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."
Heheh, well understood by whom? That level of calculation is beyond my expertise, and, I suspect, beyond yours as well. However, if you are interested, you might like to examine Big Bang Chronology.
Balrog666: Hey, that only works because the Goddess has enough tiny, invisible, assistants to manipulate all of those subatomic particles each and ever time they gather to worship Her through their eternal dance.
My favorite "creationist logic" example from who-knows-where:
You're looking at a beach. Off to your left, footprints come from around the bend down to a concrete boatramp before you. More prints lead away from the boatramp and out of sight around the bend to your right.Conventional science says someone earlier walked in the sand from your left, crossed the boat ramp, and continued down the beach. Creationism says that up the beach to your right, God created a man who walked down the beach to the boat ramp. At that point he disappears from history. On the other edge of the boat ramp, God created another man ...
That's probably because you haven't thought about it.
What does the endowing?
Our self evident, conscious free will, -- our ablity to reason.
Incidently, that was a bold, thoughtless, comment.
Do you believe that all came into existence by chance? If so, do you believe that "matter" is all there is? Are you a materialist?
As Ted said, his views are reaching "critical mass." Soon everyone posting on FreeRepublic will be Ted clones. Something like the Borg, I guess. (Side issue: I wonder if his clones send freepmai to each other.)
You know, I don't read nearly as much history as I should, and that is why I tend to distrust bald statements from fellows who claim to know it well.
One small source I found on the subject reads as follows: "Although the Inquisition was created to combat the heretical Cathari and Waldenses, the Inquisition later extended it's activity to include witches, diviners, blasphemers, and other sacrilegious persons."
It appears to have been both a spiritual and intellectual abberation that grew out of the Catholic church, but I would hardly count this as indicative of religious people as a whole. Do you really think everyone who adheres to a creationist viewpoint is against scientific study or completely incapable of the same? If so, you would have to reject both Newton and Galileo as scientists, that latter of whom suffered under the Roman Inquisition.
"Did you imagine that you made a rebuttal to my post at #2457? - Or perhaps you just concede.
This remark does not exactly advance your cause in establishing evolution as the supremely reigning worldview among men. No. But it exacerbates a discussion that is otherwise worth conducting in a civil way.
Rights are not inherent. They are endowed, and you are correct that they can be rescinded. Fortunately, it is not the state but God that does the endowing.
Rights, of course, are violated every day -- just as the 10 Commandments are broken every day. But this means is that those who oppress are in rebellion against God. They act so without authority and will one day have to account for it before an angry God.
Because rights are God-given is why we can say that oppression is evil.
let me guess...space/glop spores!
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