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ACLU Files Suit in Pa. Over Evolution
FOX News ^

Posted on 12/14/2004 7:14:55 AM PST by wkdaysoff

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The state American Civil Liberties Union (search) plans to file a federal lawsuit Tuesday against a Pennsylvania school district that is requiring students to learn about alternatives to the theory of evolution (search).

The ACLU said its lawsuit will be the first to challenge whether public schools should teach "intelligent design," which holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by some higher power....

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: aclu; crevolist; lawsuit; scienceeducation
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To: Shryke

I apologize. I was confusing you with someone else.


741 posted on 12/15/2004 12:55:17 PM PST by Michael_Michaelangelo (The best theory is not ipso facto a good theory.)
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To: PatrickHenry

My understanding of the Pope's comment is that evolution as a theory is a worthy study. That's not total acceptance of the theory but not outright rejection of it. Like I've said many times before, I believe in microevolution, it is necessary for species to adapt to new environments and surroundings. I would have to research further if the Pope was referring to micro-evolution or evolution in its entirety.


742 posted on 12/15/2004 12:57:26 PM PST by Right in Wisconsin
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To: Right in Wisconsin
I guess your an expert, okay then, if she was not a chimpanzee, how come she was only 3 ft tall?

Wow! like total non sequitur dude!

743 posted on 12/15/2004 1:01:59 PM PST by Oztrich Boy ("Ain't I a stinker?" B Bunny)
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To: Michael_Michaelangelo

Thanks for providing me the creo site that you got your link in #692 from ...


744 posted on 12/15/2004 1:02:01 PM PST by WildTurkey
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To: balrog666; Michael_Michaelangelo
When examining the evidence of the Grand Canyon, is the critically important idea how long it took to carve, or what the exposed layers tell us about the age and history of the Earth?

The problem creationists never face is that something had to dump it and something had to carve it. And when you look at the something that had to dump those sediments, it looks like more than one thing. The buried layers have too many one-time surface features (some of them quite delicate) at various levels.

The back-again-dumb-as-a-stump people make a point of never anticipating this objection to their jaw-droppingly bad models of Grand Canyon and/or geologic column formation.

Just in general, sediments everywhere show too much surface and too many dead animals and plants for any flood model. The surfaces can't be contemporary, they have to be sequential. The fossils in different layers have to be from different times or they would have been piled high all over the place while they were alive. It's no use saying the One Great Flood carried them there from somewhere else; you dig somewhere else and it's the same thing.

745 posted on 12/15/2004 1:05:33 PM PST by VadeRetro (Nothing means anything when you go to Hell for knowing what things mean.)
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To: Shryke
Unless one was older than Methuselah, one would not be able to actually witness it happening.

LOL. The last refuge...

746 posted on 12/15/2004 1:07:14 PM PST by RightWingNilla
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To: jpsb; BMCDA
Please point out to me where I stated that God does not exist?

You agreed that a totally imaginary God would serve the same purpose. So it doesn't matter whether he exists or not. That's Atheism.

747 posted on 12/15/2004 1:08:12 PM PST by Oztrich Boy ("Ain't I a stinker?" B Bunny)
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To: Right in Wisconsin

The Catholic Church accepts the fact that the earth is millions of years old.

The Catholic Church accepts the fact that evolution is accepted by most of the world's scientists and is more than mere hypothesis.

The Catholic Church accepts the fact that evolution is not contrary to God and the Catholic Religion.


748 posted on 12/15/2004 1:09:43 PM PST by WildTurkey
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To: WildTurkey
The Catholic Church accepts the fact that the earth is millions of years old.

And has done for many years. In Catholic school in the early 1970s, it was emphasized that there is no conflict between the Theory of Evolution and Catholic doctrine.

749 posted on 12/15/2004 1:15:26 PM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: WildTurkey

Sorry - that wasn't where I found it. I told you I used Metacrawler. Don't you have anything better to do?


750 posted on 12/15/2004 1:24:40 PM PST by Michael_Michaelangelo (The best theory is not ipso facto a good theory.)
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To: WildTurkey

Where are you getting that from?


751 posted on 12/15/2004 1:26:39 PM PST by Right in Wisconsin
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To: Michael_Michaelangelo
Sorry - that wasn't where I found it. I told you I used Metacrawler. Don't you have anything better to do?

You gave me a link. I read your link and found the link to your other reference (the one I asked you which creo site you found that link). You think it a waste of my time to read your link? That seems odd ...

752 posted on 12/15/2004 1:27:43 PM PST by WildTurkey
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To: Right in Wisconsin
From the Pope's 1996 statement, linked above:
It is necessary to determine the proper sense of Scripture, while avoiding any unwarranted interpretations that make it say what it does not intend to say. In order to delineate the field of their own study, the exegete and the theologian must keep informed about the results achieved by the natural sciences.

Today, almost half a century after the publication of the Encyclical, fresh knowledge has led to the recognition that evolution is more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favour of this theory.

Think about what's being said in that first paragraph. He's saying, as I understand it: Don't let your reading of scripture get out of sync with science. Scripture must be re-interpreted, if needed, to stay in line with the real world. We've made fools of ourselves in the past, and we don't want that to happen again.

If you understand the Church's history in such matters, and the delicate, highly abstract way such statements are worded, especially when virtually "over-ruling" earlier methods of handling such issues, that's a powerful endorsement of evolution.

Obviously, not everyone is going to follow the Pope's lead. But his position is an indication that science and scripture can be reconciled.

753 posted on 12/15/2004 1:32:03 PM PST by PatrickHenry (The List-O-Links for evolution threads is at my freeper homepage.)
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To: WildTurkey; Right in Wisconsin
What is your hangup about 5730. There is nothing magical about 5730

5730 years ago Adam reached the age of 277 years. That was noteworthy because no-one had ever lived that long before.

754 posted on 12/15/2004 1:32:03 PM PST by Oztrich Boy ("Ain't I a stinker?" B Bunny)
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To: Right Wing Professor

So far, I've seen some small discussion of guesstimated dating of endocytosed mitochondria about 1.7-2.0 bya, so there seems little reason to suspect any later infusions of mDNA.


755 posted on 12/15/2004 1:35:01 PM PST by balrog666 (The invisible and the nonexistent look very much alike.)
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To: Michael_Michaelangelo
The point I was trying to make is that the age of the canyon and how it was formed are still being investigated.

Yes, but, First approximation: Way, Way older than 4351 years.

756 posted on 12/15/2004 1:40:31 PM PST by Oztrich Boy ("Ain't I a stinker?" B Bunny)
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To: VadeRetro; balrog666; Michael_Michaelangelo
The problem creationists never face is that something had to dump it and something had to carve it. And when you look at the something that had to dump those sediments, it looks like more than one thing

150 years ago, Hugh Miller (Geologist, lay preacher - and yes technically Creationst) observed that there was "a cycle of nonsense". That most absurd ideas weren't new, just older discredited ideas returning.

Relevence?: at the time self identified Scriptural Geologists claimed that the canyon downstream of Niagra Falls would have been cut in only a few thousand years (Yeah foolish argument, but it was 150 years ago, people were dumb then). And as Miller pointed out, you have to look at how long the rock formations the canyon was being cut through would have taken to form to get anything like an estimate of mininum earth age.

757 posted on 12/15/2004 1:59:21 PM PST by Oztrich Boy ("Ain't I a stinker?" B Bunny)
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To: balrog666

Most of the stuff I've seen on horizontal gene transfer (and it is all pretty conjectural) puts it in the 1 BYa time frame. That's apart from retroviral transmission.


758 posted on 12/15/2004 2:04:15 PM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: PatrickHenry

I agree with your interpretation, and the reasoning behind it. I am Roman Catholic and have some issues that I need to resolve for myself. I believe that it is more generic than your interpretation. I believe the pope endorses any theory as long it is not atheistic in nature and does not void Adam and Eve. That said, the pope also accepts that the world was created in 6 - 24 hour periods, with a Big Bang, with no Big Bang, if you catch my drift. The Catholic Church is afraid or unwilling to take a certain position. Is that necessarily harmful to the Church? That remains to be seen. Would I ever consider leaving the Church because of its confusing position, I would have to respond with a profound No. So, yes it is a quandry that I find myself in.


759 posted on 12/15/2004 2:07:38 PM PST by Right in Wisconsin
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To: Oztrich Boy

Of course no one lived that long since Adam was the first person to ever live!


760 posted on 12/15/2004 2:09:03 PM PST by Right in Wisconsin
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