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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: presently no screen name

I accept that the evidence supports ToE


801 posted on 02/20/2006 10:37:21 PM PST by stands2reason (It's now 2006, and two wrongs still don't make a right.)
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To: presently no screen name

Uh-oh! False dichotomy!

Is God posting on this thread? What's his screenname?


802 posted on 02/20/2006 10:45:29 PM PST by stands2reason (It's now 2006, and two wrongs still don't make a right.)
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To: presently no screen name
You know what, with all you babbling, you say nothing.

Is that your way of saying that you'd rather fabricate my position because you don't know how to address what I've actually said?

It stands. You are calling God a liar.

Wrong. Now you're just lying.

God created the world and every living thing in it. If you do not accept His Word, The Bible, you have no capacity for truth.

You are again assuming your conclusion. You are assuming not only that the Christian God exists, but also that it exists exactly according to the nature that you claim. It is not "lying" for me not to believe you.

Yet you hang onto what Kent says.

I do not "hang onto" what Kent says. I merely point out that he has made demonstratably false claims.

A mere man who depends on God for his every breath.

Non-sequitur.

Why do you look up to man?

What is this supposed to mean?

How lowly do you think of yourself?

I think of myself more highly than I think of you. You've demonstrated that you are fundamentally unwilling to read for comprehension.

Animals do that - oh I forgot - you belief humans are animals.

Are they not? If you disagree with taxonomic classification, please justify your objection to homo sapiens sapiens being classified in Kingdom Animalia.

Now, do you have an argument that actually addresses any points that I've made, or do you wish to continue making up my position for me?

On that note - no more chit-chat.

Oh, okay. You're going to run off like a coward now. Not surprising.
803 posted on 02/20/2006 10:47:52 PM PST by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: Junior


Bibliolatry Bookmark


804 posted on 02/20/2006 10:48:24 PM PST by stands2reason (It's now 2006, and two wrongs still don't make a right.)
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To: jwalsh07

Maybe you should become familiar with the meaning of the word "analogy."


805 posted on 02/20/2006 10:52:18 PM PST by stands2reason (It's now 2006, and two wrongs still don't make a right.)
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To: presently no screen name
I'm merely quoting HIS WORDS.

in your opinion.

806 posted on 02/20/2006 10:56:00 PM PST by stands2reason (It's now 2006, and two wrongs still don't make a right.)
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To: RunningWolf

You are correct. They are true to form.

They are really calling God a liar. Something they have to live and die with.

Imagine, bowing down to what a 'man' says - Darwin - about creation. How lowly they think of themself. No wonder they call themselves animals.


807 posted on 02/20/2006 10:57:49 PM PST by presently no screen name
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To: presently no screen name
They are really calling God a liar.

Not accepting your interpretation of scripture is not the same as calling God a liar.

Imagine, bowing down to what a 'man' says - Darwin - about creation.

No one "bows down" to what Darwin says. You are lying.

How lowly they think of themself.

Strawman.

No wonder they call themselves animals.

If you have a justifiable reason to dispute existing taxonomic classification of humans, present it. That you have failed to do so despite being asked more than once tells me that you are simply deeply upset that reality does not conform to your personal delusions.
808 posted on 02/20/2006 10:59:53 PM PST by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: Dimensio; presently no screen name
The only point you have made, and the only point you have ever made.,,

Is that you are one very tragic statistic of what this godless evo cult can do to a soul if one allows them self to be drawn into it.

Everything else you say (while momentarily irritating) is barking moon-bat trivial.

Wolf
809 posted on 02/20/2006 11:01:56 PM PST by RunningWolf (Vet US Army Air Cav 1975)
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To: Dimensio

[...So, are you going to take that Python to court for swallowing that human child? No. Non-sequitur...]

Not really. You can't take an animal to court when it behaves instinctively. An animal can't make a contract. Thus the difference between Humans and animals.


810 posted on 02/20/2006 11:05:53 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: Dimensio

So typical of the clueless. Name calling.

You call me coward for ONE REASON. YOU want me to respond to you! You think you have an audience so you can spew your silly little monkey theory.

Every time you call me a liar, you are calling God a liar BUT you don't have the guts to go that far - do you? Coward applies to you. A little projection on your part.

Like I said, I don't converse with the animals. God's Word says I have dominion over animals. What does your god say? Dig for a fossil or eat a banana?


811 posted on 02/20/2006 11:07:05 PM PST by presently no screen name
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To: Always Right

Thanks. I'm lasy. :-)

(the last letter of the alphabet is sticking on my keyboard)

Checking Partridge's Origins, I see it originates from an old Germanic term meaning "a going" -- implying simply "a going-together, an agreement." The term must have gained a more solemn and religious connotation over time.


812 posted on 02/20/2006 11:08:18 PM PST by stands2reason (It's now 2006, and two wrongs still don't make a right.)
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To: Always Right

Still, my feel for the meaning of the word has never been exclusively religious. I've never seen the dictionary like a word bible; it tends to lag behind reality a bit.


813 posted on 02/20/2006 11:13:08 PM PST by stands2reason (It's now 2006, and two wrongs still don't make a right.)
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To: Jo Nuvark
You can't take an animal to court when it behaves instinctively. An animal can't make a contract. Thus the difference between Humans and animals.

No, you can't take a non-human animal to court or enter it into a contract because of human-created legal structure (note that I am not advocating changing this structure).

Thus the difference between Humans and animals.

No, thus a difference between humans and other animal species.
814 posted on 02/20/2006 11:13:21 PM PST by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: presently no screen name
So your evidence that existing classification of humans in the Kingdom Animalia is incorrect?

Every time you call me a liar, you are calling God a liar

Okay, not only are you a liar, but you're arrogant and delusional. Now you're claiming to be God.
815 posted on 02/20/2006 11:14:29 PM PST by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: Junior

[...He evidently couldn't forgive mankind without killing His own son...]

Nuh uh. Jesus was a volunteer. And sin put Him on that cross. My sin and your sin.


816 posted on 02/20/2006 11:15:05 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: Junior; editor-surveyor
Thank you so much for the ping! Indeed I posted the article you linked Enoch and Astronomy

The picture however was posted at 113 as a reply and was based on a translation on Enoch which is common currency on the internet and among the "new agers" - as editor-surveyor suggests.

The more recent and accurate translation is only available (AFAIK) in written form, the Charlesworth edition of the Pseudepigrapha. How this relates to the picture is on the above link at posts 116, 122 and 129

817 posted on 02/20/2006 11:17:11 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: b_sharp

I prematurely BINGOed. How embarrassing.
I'll just slink back to my metal folding chair now.


818 posted on 02/20/2006 11:18:36 PM PST by stands2reason (It's now 2006, and two wrongs still don't make a right.)
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To: eleni121

Great style, alternating insults and prayer.

Something Pythonesque about it I can't quite put my finger on....


819 posted on 02/20/2006 11:20:58 PM PST by stands2reason (It's now 2006, and two wrongs still don't make a right.)
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To: ml1954
Brings back memories of eight years in Catholic grade school going to mass each day before classes.

What, alternating ad hominems with paternostrums? I heard those nuns were tough, but come on....

820 posted on 02/20/2006 11:22:50 PM PST by stands2reason (It's now 2006, and two wrongs still don't make a right.)
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