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."
Ah yes, another incarnation I laughed myself silly over.
It can't be very difficult for someone who has surveyed all Nobel Prize winning work and has declared that it all disproves evolution. An intellect of such sweeping power should be able to give us his answer. HOW OLD IS THE EARTH?.
I think that is a decent way to put it, although there are some minor differences WRT language. If we could start with "undirected" or "directed" as the two possibilities for existence as we know it we might be able to reason through some things coherently.
What concerns me, however, is that we may be missing some other logical possibility. True enough, one could say existence involves a combination of both directed and undirected phenomena, but as soon one mixes the two, in my opinion, its like donh brought up about being "almost pregnant." A better way to to say it: "a little bit pregnant." That's why I said to a fellow poster a little while back, the distinction between religion and science is is a good thing. But it must be, and can be, applied only to a certain extent.
I sense we will be able to reason through this together and be in agreement through several steps, and then part ways when the leap of faith must be made that a Personal Director is behind the scenes, whether involved or not.
If I am allowed in this the forum to do so, and if we can maintain cool heads, I think I can present a fairly reasonable argument - not PROOF! - that a Personal Director not only brought current existence into being, but is also constantly, actively involved with it.
If one wishes to go further into WHO that Personal Director is, then I must join with the evolutionists in saying it need not, indeed SHOULD not be addressed in the classroom. That's when the line has been crossed into an improper admixture of science and religion.
Are you with me?
We are all praying that f.Christian receives the best of care. But I wish they'd cut down on his "internet therapy" time, as it doesn't seem to be working very well for him.
I asked you a simple question: are you willing to put your health and that of your family's into "God's hands" or do you use ANY part of modern biology for your own good? You are a phony if you won't answer that question...changing the subject does not help your "argument"
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