'Intelligent design' theory threatens science classrooms

Seattle Post Intelligencer ^ | 11/22/2002 | ALAN I. LESHNER

[Aric2000]

In Cobb County, Ga., controversy erupted this spring when school board officials decided to affix "disclaimer stickers" to science textbooks, alerting students that "evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things."

The stickers were the Cobb County District School Board's response to intelligent design theory, which holds that the complexity of DNA and the diversity of life forms on our planet and beyond can be explained only by an extra-natural intelligent agent. The ID movement -- reminiscent of creationism but more nuanced and harder to label -- has been quietly gaining momentum in a number of states for several years, especially Georgia and Ohio.

Stickers on textbooks are only the latest evidence of the ID movement's successes to date, though Cobb County officials did soften their position somewhat in September following a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. In a subsequent policy statement, officials said the biological theory of evolution is a "disputed view" that must be "balanced" in the classroom, taking into account other, religious teachings.

Surely, few would begrudge ID advocates their views or the right to discuss the concept as part of religious studies. At issue, rather, is whether ID theory, so far unproven by scientific facts, should be served to students on the same platter with the well-supported theory of evolution.

How the Cobb County episode will affect science students remains uncertain since, as the National Center for Science Education noted, the amended policy statement included "mixed signals."

But it's clear that the ID movement is quickly emerging as one of the more significant threats to U.S. science education, fueled by a sophisticated marketing campaign based on a three-pronged penetration of the scientific community, educators and the general public.

In Ohio, the state's education board on Oct. 14 passed a unanimous though preliminary vote to keep ID theory out of the state's science classrooms. But the board's ruling left the door open for local school districts to present ID theory together with science and suggested that scientists should "continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory."

In fact, even while the state-level debate continued, the Patrick Henry Local School District, based in Columbus, passed a motion this June to support "the idea of intelligent design being included as appropriate in classroom discussions in addition to other scientific theories."

Undaunted by tens of thousands of e-mails it has already received on the topic, the state's education board is now gamely inviting further public comment through November. In December, Ohio's Board of Education will vote to conclusively determine whether alternatives to evolution should be included in new guidelines that spell out what students need to know about science at different grade levels.

Meanwhile, ID theorists reportedly have been active in Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico, New Jersey and other states as well as Ohio and Georgia.

What do scientists think of all this? We have great problems with the claim that ID is a scientific theory or a science-based alternative to evolutionary theory. We don't question its religious or philosophical underpinnings. That's not our business. But there is no scientific evidence underlying ID theory.

No relevant research has been done; no papers have been published in scientific journals. Because it has no science base, we believe that ID theory should be excluded from science curricula in schools.

In fact, the Board of Directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest general scientific society in the world, passed a resolution this month urging policy-makers to keep intelligent design theory out of U.S. science classrooms.

Noting that the United States has promised to "leave no child behind," the AAAS Board found that intelligent design theory -- if presented within science courses as factually based -- is likely to confuse American schoolchildren and undermine the integrity of U.S. science education. At a time when standards-based learning and performance assessments are paramount, children would be better served by keeping scientific information separate from religious concepts.

Certainly, American society supports and encourages a broad range of viewpoints and the scientific community is no exception. While this diversity enriches the educational experience for students, science and conceptual belief systems should not be co-mingled, as ID proponents have repeatedly proposed.

The ID argument that random mutations in nature and natural selection, for example, are too complex for scientific explanation is an interesting -- and for some, highly compelling -- philosophical or theological concept. Unfortunately, it's being put forth as a scientifically based alternative to the theory of biological evolution, and it isn't based on science. In sum, there's no data to back it up, and no way of scientifically testing the validity of the ideas proposed by ID advocates.

The quality of U.S. science education is at stake here. We live in an era when science and technology are central to every issue facing our society -- individual and national security, health care, economic prosperity, employment opportunities.

Children who lack an appropriate grounding in science and mathematics, and who can't discriminate what is and isn't evidence, are doomed to lag behind their well-educated counterparts. America's science classrooms are certainly no place to mix church and state.

Alan I. Leshner is CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and executive publisher of the journal Science; www.aaas.org

[goodseedhomeschool]

Thank you radio. :)

[bondserv]

One of the other cool things is that he doesn't copyright his materials.

Imagine that in this day and age. I can hand you a set that I copy on my VCR for the price of 2 blank tapes.

I get two 8-hour tapes and record in SLP, the whole seminar on two tapes. The quality is slightly degraded, but it is more convenient than 8 or 10 separate tapes and all 15 hours of info is there.

His seminar is also free online. That in itself tells you a little about his motivation. Oh yeah he doesn't charge the churches he goes to for the seminar either. (Maybe travel expense, I forget)?

[Aric2000]

That's OK, just thought that I would toss you a little reminder.

Christianity is an important thing to you, and I understand and appreciate that, but there are many of us that homeschool because we feel that the public schools are the WORST place for our children.

We both homeschool, but for some very different reasons, and for some of the same reasons.

Your childrens education is VERY important to you, and you have taken PERSONAL responsibility for it, we may not agree on our religious beliefs, but I respect you for taking on that responsibility. I know how hard it is, and know how hard it is for you.

Your bubble is important, but I think that we could both learn from each other, even if we don't agree on this particular subject. :)

So yes, getting out of the bubble every once in a while is a good thing...;)

[goodseedhomeschool]

I agree, this is nicer. We need to not call each other names just because we don't see eye to eye. I think we will all go much further when we can honestly state what we think and give each other validity.

[goodseedhomeschool]

I mentioned that to Mr. Looy in our conversation too. I brought up the fact that the $100.00 set I had purchased form AIG was only viewed once by me and Dr. Hovind's was viewed to the point that I wore it out making copies and bought another set and it is now nearly wore out too. He said, "you can make copies of our materials". I said, "Yes If you go through a dozen channels to get permission and even then it's iffy". He said nothing more on that topic.

[goodseedhomeschool]

I'm glad I got to meet you. I started homeschooling because of the awful school system, the other things were a pert to be sure. You should see how bad the Georgia public schools are. My county is last on the list in testing. It is awful. I am proud of my son Cody though. He aced the tests (Standardized) this year with an over 80% overall. Happy mom here. It's worth it.

[Stultis]

To reprieve, I linked Timmy to a couple descriptions, the second and more detailed one with ample references to the original literature, demonstrating the matching of complex banding patterns on one human chromosome with those on two separate ape chromosomes:

A Translocation Between Man and Chimpanzee Chromosomes

and...

http://www.gate.net/~rwms/EvoEvidence.html (Click on "Comparison of the Human and Great Ape Chromosomes as Evidence for Common Ancestry" in the second paragraph of the introduction.)

The second link went far beyond the correspondence in the banding patterns. It provided two lines of detailed and specific evidence that a fusion event had indeed occured along the length of the single human chromosome. What's more this evidence places the fusion exactly where it needs to be in order to create the homology between the two ape and one human chromosomes.

But the best response Timmy can manage is:

I could just as easily point out that people and dogs each have two eyes, two ears, one mouth, and one nose. Hence, common ancestry.

By a very liberal stretch, this might be considered analogous to the complex patterns of alternating light and dark chromosome bands of varying length, formed by the complex architecture of the tightly packed DNA and nuclear proteins. But it certainly is absurd as an anology to the "the remnants of a telomere and centromere (that should never have existed) [being] found at exactly the positions predicted by a naturalistic fusion of the chimp ancestor chromosomes 2p and 2q".

But read the links and judge for yourselves.

[Aric2000]

Good for you, and GREAT for Cody, that's wonderful.

My 7 year old is doing awfully well too, the state requires that we test her, but they don't want the results, I wonder why? ;)

Seriously, they require that we test her every 2 years, but they do NOT require us to give them the results of that test. I like it, because it gives us a result we can guage our success on, but the state stays out of it.

Again, I wonder why that is? ;)

[bondserv]

I haven't frequented AIG's site very often.

I do very much enjoy:
Chuck Missler

Jon Courson

Lambert Dolphin

Glenn Miller

[goodseedhomeschool]

Here it's every three years and we do not have to submit the results either. I have often wondered why myself. We test every year just because I like to make sure we are covering all "their" material. He is almost 14, going into grade 10 next year. He likes to test, is that wierd, lol? He loves any challenge you can give him and I try to all the time. Now he wants to be in the oplympics. He called them today. The kid is the energizer bunny I kid you not. He made black belt this year, is on a baseball league and now this. I'm getting worn out. My free time is at night, so I come here, lol.

[jennyp]

We are called to be known for the love we have for one another, and disputes can be handled within the church by Godly men who apply the scripture with discernment.

What was your take on the pedophile priests scandals, then? Should the State be involved with them, or leave it to the Church to handle it internally? (I know this is off topic, but I'm curious.)

[goodseedhomeschool]

Those are good sites. I go to these often:

http://evolution-facts.org/default.htm
http://www.creationists.org/
http://christiananswers.net
and of course icr, drdino and others. Have you ever seen the firefightersforchrist site? They are a free tape ministry.

[RadioAstronomer]

Thank you radio. :)

You are most welcome. :-)

[Sentis]

Doesnt change the fact that ID isn't science.

[RadioAstronomer]

Doesnt change the fact that ID isn't science.

ALS: This account has been banned or suspended.

[Aric2000]

LOL, that sounds like one very energized kid alright.

The reason that they do not want the results, is because they do NOT want to compare them to the publicly educated children, they are embarassed enough by the spelling bees, geography bees etc, can you imagine if they actually had the results from the tests to compare them to?

Whoa, not good thing!!!

The whole thing could come tumbling down around their heads.

I had a heck of a time getting Morgan (my 7 year old) into her bath tonight(she loves taking a bath), she was reading where the sidewalk ends by Shel Silverstein on my bed in our room, (where my computer and office are) and she kept giggling and reading me the poems. It finally got to be 8:15 and I told her that she either had to put the book down or forget about taking a bath. It took her a minute or so to make up her mind, she decided on a bath..LOL

She LOVES to read, her friend, same age, less then 1 week apart, does NOT read, SHE HATES it, and it drove Morgan Crazy, because sometimes Morgan doesn't want to play, she wants to sit quietly and read. Her friend really hated that. We finally agreed that her friend could ONLY come over for 2 hours at a time.

My wife and I are HUGE readers, I have an 8'X10' bookshelf stuffed with books 3 deep, so needless to say, Morgan comes by it naturally. I also have another 10 boxes unopened from our last move, I need a new house with a library.... LOL

That's the thing about homeschooling though, children LOVE challenges, and as parents, we want them challenged, we want them interested, we teach them to the level that they are capable of, and they THRIVE!! The public schools not only DON'T want to do this, they can't.

Our kids have a HUGE advantage over publicly schooled children, but it is fun to watch them overtake their agemates.

[bondserv]

I think that crimes are clearly another matter altogether. The leadership should have quarantined these priest's at the first complaint, and done an investigation immediately.

There are many fradulant claims to insurance companies, but they are forced to deal with them.

If fraudulant claims begin to hinder the administration of the church, safeguards can be required to eliminate most instances of priest to child interaction across the board.

A priest doesn't need to be alone with children at any time.

This coming from a former catholic alter boy who came to know Jesus because a priest took the time to tell me and a few other alter boys about the security in Jesus.

It is sad what the enemy of God will do through temptation of people.

Jesus said for those who hurt a child it would be better for them to have a millstone tied around their neck and be tossed into the sea, than face Gods wrath for that crime.

Although I am no longer a Catholic, I do know a few confused catholic friends who believe in Jesus. Release Mary so she can enjoy her savior too. HeHeHe

Step outside the Bible and the ice gets very thin.

[bondserv]

Ooops, I altered the altar.
alter = altar

[Aric2000]

We ALL seem to be off topic this evening, but ain't it fun? ;)

[Aric2000]

900?