Posted on 12/11/2002 6:28:08 AM PST by A2J
By WILL SENTELL
wsentell@theadvocate.com
Capitol news bureau
High school biology textbooks would include a disclaimer that evolution is only a theory under a change approved Tuesday by a committee of the state's top school board.
If the disclaimer wins final approval, it would apparently make Louisiana just the second state in the nation with such a provision. The other is Alabama, which is the model for the disclaimer backers want in Louisiana.
Alabama approved its policy six or seven years ago after extensive controversy that included questions over the religious overtones of the issue.
The change approved Tuesday requires Louisiana education officials to check on details for getting publishers to add the disclaimer to biology textbooks.
It won approval in the board's Student and School Standards/ Instruction Committee after a sometimes contentious session.
"I don't believe I evolved from some primate," said Jim Stafford, a board member from Monroe. Stafford said evolution should be offered as a theory, not fact.
Whether the proposal will win approval by the full state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday is unclear.
Paul Pastorek of New Orleans, president of the board, said he will oppose the addition.
"I am not prepared to go back to the Dark Ages," Pastorek said.
"I don't think state boards should dictate editorial content of school textbooks," he said. "We shouldn't be involved with that."
Donna Contois of Metairie, chairwoman of the committee that approved the change, said afterward she could not say whether it will win approval by the full board.
The disclaimer under consideration says the theory of evolution "still leaves many unanswered questions about the origin of life.
"Study hard and keep an open mind," it says. "Someday you may contribute to the theories of how living things appeared on earth."
Backers say the addition would be inserted in the front of biology textbooks used by students in grades 9-12, possibly next fall.
The issue surfaced when a committee of the board prepared to approve dozens of textbooks used by both public and nonpublic schools. The list was recommended by a separate panel that reviews textbooks every seven years.
A handful of citizens, one armed with a copy of Charles Darwin's "Origin of the Species," complained that biology textbooks used now are one-sided in promoting evolution uncritically and are riddled with factual errors.
"If we give them all the facts to make up their mind, we have educated them," Darrell White of Baton Rouge said of students. "Otherwise we have indoctrinated them."
Darwin wrote that individuals with certain characteristics enjoy an edge over their peers and life forms developed gradually millions of years ago.
Backers bristled at suggestions that they favor the teaching of creationism, which says that life began about 6,000 years ago in a process described in the Bible's Book of Genesis.
White said he is the father of seven children, including a 10th-grader at a public high school in Baton Rouge.
He said he reviewed 21 science textbooks for use by middle and high school students. White called Darwin's book "racist and sexist" and said students are entitled to know more about controversy that swirls around the theory.
"If nothing else, put a disclaimer in the front of the textbooks," White said.
John Oller Jr., a professor at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, also criticized the accuracy of science textbooks under review. Oller said he was appearing on behalf of the Louisiana Family Forum, a Christian lobbying group.
Oller said the state should force publishers to offer alternatives, correct mistakes in textbooks and fill in gaps in science teachings. "We are talking about major falsehoods that should be addressed," he said.
Linda Johnson of Plaquemine, a member of the board, said she supports the change. Johnson said the new message of evolution "will encourage students to go after the facts."
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you [of] heavenly things? - John 3:5-12
It should also be noted that likewise, the prophecies of the Bible have contemporary fulfillment and future fulfillment.
All good questions, none of which are answered by Darwin's flawed Theory. Thank you for underlining some of the flaws in his Theory.
Oh, and in reply to your straw-grasping query: "Do you have probabilities for the other planets?"
Note that the statistics I quoted include the estimated number of atoms in the entire universe... which included all planets the last time I checked.
As do all thoroughly debunked evolutionists. Well put.
‘And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God’ (Micah 6:8)
"The temptation to think better of ourselves than we ought is notoriously powerful. To some degree it is a reflex action against the aggression of others. In youth it can be wrought by fear of new experiences. We are anxious not to be seen to be afraid, so we train ourselves to misjudge our true condition. We eat up praise when we get some, and minimize criticism."
"Developing pride... forges habits---that conceal from us the truth of ourselves."
"Usually it takes a shock such as personal loss or misfortune to tear down the props we have built up around our false self. Grief and shame can be wonderfully liberating as they facilitate the emergence of a self that acknowledges the supremacy of God, and the need for constant dependence upon him."
"Nothing is more suited to the maintenance of this disposition than frequent meditation on Christ; his story; his teaching, life, death, and triumph. In Christ's presence the masks we shelter behind are taken away. We are left open to the gaze of God. We are seen for what we are. More, we are loved despite what we are. Higher, nobler possibilities are presented to us in the Son of God. Self renunciation and service are seen as the pathway to self realization at its highest level. We are fitted to 'walk humbly with our God'."
You didn't quote any of those numbers. You made them up out of whole cloth.
I appreciate the insight. Yet that word does not seem to be used as a symbol in the Genesis verses regarding the 2nd and 3d days -- at least not below the firmament. Once we start down the road of saying "this word doesn't really mean what it seems to mean," we find ourselves interpreting Genesis as metaphor, and then the principle argument of the literalist school for special creation vanishes -- as I suppose it must, given the overwhelming evidence for evolution.
New Year's hugs!
I did not say this definition originated with you. I said you adopted it for yourself. The definition you just posted seems to be a slightly expanded version. Whatever. It's still "evolution lite" to me, and will never adequately account for either the origin of species or the origin of matter.
"I haven't literally observed the Earth orbiting the sun. . . .
For as many things as you have not literally observed you certainly have a great deal of faith.
"So let's pretend: Evolution has been discarded, abiogenesis has been falsified, and everyone knows it. Now present and support your designer theory."
Pretending belongs to those who accept evolution as proven fact and have the temerity to push it upon those who may have equal or better notions. I will not pretend that creation has been proven. It has not, nor do I expect it to be in the near future. As for "Designer Theory," that's not mine to present and support. It speaks for itself, and very logically so.
"Also, when should I expect your description of gravity?"
As soon as you provide your description of light, electricity, and time.
Thank God that God gets wiser as He gets older. One would think that a being smart enough to create the universe would have included the correct operating instructions with the first delivery.
Brings to mind the saying about theories so bad they aren't even wrong.
Ah; you MUST be a graduate of the Gore3000 School of Mathematics & Wildly Elliptical Planetary Orbits.
The Word is intentionally conveyed such that people will have different interpretations, as follows:
I cannot assure you that mine is the only correct interpretation of the water passages, only that it sits well with my spirit. And I don't mind having a moderately different view, because if Jesus had wanted us all to be the same - there would have been twelve Peters or Johns or Pauls. Instead, the twelve disciples had their own perspectives and thus were not always in agreement.
If that were the case, modern mathematics would not work. Many if not most formal proofs involve cases being eliminated by showing that they logically imply things which are known to be untrue, and all such steps amount to proving negatives.
Considering that I overlooked 1^40 entirely, I hardly think grammar is my most pressing problem... heheh...
(Thanks!)
Such proofs merely demonstrate that the original proposition can be contradicted. Not quite the same thing as proving that there's no tooth fairy.
How's the view of Saturn from Titan?
The disclaimer under consideration says the theory of evolution "still leaves many unanswered questions about the origin of life.
"Study hard and keep an open mind," it says. "Someday you may contribute to the theories of how living things appeared on earth."
Backers say the addition would be inserted in the front of biology textbooks used by students in grades 9-12, possibly next fall.
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