Court challenge begins in Georgia on evolution

AP ^ | Nov. 7, 2004

[PatrickHenry]

Quagmire!

[PatrickHenry]

Earlier threads on the Georgia situation:

E-word brings out the e-mail [Evolution in Georgia schools].
Georgia may shun 'evolution' in schools.
Evolution Challenged in Georgia School Debate.
Georgia Takes on 'Evolution'.

[cornelis]

Is it a foregone conclusion in the "scientific community" that life has an origin?

[hyperpoly8]

Evolution describes how life evolves, not how it began. The folks putting these "disclaimers" in text books should be required to tell their readers that a theory is a scientific hypothesis which has not been disproved. Those of us who have studied evolution and teach it know the only myth we have to face is Creationism.

[loboinok]

Which religion promulgates the theory of evolution? This is news to me.
HUMANISM

[MissouriConservative]

"This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."


Oh heavens no....we can't have a text book tell students to have an open mind, study carefully and consider things critically....what do they think this is....a school where people are supposed to be educated instead of indoctrinated?

How dare they tell students to think....sheesh.

[RightWingAtheist]

There's nothing "Christian" about the textbook requirements, just a refusal to admit the hard scientific fact of natural selection.

[RightWingAtheist]

None of the world's major religions promulagates the theory of evolution, unless someone has formed a new Christian sect based on the teachings of Teilhard de Chardin.

[RightWingAtheist]

Science has done a far better job at explaining the origins of life than any religious scriptures. I'm always shaking my head in befuddlement when people who refuse to believe the hard evidence provided by science so unquestionly accept the account of creation in a 3000 year old book for which there is no supporting evidence.

[RightWingAtheist]

So you will also agree that students should be taught to be equally critical and skeptical of the Biblical account of creation as well, correct?

[RobFromGa]

Evolution does not answer 1) how life began or 2) how totally new species came about. Evolution deals with genetic variation within a given species. There is no corresponding theory like evolution that explains 1 or 2.

These things are currently supernatural in that there is no scientific theory that can describe how inanimate chemicals and minerals became alive, or how once alive they increased in complexity to creat new species.

You may choose not to believe that the Bible's God was the creator of us, but you cannot say that evolution did. It requires a different answer not yet known.

[MissouriConservative]

I think the students should be given all sides of the issues and let them make up their own mind.

Do you have a problem with that?

[RightWingAtheist]

I have a problem when schools start teaching half-truths instead of truths, and promote fallacies instead of facts. Instead of critical thinking, what this particular county school board is teaching is cultural relativism, something which has already screwed up whole generations of kids.

There is no right and left in science-only right and wrong.

[Holden Magroin]

I keep hearing liberals on the lecture circuit claim that conservatism is based on faith rather than fact. In reality, liberalism is based on faith rather than fact. The atheism of liberals takes far more faith to than Christianity does because the former requires the rejection of a self-evident truth: that the universe, like anything else that has a beginning, cannot be self-caused.

[MissouriConservative]

"I have a problem when schools start teaching half-truths instead of truths, and promote fallacies instead of facts."


So do I, that's why I am against them teaching evolution as a fact and not a theory.

Glad to see we are in agreement.

[RightWingAtheist]

Evolution is a fact and a theory supported by the facts. There are no facts to support creationism, only wishful thinking.

[MissouriConservative]

"Evolution is a fact and a theory supported by the facts"

Sorry, but we have to disagree over that snippet. I have yet to see any facts concerning macro-evolution and micro-evolution is not evolution at all, only adaptation. Too many discrepancies concerning evolution to call it "fact."

Might as well face it, we will never agree on this issue....I believe what I believe and I teach what I believe to my homeschooled daughters (only one is now being homeschooled, the other is in college now).

By the way, if you want more information on creation science, I'd suggest the following website:

Institute for Creation Research

[PatrickHenry]

TIME CUBE . Much more informative than your link.

[cornelis]

There is no right and left in science-only right and wrong.

I hear the sound of clicking heels.

[cornelis]

Evolution is a fact and a theory supported by the facts.

Agreed, but is it a foregone conclusion that there is an origin to life?