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Antievolutionists asked to review draft standards in Texas
The National Center for Science Education ^ | October 16, 2008

Posted on 10/17/2008 7:59:18 AM PDT by Soliton

Three antievolutionists have been appointed to a six-member committee to review the draft set of Texas state science standards, and defenders of the integrity of science education in the Lone Star state are livid. "The committee was chosen by 12 of the 15 members of the board of education, with each panel member receiving the support of two board members," as the Dallas Morning News (October 16, 2008) explains. Six members of the board "aligned with social conservative groups" chose Stephen C. Meyer, the director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, Ralph Seelke, a biology professor at the University of Wiconsin, Superior, and Charles Garner, a chemistry professor at Baylor University.

Meyer, Seelke, and Garner are all signatories of the Discovery Institute-sponsored "Dissent from Darwinism" statement. Meyer and Seelke are also coauthors of Explore Evolution: The Arguments For and Against Neo-Darwinism (Hill House, 2008), which, like Of Pandas and People, is a supplementary textbook that is intended to instill scientifically unwarranted doubts about evolution. A recent review by biologist John Timmer summarized, "But the book doesn't only promote stupidity, it demands it. In every way except its use of the actual term, this is a creationist book." Garner reportedly told the Houston Press (December 14, 2000) that he "criticizes evolutionary theory in class."

Meyer and Seelke also testified in the 2005 "kangaroo court" hearings held by three antievolutionist members of the Kansas state board of education, in which a parade of antievolutionist witnesses expressed their support for the so-called minority report version of the state science standards (written with the aid of a local "intelligent design" organization), complained of repression by a dogmatic evolutionary establishment, and claimed to have detected atheism lurking "between the lines" of the standards..

(Excerpt) Read more at ncseweb.org ...


TOPICS: Education; Religion; Science
KEYWORDS: creationism; evolution; id; scientism
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To: allmendream
The replays showed that even when he looked at trillions of cells, only the original population re-evolved Cit+

So the results could NOT be reproduced by anyone else or even by using any other cell population.

Nice foot shot.

461 posted on 10/19/2008 6:46:49 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: tpanther
Eventually liberals trip themselves up.

Big time. Attack Palin, defend Obama, promote Global Warming mythology...

462 posted on 10/19/2008 6:48:30 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: Coyoteman; tpanther
If the theory of evolution can readily be modified to include new data why would you think it should be falsified instead?

Interesting.

So any new data will never falsify the ToE. The ToE will just be adjusted/modified/whatever to incorporate the new data.

So is *modifying* the ToE much different than having the old theory be falsified and a new one being presented with the new data incorporated and nobody is just saying so in so many words?

463 posted on 10/19/2008 6:51:01 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: tpanther
"If the theory of evolution can readily be modified to include new data why would you think it should be falsified instead?

Doesn't the theory, with modifications, more accurately describe and organize the data? And isn't this the goal of science?"

Sure, but what you seem to continually misunderstand is none of this actually happens...because people just like you ensure it can never honestly be examined scientifically because each and every time someone challenges evolution, you evo cultists begin screaming: "Inquisition", "dark ages", "burning at the stake", or your "Oh no, we're doomed to become a Theology" nonsense.

That is because the challenges you are thinking of rely on religious belief rather than scientific evidence; they are made on creationist websites and in creationist books rather than in scientific journals.

If creationists actually had scientific evidence I am sure it would be submitted to the journals for peer review. And I'm sure it would be accepted.

That creationists do not submit to the peer reviewed journals speaks to the nature of their evidence. That creationists are seeking to have the rules of science changed to allow belief and revelation to be included speaks very loudly to the nature of their evidence.

464 posted on 10/19/2008 6:51:06 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: tpanther

Was that a “yes” or a “no”?


465 posted on 10/19/2008 6:53:47 PM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Mojave
The entire experiment took twelve years and the results were just now released, this year.

You expect someone to replicate an entire twelve year experiment from the beginning in a couple months?

What an idiotic statement.

Despite your idea of what replicating the experiment meant, Dr. Lenski can recreate citrate plus e.coli from non citrate plus e.coli by thawing one of his twelve lines after generation 21,000.

How do you suppose it happens?

I think we have all seen your inability to deal with the data. Now accusing people of fraud and unreplicable results just makes you look petty petulant and foolish.

466 posted on 10/19/2008 6:54:49 PM PDT by allmendream (White Dog Democrat: A Democrat who will not vote for 0bama because he's black.)
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To: Elsie
Indeed. While a “cdesign proponentist” would think we should start ‘the Church of the Holy Petri Dish’ to commemorate this “miracle” of evolution. It is obvious that God was there all the time. Nothing needed to be changed, God set it all in motion long ago and we need just pray for HIS guidance as the universe unfolds as HE wills it. No direct intervention of the “designer” was needed to somehow correct or change what was going on in the Petri dish. The “designer” didn't visit the Petri dish, God was there all the time.

“HE was there all the time”

467 posted on 10/19/2008 7:01:38 PM PDT by allmendream (White Dog Democrat: A Democrat who will not vote for 0bama because he's black.)
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To: Coyoteman
Doesn't the theory, with modifications

Ah, multiple Theories of Evolution.

Why do its true believers never refer to it as "the Theories of Evolution" or even as "the latest Theory of Evolution"?

How about a little truth in advertising?

468 posted on 10/19/2008 7:01:42 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: allmendream
The entire experiment took twelve years and the results were just now released, this year.

Alexis Carrel's "pure strain" in vitro experiment was over fifty years old when it was refuted by Hayflick.

469 posted on 10/19/2008 7:06:13 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: Mojave
Your inability to deal with the data is comical.
470 posted on 10/19/2008 7:07:46 PM PDT by allmendream (White Dog Democrat: A Democrat who will not vote for 0bama because he's black.)
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To: Mojave
Ah, multiple Theories of Evolution.

Why do its true believers never refer to it as "the Theories of Evolution" or even as "the latest Theory of Evolution"?

It is assumed that the audience knows what a theory is. I see that was an overestimation.

Here are some definitions (from a long list of definitions on my FR home page):

Theory: a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena; theories can incorporate facts and laws and tested hypotheses. Theories do not grow up to be laws. Theories explain laws.

Theory: A scientifically testable general principle or body of principles offered to explain observed phenomena. In scientific usage, a theory is distinct from a hypothesis (or conjecture) that is proposed to explain previously observed phenomena. For a hypothesis to rise to the level of theory, it must predict the existence of new phenomena that are subsequently observed. A theory can be overturned if new phenomena are observed that directly contradict the theory. [Source]

When a scientific theory has a long history of being supported by verifiable evidence, it is appropriate to speak about "acceptance" of (not "belief" in) the theory; or we can say that we have "confidence" (not "faith") in the theory. It is the dependence on verifiable data and the capability of testing that distinguish scientific theories from matters of faith.


471 posted on 10/19/2008 7:09:55 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: Mojave
Alexis Carrel's "pure strain" in vitro experiment was over fifty years old when it was refuted by Hayflick.

A scientific experiment refuted by a scientist?

How would a scientist refute Creationism?

472 posted on 10/19/2008 7:10:00 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Do you remember when blue was a feeling, gray was a word and one was a number...)
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To: allmendream
Your inability to deal with the data is comical.

You just finished proving that tsuch data has NEVER been independently recreated.

Thank you, BTW.

473 posted on 10/19/2008 7:10:43 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: Coyoteman
Theory: a well-substantiated explanation

And you just finished admitting (albeit inadvertently) that it's not "a" theory, but is instead a series of modified theories.

I ask you again, why do its true believers never refer to it as "the Theories of Evolution" or even as "the latest Theory of Evolution"?

474 posted on 10/19/2008 7:15:11 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: Mojave
So a twelve year experiment needs to be replicated by a different researcher from the beginning before you will even entertain the possibility that it is correct?

Laughably inept reasoning.

Your complete and utter inability to deal with the data is noted. All you can hold out hope that it is somehow in error. Hilarious!

475 posted on 10/19/2008 7:15:18 PM PDT by allmendream (White Dog Democrat: A Democrat who will not vote for 0bama because he's black.)
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To: tacticalogic
Was that a “yes” or a “no”?

What are you talking about? That evoution IS ID?

476 posted on 10/19/2008 7:18:31 PM PDT by tpanther (All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Edmund Burke)
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To: Toddsterpatriot
scientific experiment refuted by a scientist?

Yep. More accurately, a nonreproducible experiment which poisoned scientific thought for over fifty years until Hayflick famously refuted it in 1962, and then only after gaining access to the cell culture used by Carrel.

How would a scientist refute Creationism?

I dunno. Why do you ask?

477 posted on 10/19/2008 7:21:01 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: Mojave
I dunno. Why do you ask?

I dunno. I thought Creationism was science? Is it?

478 posted on 10/19/2008 7:21:59 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Do you remember when blue was a feeling, gray was a word and one was a number...)
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To: allmendream
So a twelve year experiment needs to be replicated by a different researcher

The project may be twelve years old. Are you telling me that no results were achieved for 12 years?

479 posted on 10/19/2008 7:22:54 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: Toddsterpatriot
I thought Creationism was science?

Really? I never did.

480 posted on 10/19/2008 7:23:50 PM PDT by Mojave
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