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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: e p1uribus unum
It may be that they are dishonest with themselves and fear that to accept evolution is to somehow lose their faith.

Yes, it is bizarre, and their "faith" is much more like science than it is faith.

For many posters here, it seems that their faith is, in fact, "falsifiable", and that the occurance of evolution falsifies it.

BTW, this make the constant claim that evolution is just another "faith" quite understandable. Except that it's not because evolutions is faith-based, but instead that their faith is evidence-based (and any contrary evidence very damaging to their world-view.. leading to the emotion).
621 posted on 01/23/2005 1:51:43 PM PST by self_evident
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To: WildTurkey
In fact, many have supported the teaching of religions in a RELIGION class. But not in a science class.

It would be strange, though, for conservatives to feel this way. Turning over the teaching of religion to the incompetant public-school system? :shudder: Churches do a much better job.
622 posted on 01/23/2005 1:58:28 PM PST by self_evident
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To: Southack
If you want to talk about fraud, we can have a field day with the hundreds of thousands kill in the name of "fraud".


623 posted on 01/23/2005 2:02:22 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: Southack

We are all still waiting for you to publish the probability that your math has determined ...


624 posted on 01/23/2005 2:05:43 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: Southack
What is debatable is whether or not abiogenesis occurred unaided, due solely to natural processes, or occurred due to some form of bias or aid (perhaps even Intelligent aid).

Ah, so you agree that the idea of "God" is debatable. God for you.

625 posted on 01/23/2005 2:08:26 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: PatrickHenry

"Festival of Rehashed Hogwash" placemarker


626 posted on 01/23/2005 2:14:13 PM PST by longshadow
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To: WildTurkey

Why would He do that?


627 posted on 01/23/2005 2:17:17 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: PatrickHenry

The perpetrators of the hoax want to be the ones who decide what evidence is. If/when they are allowed to do this, they will state that jibberjabber about "common DNA" is evidence that proves evo. It's nonsense, but they'll do it if they are allowed to. If the laughable weakness of their theory is talked about and exposed, it gets closer to the drain...


628 posted on 01/23/2005 2:17:52 PM PST by 185JHP ( "The thing thou purposest shall come to pass: And over all thy ways the light shall shine.")
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To: Blurblogger; WildTurkey; longshadow
The sun HAD to be larger. It's on fire! The fire that creates the heat from our sun is burning something. Gaseous mixture ratios have to be within a certain range to burn, thus a further argument for its shrinking to maintain density equilibrium. Similarly the newest era of missles that sucks out the O^2 from the atmosphere creates suction. Review the laws of thermodynamics and physics and then we can talk again.

The weak force is the force that induces beta decay via interaction with neutrinos. A star uses the weak force to “burn” (nuclear fusion). Three processes we observe are proton-to proton fusion, helium fusion, and the carbon cycle. Here is an example of proton-to-proton fusion, which is the process our own sun uses: (two protons fuse -> via neutrino interaction one of the protons transmutes to a neutron to form deuterium -> combines with another proton to form a helium nuclei -> two helium nuclei fuse releasing alpha particles and two protons).

629 posted on 01/23/2005 2:26:02 PM PST by RadioAstronomer
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To: mlc9852
Why would He do that?

You are asking ME? That is the question YOU have to answer, not me.

630 posted on 01/23/2005 2:28:31 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: WildTurkey
You brought up the tsunami, not me. I just figured you must know more about it than I do. Do you think God caused it? I believe that natural occurrences are just that.
631 posted on 01/23/2005 2:34:10 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: mlc9852
You brought up the tsunami, not me. I just figured you must know more about it than I do. Do you think God caused it? I believe that natural occurrences are just that.

Interesting. Of course, you realize that the origin of man and evolution are "natural occurrences" ...

632 posted on 01/23/2005 2:37:08 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: mlc9852
You brought up the tsunami, not me.

I asked you a question and you answered with a question.

633 posted on 01/23/2005 2:38:05 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: WildTurkey

LOL - you are so much fun to mess with! Have a good evening. I'm gonna go back and watch the game now.


634 posted on 01/23/2005 2:43:41 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: mlc9852

I guess that bit about "natural occurrences" got you!


635 posted on 01/23/2005 2:46:13 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: WildTurkey

Truthfully, I don't know what God does and I would never presume to speak for Him. I just read my Bible and pray for understanding. I'll leave the "deep thinking" to people like you.


636 posted on 01/23/2005 2:54:37 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: unlearner
I never said I rejected the Bible. I just don't consider it infallible.

And, I've yet to meet any male over the age of 12 that hasn't considered the thought of joining in an orgy (and anyone who says the thought's never crossed his mind is a liar). Most of us never actually act on that desire. That's the great thing about self control (and lack of opportunity).

637 posted on 01/23/2005 3:00:00 PM PST by Junior (FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC)
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To: unlearner; Junior
So your immorality and rejection of the Bible are coincidental. Amazing how that coincidence seems to happen so frequently.

I thought bearing false witness was a big no-no.

638 posted on 01/23/2005 3:05:51 PM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: unlearner
Chewing the cud (as the Bible refers to) can and does include eating partially digested food that passes through the body. It does not have to be regurgitated.

Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; [as] the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; [therefore] they [are] unclean unto you. Deut 14:7

It appears the Bible is lumping rabbits and camels together in this regard.

639 posted on 01/23/2005 3:21:49 PM PST by Junior (FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC)
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To: Junior
It appears the Bible is lumping rabbits and camels together in this regard.

Google is amazing: Kosher animal quiz. (I have no idea if this is authoritative.)

640 posted on 01/23/2005 3:40:49 PM PST by PatrickHenry (<-- Click on my name. The List-O-Links for evolution threads is at my freeper homepage.)
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