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
The Problem of Information for the Theory of Evolution - Has Dawkins really solved it?
The Problem of Information for the Theory of Evolution - Has Tom Schneider Really Solved It?
Climbing Mount Improbable - A review of Richard Dawkins’ book
"That's a false statement, and you know it.
The worst thing is, you will never stop saying it, and when called a liar, you'll run weeping to the mods. How pitiful."
No there is NO evidence whatsoever and YOU know that too. Evolution is a religion. You want to believe in it even though NOTHING supports it and especially not logic.
Initially I conversed with this Dim person - whatever his name is. Then he became obnoxious and I started ignoring him. Mind you he's been harassing me for OVER six months. Today, I simply had enough! He's way out of line! Unlike others, I announce that I've had enough and what I will do about it. Let that be a warning to you too. I see no reason to put up with childish harassment and personal attacks - part of the rules here.
What I regret is that I did not report his abuse MONTHS ago.
Neither does math. Did you have a point?
There are many Theistic Evolutionary Catholics in that area of the Blue state.
Who appear motivated to vote, at least on the local level, against ID in science class.
If you went to my link you also saw Gov. Taft, Gov. Bush, and especially Sen. Santorum all distancing themselves from ID being taught in science class.
Or happen twice.
However, relegating our God given intelligence and curiosity to random chance spits in the eye of our Creator.
If we measured the percentage of our reality that we understand, it would be less than 1 percent, being that we are trapped on a minuscule planet with primitive instruments. Guessing about reality is entertaining, but it doesn't stop people from flying planes into buildings.
Minus the transforming power of Jesus Christ, there never would have been a country like the United States. Freedom has always been based on people of character. There are obvious supernatural forces at work in our reality. Israel is back in the land after having been scattered for thousands of years and that little strip of land has the entire world in illogical turmoil.
Allowing conventional science to dictate reality leads to a society enslaved to elite scientists forcing prescriptions to tranquilize boys into submission; a generation of people cutting tasty fat foods from their diets needlessly; aborting human beings because they are legally defined only in materialistic terms...
My comments cut to the heart of the debate!
You refuse to accept an hypothesis that is grounded in science, meaning that it will have to follow existing science findings, but will accept something as tenuous as supposed Bible prophecy simply because it agrees with your belief system. Hmmm.
You really are averse to science and the scientific method aren't you?
sort of "trap" for me
Get at least ONE thing right tonight, you trapped yourself with YOUR OWN WORDS! Your the childish one with your backpeddling. It's no wonder you can't grasp basic truth.
What known physical laws would explain abiogenesis? And who said that creationists base their philosophy for living on magic? I presume you can support that second statement with some references.
Intelligent Design is not an "assault on science." It asserts that science was created by intelligence, and we have been discovering that intelligence for centuries.
Ridiculous. Would you care to back that nonsense up with a link to something respectable?
Knowing about antibiotic resistance is not dependent on accepting the ToE; it came about the hard way, by observing it. If it was, then doctors and scientists should have predicted that it would happen instead of handing out antibiotics like candy until, oops... now we have antibiotic resistant bacteria. Obviously, knowing about and accepting the ToE did nothing to prevent the health crisis we face now. Shouldn't the ToE been able to predict that?
And not accepting the ToE is not the same as rejecting science off hand. There are many branches of science that can be successfully practiced without evolution ever entering into them. Good science depends on the scientific method not adherence to a theory. Too many theories in the past have changed and continue to change by the day. So why should people be condemned because of being skeptical of one?
Yeah Dimensio! Quit posting facts and exposing Creationist' lies and logical fallacies by throwing their words in their face.
Here - read above what someone posted. Exposing Creationist's lies???? Where do we get THE TRUTH that the poster calls lies. From God's Word! So that's calling God a liar. WE don't make things up, we go to HIS Word.
Here's a courtesy ping to let you (RunningWolf, Havoc, Creationist)know that you are being discussed and give you a chance to defend yourself, which someone apparently forgot.
Basically, if you are calling creationists liars for telling you what God has said in His word, yes you are calling God a liar. If creationism is a lie, than God lied when He said He did it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.