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."
From the definition of objective (measurable) given before, it is a TRUE conclusion. You may not agree with it, but you proferred no other definition, therefore, following from the definition I proferred, and your claim that human worth was immeasurable, the only conclusion is that human worth is not objective and is therefore subjective. Empiricism be damned. That is logic. Period. End of story. A premise was given and a conclusion drawn through deductive reasoning. You have not shown the premise to be flawed. You have not shown the logic to be flawed. You rant against "empiricism" but that is all it is -- a rant. The conclusion stands.
I see your method of argumentation is similar to tpaine's - ad hominems galore. That's to your detriment. Powers of analogy - that is really a euphemism for "wild guess" isn't it, because there is no reason to reach that conclusion. The conclusion DOES NOT FOLLOW FROM THE PREMISE. Period. No amount of insults will change that fact jack.
If the question before the house is "What should my 5th grader be taught on the public dime?", and you've decided to teach science, then rigorous pedagogy must apply.
Science does not include any and all half-baked notions floating around in the science community. There are a virtually infinite supply of such, and if you are going to give special consideration to ID, then you ought to stand ready to accept the ontological fancies of the Berkeleyites, the Baalites, the flat-earthers, the wiccans and the devil worshippers when they want your kids to learn their special notions as well.
I'd pass on that smorgusbord, myself. If you are going to describe science to children, it ought to be what most currently active scientists think is science.
Your reasoning is faulty. Empirical presuppositions are at the heart of your conclusion - you PRESUPPOSE that if you can't measure something it can't be real or can't have value. Problem is - that's a leap of faith on your part as your method is assumed by faith. Therefore, your conclusions fall along with your unsupported presuppositions.
Furthermore, you only half answer my posts. You have nothing to say about the practical consequences of your thinking.
I think you totally misunderstood my response, but adding derogatory hyperbole to the mix doesn't help, now does it?
An ad hominem is an irrelevant insult. This is a relevant insult. You have a poor education regarding when logic is relevant to an argument. I recommend a little research before you pop off again on a subject you know little about.
That's to your detriment. Powers of analogy - that is really a euphemism for "wild guess" isn't it,
No, it's a euphemism for "guess". The entire function of the modern paraphenalia of journals, referees, microscopes, telescopes and critical experimental scruteny is the make the guesses less wild.
because there is no reason to reach that conclusion.
Sure there is, it's just not an iron-clad guarantee.
The conclusion DOES NOT FOLLOW FROM THE PREMISE. Period. No amount of insults will change that fact jack.
You need to find an academic text of the scope and limits of logic, jack. Jefferies is a good one.
I could never come up with such a lame argument.
That's one black mark for you! haha.
...change that fact jack.
And now you're up in arms because I said you were half-educated about logic? (Which, unlike your orotorical excesses, is demonstratably true from context.)
Pretty touchy for a marine, ain't ya?
There are in infinite number of possible answers to the origins question.
‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.’ (Matthew 11:29&30)
"To those who are wearied by hard and unrewarding usage, Jesus offers relief. Yet we see that it is not rest in the form of complete cessation of obligation. Jesus rest from the yoke that galls lies in acceptance of another yoke of service-his. There is a rest for tired spirits, that can only be had along the road of service. Jesus teaches that that there can be no succor for the toils of despairing effort, apart from effort of another kind-effort springing out of a new and different relationship."
"Jesus rest does not liberate us from a sense of the seriousness of sin. Rather, we are taught by him that sin is more virulent, and dangerous than we had ever dreamt. He takes us on a... tour(link)---through the neighborhood of our own soul, and there discloses vast tracts of evil we had not thought were there."
"Instead of a...cheap escapism---Jesus delivers us from the discouragement of bad religion, and other poor moral guardians, by asking us to come with him and bear the load that love laid on his back. The paradox of Jesus is that love is always heavy-laden. Yet it is precisely this willingness to bear, that makes the yoke of Christ light."
"If we are not yoked with Jesus, we shall have to wear the yoke of other value systems which may appear to ask little of us, but which in fact leave us guilty, remorseful, drained of hope, and joy."
‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.’ (Luke 20:17)
"The most familiar, and the best-loved images of Jesus, are those that picture to us, his gentle, compassionate spirit. "Whoever comes to me, I will in no wise cast out"; "Come to me, all you who are weary"; "Let the little children come to me."
"But there are other images of Jesus in the Gospels, which show another aspect of his personality. They emphasize the steel in him. Sometimes Jesus was awesome; formidable."
"In the parable, Jesus presents himself as the landlord's Son; the rejected stone, that eventually becomes the most important stone in the superstructure of the kingdom of God. Jesus plainly thought that those who opposed him were in collision with God. He was warning nation's leaders: "It is unwise and unsafe to be against me." Tough talk from Jesus! He was signaling what was taken up by Peter at Pentecost, where, full of resurrection joy and authority, he preached saying: "This Jesus, you put him to death. . . . but God raised him from the dead. God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:31-36).
"In the parable of the wicked tenants, Jesus teaches that those who discard him, will not thereby have gotten rid of him. Jesus was not, and is not now, a passing phenomenon. So truly does Jesus represent reality; so deeply entrenched in the ultimate truth of existence, is his life and teaching, that He, and not his opponents, will prevail. If the universe is a moral place (and Christ himself is the most convincing evidence that it is), then his prediction that he would triumph, even over those who killed him, must come true. Therefore let us treasure the august aspects of his personality, as much as his gentle features, for they signal a world order in which 'goodness', as Jesus taught it, will... reign---unopposed. The stone that was rejected, will become the capstone."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.