a bit oblivious like that. I recognize people who post often, but I never really make assumptions with unfamiliar names as to whether they're new or I've just overlooked their postings in the past.
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