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Ayatollahs in the classroom [Evolution and Creationism]
Berkshire Eagle (Mass.) ^ | 22 January 2005 | Staff

Posted on 01/22/2005 7:38:12 AM PST by PatrickHenry

A movement to drag the teaching of science in the United States back into the Dark Ages continues to gain momentum. So far, it's a handful of judges -- "activist judges" in the view of their critics -- who are preventing the spread of Saudi-style religious dogma into more and more of America's public-school classrooms.

The ruling this month in Georgia by Federal District Judge Clarence Cooper ordering the Cobb County School Board to remove stickers it had inserted in biology textbooks questioning Darwin's theory of evolution is being appealed by the suburban Atlanta district. Similar legal battles pitting evolution against biblical creationism are erupting across the country. Judges are conscientiously observing the constitutionally required separation of church and state, and specifically a 1987 Supreme Court ruling forbidding the teaching of creationism, a religious belief, in public schools. But seekers of scientific truth have to be unnerved by a November 2004 CBS News poll in which nearly two-thirds of Americans favored teaching creationism, the notion that God created heaven and earth in six days, alongside evolution in schools.

If this style of "science" ever took hold in U.S. schools, it is safe to say that as a nation we could well be headed for Third World status, along with everything that dire label implies. Much of the Arab world is stuck in a miasma of imam-enforced repression and non-thought. Could it happen here? Our Constitution protects creativity and dissent, but no civilization has lasted forever, and our current national leaders seem happy with the present trends.

It is the creationists, of course, who forecast doom if U.S. schools follow a secularist path. Science, however, by its nature, relies on evidence, and all the fossil and other evidence points toward an evolved human species over millions of years on a planet tens of millions of years old [ooops!] in a universe over two billion years in existence [ooops again!].

Some creationists are promoting an idea they call "intelligent design" as an alternative to Darwinism, eliminating the randomness and survival-of-the-fittest of Darwinian thought. But, again, no evidence exists to support any theory of evolution except Charles Darwin's. Science classes can only teach the scientific method or they become meaningless.

Many creationists say that teaching Darwin is tantamount to teaching atheism, but most science teachers, believers as well as non-believers, scoff at that. The Rev. Warren Eschbach, a professor at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pa., believes that "science is figuring out what God has already done" and the book of Genesis was never "meant to be a science textbook for the 21st century." Rev. Eschbach is the father of Robert Eschbach, one of the science teachers in Dover, Pa., who refused to teach a school-board-mandated statement to biology students criticizing the theory of evolution and promoting intelligent design. Last week, the school district gathered students together and the statement was read to them by an assistant superintendent.

Similar pro-creationist initiatives are underway in Texas, Wisconsin and South Carolina. And a newly elected creationist majority on the state board of education in Kansas plans to rewrite the entire state's science curriculum this spring. This means the state's public-school science teachers will have to choose between being scientists or ayatollahs -- or perhaps abandoning their students and fleeing Kansas, like academic truth-seekers in China in the 1980s or Tehran today.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: antitheist; atheistgestapo; chickenlittle; creationism; crevolist; cryingwolf; darwin; evolution; governmentschools; justatheory; seculartaliban; stateapprovedthought; theskyisfalling
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To: spunkets

I agree and that's what the evolutionists keep trying to do.


601 posted on 01/23/2005 12:54:33 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: mlc9852
"that's what the evolutionists keep trying to do."

No it is not. Their observations and conclusions are simply honest science describing the truth of what can be seen by all.

602 posted on 01/23/2005 12:58:56 PM PST by spunkets
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To: spunkets

Not "all" agree. Sorry.


603 posted on 01/23/2005 1:00:11 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: Southack
For probability calculations, in fact, the chances of getting a final long (unaided) sequence correct...

What do you mean by "correct"? Are you asserting that if evolution were rerun, it would have to arrive at the current state to be considered correct? How do you determine or define correctness?

604 posted on 01/23/2005 1:06:21 PM PST by js1138
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To: js1138
"How do you determine or define correctness?"

If the DNA sequence can form viable life, then it is correct for the purposes of the math under discussion. The optimistic range of correct values is discussed, of course, on the link that I provided.

605 posted on 01/23/2005 1:09:04 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack
Do you also claim that each new organism is a new Species?

No. Do you claim it is never a new species?

I haven't seen you respond to the bacterial culture starting with a single individual. How does a single individual have the built in variation?

606 posted on 01/23/2005 1:09:41 PM PST by js1138
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To: spunkets
"Their observations and conclusions are simply honest science describing the truth of what can be seen by all."

Was the Kenniwick Man simply honest science describing the truth of what can be seen by all, in your opinion?

607 posted on 01/23/2005 1:14:05 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: js1138
"I haven't seen you respond to the bacterial culture starting with a single individual. How does a single individual have the built in variation?"

That's a Boolean option. Either it has the resistant trait or it doesn't.

608 posted on 01/23/2005 1:16:03 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack

I can find examples of fraud from any group, or field. Those may, or may not be sports. What matters is the overall character, not the sports.


609 posted on 01/23/2005 1:19:28 PM PST by spunkets
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To: spunkets
"Their observations and conclusions are simply honest science describing the truth of what can be seen by all."
610 posted on 01/23/2005 1:20:54 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: spunkets
"I can find examples of fraud from any group, or field."

So perhaps there is more to it than blithely claiming that Evolutionists are stating nothing besides simple, honest science.

611 posted on 01/23/2005 1:22:07 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack

If you would have noted and underlined the word "there" in the beginning of my sentence you would have been honest and the point would be valid. Since you did not, the point is groundless.


612 posted on 01/23/2005 1:25:16 PM PST by spunkets
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To: unlearner

Wow. Just answer the following YES/NO.

Have additions been made to the Bible?

Have sections (books) been deleted from the Bible?

Does the KJV contain passages that are NOT in previous versions?

Please do not rant. Answer Yes/No.


613 posted on 01/23/2005 1:33:26 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: unlearner
Oh. I see that you are interpreting the Bible to fit the facts irregardless of the fact that God says there are four corners and he shook it by grabbing its edges.

And I see that you have "interpreted" my post and God's word by substituting "points" inplace of the actual word "corners" and ignoring the key word "edges".

614 posted on 01/23/2005 1:36:30 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: Southack
"So perhaps there is more to it than blithely claiming that Evolutionists are stating nothing besides simple, honest science."

I make no blithe claim. My statement is a judgement made after considerable consideration. In #572 I posted what God says about the matter.

615 posted on 01/23/2005 1:37:40 PM PST by spunkets
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To: unlearner
By your logic, I could say you should not use math in the physics class because this is a science class not a math class.

That is about the DUMBEST statement I have ever seen. Math is used to model physical principles. There is NO physics without math. On the other hand, it is not required to know what originated the processes to understand how the work.

616 posted on 01/23/2005 1:42:09 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: iconoclast

"How does that constitute a scientific theory, much less an inarguable fact?"

I'll let the National Academy of Sciences, the most prestigious science institution in the US answer that:



How can evolution be scientific when no one was there to see it happen?

This question reflects a narrow view of how science works. Things in science can be studied even if they cannot be directly observed or experimented on. Archaeologists study past cultures by examining the artifacts those cultures left behind. Geologists can describe past changes in sea level by studying the marks ocean waves left on rocks. Paleontologists study the fossilized remains of organisms that lived long ago.

Something that happened in the past is thus not "off limits" for scientific study. Hypotheses can be made about such phenomena, and these hypotheses can be tested and can lead to solid conclusions. Furthermore, many key aspects of evolution occur in relatively short periods that can be observed directly—such as the evolution in bacteria of resistance to antibiotics.


http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/evolution98/evol5.html

Arguing that evolution is not science puts you in a very silly position. Since you are basically saying that the scientific community doesn't know what they are doing, and they don't know what constitutes science. Well... until the church starts curing disease and developing new fuels with faith, I'm going to believe what the scientists say...


617 posted on 01/23/2005 1:47:38 PM PST by Alacarte (There is no knowledge that is not power)
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To: iconoclast
Oh well, end of discussion. Everyone knows the gubmint schools haven't changed any in 50-60 years. (/sarcasm)

I bet you can't cite any instances where it is NOT taught as theory.

618 posted on 01/23/2005 1:48:49 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: mlc9852
I thought the tsunami was the result of shifting tectonic plates, but if you have other info, I'd be interested to know.

And you don't believe that God designed the plates to shift and cause tsunmis?

619 posted on 01/23/2005 1:50:15 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: js1138

"I think any probability estimate must take into account the reasonable assumption that there are an infinite number of universes, and that somewhere, even the most improbable event has happened. "

haha! That's a good point, if he wants to take that much liberty with his logic, I guess we shouldn't pull any punches either!


620 posted on 01/23/2005 1:51:09 PM PST by Alacarte (There is no knowledge that is not power)
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