Posted on 05/25/2006 2:59:09 PM PDT by dukeman
ADF filed friend-of-the-court brief in defense of textbook stickers which accurately stated that evolution is a theory
ATLANTA — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit today vacated a lower court decision that declared Cobb County science textbook stickers which stated “evolution is a theory, not a fact” unconstitutional. The court was critical of the district court for issuing its ruling against the stickers despite holes in the evidentiary record in the case and remanded the case back to the district court for new proceedings.
“No school should be in trouble for simply stating the facts. That’s what schools are supposed to do. Though we wish the appeals court would have ruled on the constitutional merits of the case without sending it back to the district court, we are pleased that the district court’s ruling against the school district has been vacated,” said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster.
In its ruling today, the 11th Circuit wrote, “The problems presented by a record containing significant evidentiary gaps are compounded because at least some key findings of the district court are not supported by the evidence that is contained in the record.” The full text of the court’s ruling in the case Selman v. Cobb County School District can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/CobbCountyDecision.pdf.
The lower court judge agreed that the stickers were not applied to the textbooks for a religious purpose and were devoid of religious content. Nonetheless, he deemed the stickers a violation of the so-called “separation of church and state” for the sole reason that many people were aware that Christians supported the stickers.
According to the friend-of-the-court brief ADF attorneys filed in the case, “The District Court’s analysis will lead to absurd results…. The Establishment Clause was never meant to prohibit the passage of a secular law, for a secular purpose, simply because Christians actively lobbied for the law” (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3404).
The sticker which had been applied to each textbook read, “This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.”
ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
ID is defined by those who proposed it and are doing work in the area.
Same as with evolution.
The legal issue in this case, though, is shot through with problems. Most telling is the admission by the "The lower court judge (who) agreed that the stickers were not applied to the textbooks for a religious purpose and were devoid of religious content."
I'm coming around to the view that we should indeed teach alternatives to evolution in the science classroom. I welcome the chance to demonstrate to a room full of students that no one but a scientific illiterate could take the biblical story of creation literally. And after all, as we are so often reminded here, if you can't believe Genesis 1 and 2, and you can't, why would you take the rest seriously?
Genetic data that showed them to be more closely related to fish.
ROFL!
Good one. But seriously!
And He will explain how he hid all those bones and other artifacts and we will share in His Joke on Mankind.
All that nonsense at the Dover school; all that inquiry into the intents of those who drafted the disclaimer would be irrlevant if the Lemon Test did not demand a "religious test" for legislation that creates the kind of entanglement between the courts and religion that logically would be prohibited by the excessive entanglement prong of the same stupid test.
Look, I know your quals in the legal arena, but here you are treading water. The entanglement was brought by those who suggested that religion (the Creation Myth) somehow should be introduced as "an alternative theory." Creationism and ID are no more "alternate theories" than "angels hold airplanes aloft" is an "alternate theory" of aerodynamics.
This is the court DISentangling the religion quagmire.
RWP! Where ya been? How ya been?
It's been weeks.
Is school out for you yet?
So name one person doing scientific work in the area of ID, and identify some of the work.
And who would that be? It's been two hundred years with no research, no research proposals, no researchable hypotheses.
That's a long time to sit on the pot with no production.
So, you are OK with "Go Jihad with muhammed" "What would Satan Do?" "Thor is the source of all power" "The Goddess wants you to preserve the planet" "The Flying Spaghetti Monster is your only hope" etc. etc. etc.
Where does it end? Who chooses? You?
"The sciencific way of thought says, 'I want to know, then--and only then-- I will believe a theory that collects the facts and observations.'"
And it is true that some scientists forget this. The history of science is littered with rear-guard defenses against new ideas because of adherence to the old ones. Even Einstein had trouble accepting new ideas that he could not -- yet -- reconcile with what he knew.
But -- the ideal is -- and the general behavior among scientists is -- "WOW! I was wrong. Look at that! It's not THIS; it's THAT, after all!" and to keep working at it to make it better.
I guarantee that if anyone were to come along and actually refute a large chunk of evolution with facts and results -- he would instantly become more famous than Einstein, and win the Nobel Prize. Anyone who thinks otherwise just doesn't know science -- or scientists.
Generally, yes. It's usually much more extensive and less prone to interpretation.
But let's not get distracted here. You do agree that finding a whale genome that was closer to a fish genome than a mammalian genome would have falsified a mammalian origin for the whale?
see #93
Could you identify the methods and results sections for me.
"ID is defined by those who proposed it and are doing work in the area. Same as with evolution."
Then it would be enormously helpful if we could stick to the correct definitions.
BTW -- have your read the Wedge Document? Have you read what DI says about ID? I am happy to stick to their descriptions of ID for the purpose of investigation of its scientific validity. If only we could get creationists to return the favor concerning evolution.
Thor was one of my all-time favorite comic books.
Thor can go in the textbook, but only if Stan Lee does the drawing.
"ID is defined by those who proposed it and are doing work in the area. Same as with evolution."
Then it would be enormously helpful if we could stick to the correct definitions.
And you did not deal with my comment about DI. You said ID was not a "movement" -- but DI certainly puts it forth that way. Ever read the Wedge Document?
Have you read what DI says about ID? I am happy to stick to their descriptions of ID for the purpose of investigation of its scientific validity. If only we could get creationists to return the favor concerning evolution.
AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return.
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