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New legal threat to teaching evolution in the US
New Scientist ^ | 7/9/2008 | Amanda Gefter

Posted on 07/11/2008 4:06:06 AM PDT by Soliton

Louisiana is another story. A hub of creationist activism since the early 1980s, it was Louisiana that enacted the Balanced Treatment Act, which required that creationism be taught alongside evolution in schools. In a landmark 1987 case known as Edwards vs Aguillard, the US Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional, effectively closing the door on teaching "creation science" in public schools. ID was invented soon afterwards as a way of proffering creationist concepts without specific reference to God.

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: Religion; Science
KEYWORDS: crevo; education; evolution
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Reminds me of physics - Newtonian, Relativity, now they are delving deeper into the “Theory of Everything”.

They keep discovering more all the time, more elegant and cohesive theories.

However, understanding the little that is possible to understand of the nature of God, I can tell you one thing -

we’ll never have “proof positive” of His existance (or non-existance),

because any such proof would be negating the gift of Free Will to choose to follow Him or not. And He has not done that in His Creation.

You actually have to make the choice. Some choose the negative and find all the evidence they want to find to support that, and some choose the positive and also find all the evidence they need for that.

The choice comes first, evidence is discovered after that. That’s the nature of the “faith game.”


121 posted on 07/11/2008 1:43:57 PM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: M203M4

You’re right - if people were free to choose the education of their children, the best, most successful, and closest to the objective truth education

would win out.

That’s why the left has to control the curriculum and what is taught, because their ideology would lose, big time, in the test of what is successful.


122 posted on 07/11/2008 1:46:09 PM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Darwinism will fade away and scientific freedom will be the reason. It's already happening and you are powerless to stop it.

Every day another boulder of fact is added to the evidence mountain supporting the theory of evolution through natural selection. You're lucky, you benefit form science even while you vilify it.

123 posted on 07/11/2008 2:39:45 PM PDT by Soliton (Investigate, study, learn, then express an opinion)
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To: muawiyah
The day the first artificial organism is created you have your testable hypothesis. That will most likely be later this year.

It won't change anything. The lying IDists will just say it proves intelligent design. In fact, EVERY experiment proves intelligent design because there is an experimenter.

124 posted on 07/11/2008 2:42:19 PM PDT by Soliton (Investigate, study, learn, then express an opinion)
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To: vpintheak
Evolution is religion.

This is ignorant foolishness. Evolution was born as a way to explain observed phenomena. It has been tested. It's predictions have occurred. Today, evolution is the bedrock of biology. Even the Catholic Church accepts it.

125 posted on 07/11/2008 2:45:42 PM PDT by Soliton (Investigate, study, learn, then express an opinion)
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To: Soliton

Reason number_ why I am not a Catholic I guess, although every single Catholic I have met and have been friends with don’t believe that.
Ignorant foolishness is disregarding anything other than your Godless faith in how things came to be.
I have lost my faith, gained it back, questioned it, and grew stronger in it and because of it. Have you ever questioned evolution or darwinism?


126 posted on 07/11/2008 2:50:36 PM PDT by vpintheak (Like a muddied spring or a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked. Prov. 25:26)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
One of the shibboleths of evolution was put to the sword recently and no one has noticed. Seems that nearly all mammals have about 25000 genes (not millions of them) and that there's a 1:1 correspondence ~ all mammals have just about the same genes.

There are, of course, "differences", but not the huge differences once imagined.

Further, genes don't actually disappear ~ they turn on, or they turn off, or parts turn on, or turn off. We also rarely get a truly new gene (speaking for mammals).

Although Darwin and his contemporaries had not found DNA nor the genetic code, they had an idea about "characteristics" and they spoke of acquiring them, or losing them. Even as recently as the 1980s there were still scientists speaking of a species not being able to reacquire a "trait" that had been lost (since they envisioned the trait being mediated by a type of gene which would necessarily have been lost).

They don't (or shouldn't) do that any more.

So, how is it that human beings are actually different from mice?

127 posted on 07/11/2008 2:53:47 PM PDT by muawiyah (We need a "Gastank For America" to win back Congress)
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To: Soliton
How ridiculous. The guy behind the research and development program to create an artificial "life form" says he wants to start scooping up the billions of different genes found floating in the oceans and "see what they do".

You can, of course, take his statement as suggesting those genes are "designed" by someone for some purpose ~ maybe intergalactic cruisers.

Once he starts plugging them in and creating space ships, gigantic, evergrowing Virginia hams, city scale replicators and infinite recyclers no one is going to particularly care about the "theory of evolution".

Think about it, how is it that with over 100,000,000 years of evolutionary history the mammalian line of animals have about 25,000 genes per species.

128 posted on 07/11/2008 3:00:15 PM PDT by muawiyah (We need a "Gastank For America" to win back Congress)
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To: Soliton

Eolution does not make predictions. So, I guess that would give it a 100% record of success in that matter. Make no prdictions; make no mistakes in predicting.


129 posted on 07/11/2008 3:03:31 PM PDT by muawiyah (We need a "Gastank For America" to win back Congress)
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To: vpintheak
Have you ever questioned evolution or darwinism?

I am the son of a deacon/ Sunday school superintendent. I attended morning services on Sunday, Training Union on Sunday night, prayer meetings on Wednesdays. I was a Baptist boy scout (Royal Ambassador), attended Baptist summer camp and Vacation Bible School. I have read the Bible cover to cover several times, the primary protestant concordances and commentaries. I am a self-taught Bible scholar with a Biblical library to prove it.

I am convinced based on the scientific evidence that evolution is fact.

130 posted on 07/11/2008 3:07:21 PM PDT by Soliton (Investigate, study, learn, then express an opinion)
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To: muawiyah
Eolution(sic) does not make predictions

Darwinism predicted that there must be a biological mechanism for passing on traits from one generation to another. Genetics proved him right. Evolution science makes many predictions and they have been overwhelmingly confirmed

131 posted on 07/11/2008 3:10:01 PM PDT by Soliton (Investigate, study, learn, then express an opinion)
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To: Soliton; Tailgunner Joe
"Every day another boulder of fact is added to the evidence mountain supporting the theory of evolution through natural selection. You're lucky, you benefit form science even while you vilify it."
And every time they add another boulder, the little rubber dingy that they built their mountain on sits a little lower in the water.
132 posted on 07/11/2008 3:13:00 PM PDT by Fichori (Primitive goat herder, Among those who kneel before a man; Standing.)
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To: Soliton

You me and Pope Benedict XVI.


133 posted on 07/11/2008 3:14:49 PM PDT by allmendream (shamelessly stealing clever FReeper lines without attribution!)
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To: Fichori

Proclaim your ignorance with little cutesy remarks but don’t pray when you get sick; go to the doctor.


134 posted on 07/11/2008 3:15:03 PM PDT by Soliton (Investigate, study, learn, then express an opinion)
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To: Soliton; vpintheak
Evolution is religion.
This is ignorant foolishness. Evolution was born as a way to explain observed phenomena. It has been tested. It's predictions have occurred. Today, evolution is the bedrock of biology. Even the Catholic Church accepts it.
Leading anti-creationist philosopher admits that evolution is a religion
135 posted on 07/11/2008 3:15:30 PM PDT by Fichori (Primitive goat herder, Among those who kneel before a man; Standing.)
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To: Soliton
Start naming them ~ predictions that is. (Ignore the spelling or I'll bean you with this brand new Apple low profile keyboard ~ prediction ~ they'll make a lot of one time sales with this bad boy - eolutionary dead end fur shur)
136 posted on 07/11/2008 3:20:48 PM PDT by muawiyah (We need a "Gastank For America" to win back Congress)
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To: allmendream
You me and Pope Benedict XVI.

Hitler youth all :)

137 posted on 07/11/2008 3:23:58 PM PDT by Soliton (Investigate, study, learn, then express an opinion)
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To: muawiyah
Any ERV found in both humans and gorillas will also be found in chimpanzees.

A population of bacteria subjected to heat stress will accumulate mutations that enable it to better survive at high temperatures.

A population subjected to low dose antibiotics will evolve resistance to that antibiotic.

A population of e.coli allowed to evolve on citrate containing media can eventually evolve the ability to digest citrate.

138 posted on 07/11/2008 3:26:16 PM PDT by allmendream (shamelessly stealing clever FReeper lines without attribution!)
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To: muawiyah
"Evolution has been the basis of many predictions. For example:

Darwin predicted, based on homologies with African apes, that human ancestors arose in Africa. That prediction has been supported by fossil and genetic evidence (Ingman et al. 2000).

Theory predicted that organisms in heterogeneous and rapidly changing environments should have higher mutation rates. This has been found in the case of bacteria infecting the lungs of chronic cystic fibrosis patients (Oliver et al. 2000).

Predator-prey dynamics are altered in predictable ways by evolution of the prey (Yoshida et al. 2003).

Ernst Mayr predicted in 1954 that speciation should be accompanied with faster genetic evolution. A phylogenetic analysis has supported this prediction (Webster et al. 2003).

Several authors predicted characteristics of the ancestor of craniates. On the basis of a detailed study, they found the fossil Haikouella "fit these predictions closely" (Mallatt and Chen 2003).

Evolution predicts that different sets of character data should still give the same phylogenetic trees. This has been confirmed informally myriad times and quantitatively, with different protein sequences, by Penny et al. (1982).

Insect wings evolved from gills, with an intermediate stage of skimming on the water surface. Since the primitive surface-skimming condition is widespread among stoneflies, J. H. Marden predicted that stoneflies would likely retain other primitive traits, too. This prediction led to the discovery in stoneflies of functional hemocyanin, used for oxygen transport in other arthropods but never before found in insects (Hagner-Holler et al. 2004; Marden 2005)".

139 posted on 07/11/2008 3:34:18 PM PDT by Soliton (Investigate, study, learn, then express an opinion)
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To: Soliton

Those are “discoveries” after the fact. Now, give us a prediction about the next 10 genetic changes that will take place in human beings.<Predicting that discoveries will be made is not to predict the discoveries themselves!


140 posted on 07/11/2008 3:37:54 PM PDT by muawiyah (We need a "Gastank For America" to win back Congress)
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