Antievolutionists asked to review draft standards in Texas

The National Center for Science Education ^ | October 16, 2008

[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..

[Mojave]

God does not control the rules of the universe, the universe controls God. The blind faith of atheists.

[LeGrande]

So the spiritual light of religion has not been measured? Then why not admit you are full of bull when you say you disproved God?

You are trying to use your imagination to disprove the speed of light? LOL I guess that makes sense for someone who believes that they can hold up their hands and stop the Sun and the Moon from orbiting the Earth : )

[LeGrande]

Because under the new gospel of LeGrande, the universe created God.

What part of the "There is no God!" memo didn't you get?

[Mojave]

Nietzsche is dead.

[LeGrande]

Nietzsche is dead.

At least Nietzsche existed, which is more than can be said of your "god".

[Coyoteman]

You’ve already seen them. When you saw the chemist, ASSuming you even bothered to read it...

Yes, I read it.

You realize that the chemist is a well known creationist don't you?

As shown by the codes of beliefs of many of the well known creationist organizations, creationists are expected to allow their religious beliefs to supersede their scientific training and their adherence to the scientific method.

As an example, check out the Institute for Creation Research website (excerpts below). They are doing pure apologetics, not science, even though they have the nerve to call it "scientific creationism."

Institute for Creation Research website.

Tenets of Scientific Creationism

• The physical universe of space, time, matter, and energy has not always existed, but was supernaturally created by a transcendent personal Creator who alone has existed from eternity.
• The phenomenon of biological life did not develop by natural processes from inanimate systems but was specially and supernaturally created by the Creator.
• Each of the major kinds of plants and animals was created functionally complete from the beginning and did not evolve from some other kind of organism. Changes in basic kinds since their first creation are limited to "horizontal" changes (variations) within the kinds, or "downward' changes (e.g., harmful mutations, extinctions).
• The first human beings did not evolve from an animal ancestry, but were specially created in fully human form from the start. Furthermore, the "spiritual" nature of man (self-image, moral consciousness, abstract reasoning, language, will, religious nature, etc.) is itself a supernaturally created entity distinct from mere biological life.
• The record of earth history, as preserved in the earth's crust, especially in the rocks and fossil deposits, is primarily a record of catastrophic intensities of natural processes, operating largely within uniform natural laws, rather than one of gradualism and relatively uniform process rates. There are many scientific evidences for a relatively recent creation of the earth and the universe, in addition to strong scientific evidence that most of the earth's fossiliferous sedimentary rocks were formed in an even more recent global hydraulic cataclysm.
• Processes today operate primarily within fixed natural laws and relatively uniform process rates, but since these were themselves originally created and are daily maintained by their Creator, there is always the possibility of miraculous intervention in these laws or processes by their Creator. Evidences for such intervention should be scrutinized critically, however, because there must be clear and adequate reason for any such action on the part of the Creator.
• The universe and life have somehow been impaired since the completion of creation, so that imperfections in structure, disease, aging, extinctions, and other such phenomena are the result of "negative" changes in properties and processes occurring in an originally-perfect created order.
• Since the universe and its primary components were created perfect for their purposes in the beginning by a competent and volitional Creator, and since the Creator does remain active in this now-decaying creation, there do exist ultimate purposes and meanings in the universe. Teleological considerations, therefore, are appropriate in scientific studies whenever they are consistent with the actual data of observation. Furthermore, it is reasonable to assume that the creation presently awaits the consummation of the Creator's purpose.
• Although people are finite and scientific data concerning origins are always circumstantial and incomplete, the human mind (if open to possibility of creation) is able to explore the manifestations of that Creator rationally, scientifically, and teleologically.

I think you would have to carefully examine the scientific pronouncements of any "scientist" who adheres to such a set of beliefs, which is diametrically opposed to the scientific method.

[Mojave]

At least Nietzsche existed, which is more than can be said of your "god".

It has been said of God. Many, many times.

[LeGrande]

At least Nietzsche existed, which is more than can be said of your "god".

It has been said of God. Many, many times.

That it existed? Which one? Ra? Despator? Lucifer? Allah? Elohim? The Tooth Fairy?

Do you realize that the God you believe in has more to do with where you were born than any other factor? In other words what your parents and peers believe, becomes your belief.

[Mojave]

Do you realize that the God you believe in has more to do with where you were born than any other factor?

I've never said. And that frightens you.

Ask yourself why.

[Zero Sum]

FR's 'spellcheck' is a bit lame, I've found.

Why, I'll bet it doesn't even recognize the word craptacular!

Oh lookee that, I was right. :)

[hosepipe]

[ Why is the fact that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, evidence of a God? ]

Nothing "you know" can travel faster than light..
What if there is something you know not of?..
What is life?.. Dead DNA and living DNA look exactly the same..

Possibly life has nothing to do with fleshly mechanics..
The speed of "spirit" could be faster than light..
To say "spirit" is a myth is to become religious..

[Old Landmarks]

Hatred for all things ‘Biblical’ defines the modern Hardcore Evolutionists on Free Republic and their leftist allies in the leadership of the Democrat Party, (the far left leaders of the Democrat Party are all hardcore evolutionists).

Both of these groups hate American historical values, they love liberal judges and judcial activist courts, and both of these groups worship the Big Government public school monopoly above all.

No matter how destructive the Public School Monopoly becomes, the hardcore Evolutionists will still worship the Big Government Public School.

The hardcore evolutionists on FR who claim to be small government libertarians are the worst liars of all and reflect the worldview of religious leftists like Barry Lynn and the loons.

The FR hardcore evolutionists worship Big Government at its very worst (public school monopoly) but claim libertarianism as a convenient, dishonest excuse for the extreme moral liberalism they spew on this conservative forum.

They are liars of the worst kind, they repeat the liberal dogma of the far left at DU and the Daily Kos.

Like all liberals, the Free Republic Hardcore Evolutionists want the Big Government, Centralized power to undermine parental authority while using Big Government Public Schools, (run by liberals) to indoctrinate other people's children.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

“You are trying to use your imagination to disprove the speed of light? LOL”

Now you are twisting my words around. Fess up, LaGrande. You thought you figured out how to disprove God. And if you think I’m a nut for believing in spiritual light, then ask most any serious pagan. Most mystics believe in spiritual light. I assume you respect them more than Christians.

Einstein felt closer to God when he studied physical light. I’m no Einstein. Are you?

[Elsie]

They were most likely under less stress and less selection than a wild population of e.coli.

---

Next on FOX®...

When e.coli go bad!!!

[Elsie]

At least, scientists tell us with a straight face that the entire mass of the known universe can expand to fill all know space in a trillion-trillionth of a second, thus putting the speed of expansion at a rate much greater than 186,000 miles/second when it suits their purposes to explain the origin of the universe sans God.

Doncha know that it was TIME itself that changed!

--ScienceDude(Can't we speed this converstaion along?)

[Elsie]

Keeping the population alive.

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Disco tune "Stayin' Alive" could save your life

Reuters

Published: Thursday, October 16, 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. doctors have found the Bee Gees 1977 disco anthem "Stayin' Alive" provides an ideal beat to follow while performing chest compressions as part of CPR on a heart attack victim.

The American Heart Association calls for chest compressions to be given at a rate of 100 per minute in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). "Stayin' Alive" almost perfectly matches that, with 103 beats per minute.

CPR is a lifesaving technique involving chest compressions alone or with mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing. It is used in emergencies such as cardiac arrest in which a person's breathing or heartbeat has stopped.

[Elsie]

Actually the speed of light is stong evidence that God DOES EXIST..

And...

TIME is Nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't happen at once.

[Elsie]

"If" doesn't cut it. The speed of light is very well defined and it looks like the EM field is the basis of our Universe. In other words light : )

Genesis 1:3
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

---

Like a blind squirrel finding an occasional nut; them iggnurt sheep herders may have been on to something...

[MrB]

Didn’t you know?

The guy that builds the house has to stay in it forever and cannot leave its defined bounds.

[Oztrich Boy]

God does not control the rules of the universe, the universe controls God.

Which is what Spinoza said (you know, the guy whose God Einstein recognised).