Posted on 01/19/2005 8:52:24 AM PST by FeeinTennessee
Pa. Students Learn 'Intelligent Design' By MARTHA RAFFAELE The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. - High school students heard about "intelligent design" for the first time Tuesday in a school district that attracted national attention by requiring students to be made aware of it as an alternative to the theory of evolution.
Administrators in the Dover Area School District read a statement to three biology classes Tuesday and were expected to read it to other classes on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., which was speaking on the district's behalf.
The district is believed to be the only one in the nation to require students to hear about intelligent design - a concept that holds that the universe is so complex, it had to be created by an unspecified guiding force.
"The revolution in evolution has begun," said Richard Thompson, the law center's president and chief counsel. "This is the first step in which students will be given an honest scientific evaluation of the theory of evolution and its problems."
The case represents the newest chapter in a history of evolution lawsuits dating back to the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee nearly 80 years ago. In Georgia, a suburban Atlanta school district plans to challenge a federal judge's order to remove stickers in science textbooks that call evolution "a theory, not a fact."
The law center is defending the Dover district against a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of eight families by two civil-liberties groups that alleged intelligent design is merely a secular variation of creationism, the biblical-based view that regards God as the creator of life. They maintain that the Dover district's curriculum mandate may violate the constitutional separation of church and state.
"Students who sat in the classroom were taught material which is religious in content, not scientific, and I think it's unfortunate that has occurred," said Eric Rothschild, a Philadelphia attorney representing the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit.
Biology teacher Jennifer Miller said although she was able to make a smooth transition to her evolution lesson after the statement was read, some students were upset that administrators would not entertain any questions about intelligent design.
"They were told that if you have any questions, to take it home," Miller said.
The district allowed students whose parents objected to the policy to be excused from hearing the statement at the beginning of class and science teachers who opposed the requirement to be exempted from reading the statement. About 15 of 170 ninth-graders asked to be excused from class, Thompson said.
A federal judge has scheduled a trial in the lawsuit for Sept. 26.
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Dover Area School District: http://www.dover.k12.pa.us
Thomas More Law Center: http://www.thomasmore.org
January 18, 2005 6:44 PM
Because I have evidence from many sources that point to a universe that is billions of years old.
No theory is ever proven and no theory ever can be proven. Do you want us to stop teaching about atoms, electrons, stars, elements, photons and everything else that is "just a theory".
Science is the study of the natural world, and by definition God lies outside the natural world and therefore the study of God lies outside the scope of science. Science can never prove or disprove the existence of God.
It is not closed minded to ask where a "designer" came from. After all, that question must be asked of any ID theory. Otherwise, you are just putting off the question of where we came from. If we were designed, then there was a designer. That designer came from somewhere. Therefore, our origins are ultimately linked to the origins of the postulated "designer" in a strictly scientific sense. If ID avoids that question, then it is beign closed minded.
Do people like yourself ever consider that your dating techniques might not be sound. Meaning that rates of change might have been different back then from now?
just wondering.
Billions and billions of sources, literally (or numerically).
BLASPHEMER!!!
Of course, that is why the conflict between science and religion is unnecessary. It is certain fundamentalist religions that seek this conflict, not science, because those religions fear that science contradicts their interpretation of their holy works. Science just reports on what it observes.
"What do you do with the rest of Genesis.....like the GLOBAL FLOOD, I suppose God meant a local flood, not a world wide flood."
Please. The so-called 'GLOBAL FLOOD' was nothing more than the Mediterranean Sea finally overflowing the Hellespont. An immense, tragic, large event - yes. An epic event to be retold for centuries, esp. given that it happened to people who were totally uneducated about earth sciences? Yes. A flood that completely covered all land mass? No.
It's been mathematically proven that there isn't enough water on this planet to completely cover all the land, although the global-warming alarmists and Creationists would have you believe differently.
It's also provable that if one calculated the surface area represented by 2 of every single species of animal and plant (why does the Bible ignore plant life? All plants would've drowned in a 40-day global flood!) alive during Noah's time and applied it to the specs of the Ark...well, the Ark comes up short in being able to store every animal.
Unless, a few animal & plant species were taken on the Ark for the local flood and have since EVOLVED into the differing species we have today? :)
Indeed we do. If the rates of change were different, we could "see" the evidence for such changes.
"The public schools shove plenty down students' throats, or haven't you noticed? "
Yeah, yeah - schools suck - we all know this.
So what brand of Christianity to you propose my (and your) tax dollars endorse?
This is the problem with bringing up ID in schools. Because it brings science to bear on religion. Which I would think that any thinking believer would avoid like the plague, if only because it will make their children question the existence of God.
The solution is in the interpretation of Genesis. If Genesis allows for Evolution, then no problem. If believers insist on litteral interpretations of Genesis, then big problem.
You made me smile. I have a soft spot for that phrase. :-)
I have posted this before. Not only have I met Carl Sagan, I appeared on both the "Discovery Channel" and "TLC" shows that featured him as well.
"That's not a Mantis?"
God is Zorak?
They wouldn't admit it anyway. Most have their minds made up and nothing will change them. And they say Christians are hard-headed.
Do people like yourself ever consider that the Bible is written by man and pieces were put in and removed at the hand of man and that the original manuscripts are not available and that you rely on mere mortals to tell you of God?
You said it!
Why would it be a problem? Just differing opinions. Everyone doesn't have to agree.
Nice. Perhaps I'll see a rerun. Maybe I should have said "billions and billions of points of light."
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