Posted on 03/23/2005 10:48:58 PM PST by Quick1
TALLAHASSEE — Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism” by “dictator professors” in the classrooms of Florida’s universities.
The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, passed 8-to-2 despite strenuous objections from the only two Democrats on the committee.
The bill has two more committees to pass before it can be considered by the full House.
While promoting the bill Tuesday, Baxley said a university education should be more than “one biased view by the professor, who as a dictator controls the classroom,” as part of “a misuse of their platform to indoctrinate the next generation with their own views.”
The bill sets a statewide standard that students cannot be punished for professing beliefs with which their professors disagree. Professors would also be advised to teach alternative “serious academic theories” that may disagree with their personal views.
According to a legislative staff analysis of the bill, the law would give students who think their beliefs are not being respected legal standing to sue professors and universities.
Students who believe their professor is singling them out for “public ridicule” – for instance, when professors use the Socratic method to force students to explain their theories in class – would also be given the right to sue.
“Some professors say, ‘Evolution is a fact. I don’t want to hear about Intelligent Design (a creationist theory), and if you don’t like it, there’s the door,’” Baxley said, citing one example when he thought a student should sue.
(Excerpt) Read more at alligator.org ...
Is it too late to give Florida back to Spain?
I'm beginning to wonder myself.
It's not unlike the Bizarro World episode of Seinfeld.
"Sorry, we've already got a George..."
Who will pay for evolution if they can't get government to fund it?
"Creationism" does NOT BELONG IN A SCIENCE CLASS!
Ah, and evolution does?
The term "creationism" here is used to refer to IDers. IDers don't hold that the world was made in 6 days. They also don't denounce that biology and adapting played some roll.
So what, exactly, is your beef?
Or were you over-reacting a bit?
Intelligent Design and Creationism belong in a theology or philosophy class and shouldn't take up more than a footnote in a science class. Republicans need to be smart and not swing the pendulum too far right. I don't agree with this academic bill of rights, nor do I agree with tenure for professors. Can't students just go to class without being indoctrinated by people with a clear agenda?
A well rounded education? Wow. What a concept!
Creationism is referred to as a "theory", but so is evolution. Heck, the evolution theory was adopted from the Chinese egg legend, where a big egg exploded, and a gooey fish type lizard popped out and grew into a man. They got their legend from examining a human fetus. First it looks like a fish, then a lizard, then a monkey, and then a man.
Evolutionists say they have the skeletal remains of an evolving man, but they're missing one link. Somehow, they want us to believe an ape creature can change it's entire cerebral and spinal column from that of an ape to that of a bear in one quick "missing" jump and become a completely new creature - ta da! A man! Sheesh! .
You might be interested to see this.
"Creationism" does NOT BELONG IN A SCIENCE CLASS!
I agree with your approach, though I disagree with your reasoning on ID and evolutionism.
A simple 'nod' to adaptation (like the 'nod' I got towards gravity, seeings as we couldn't possibly cover all the info we DO have in a basic science class) would do. Cover the theory of evolution in biology and anthropology classes. They do that with the theory of gravity and physics classes.
The rest of the article is BS. They need to drop this "don't teach the holocaust" crap. Same with the Moon Landing and such. Get Big Brother out of my life!
Do you even have a shred of evidence for your claims?
So students have no rights in your opinion, particularly when they are the ones paying for an education?
Intelligent design is, and quantum physicists say a thought or...AHEM....a "word" (see the book of Genesis) had to have started it all.
Ever wonder why they've never done a DNA test on the evolved man skeletons? Well, they have. They're not human. That's why you haven't heard about it. It would destroy the entire Socialist Revolution. Decades of Government worship would be totally destroyed - and they've worked so darn hard to earn it, too.
I will point this out to you as well:
Where does it mention "Creationism"? Or "Young Earth"?
It mentions ID, which points to a logical thought about patterns that can be observed.
Conversly, we cannot witness a species changing from one phenotype to another. Where's the "observation" in that? Evolution is also, NOT scientific. At least, if ID isn't.
Gotta hold the same standards, ya know?
ID belongs in the class if evolution does.
The rant about "creationism" was knee-jerking.
The assertion of "intelligent design" is a topic which goes beyond science. Why? Because it is not possible to design an experiment which could potentially falsify the claim of intelligent design. Any scientific theory must possess this property of potential falsifiability. If a theory does not posses this property then the scientific method is not applicable and it therefore falls outside the scope of science. This doesn't not necessarily mean that it is not true. It just means that science has nothing to say about it and can say nothing about it.
Personally, I am partial to the idea of intelligent design, but this is a matter of faith, not science and therefore does not belong in a science class.
Ping!
Predict something with evolution. Go ahead.
I'll wait until I grow an extra thumb if you like.
Evolution is ALSO not scientific in the fact that it is NOT OBSERVABLE. Even in a lab setting, we have not witnessed one species change into another.
Lack of an observation makes it merely an idea. Just like unicorns.
HOWEVER: ID has as much bearing as evolution does in this debate. We can easily see how it is possible to form molecules into life. And also to engineer said life. We know this because we know that we are in fact made OF molecules. By observation. There at least is a theory of how to go about forming life via engineering.
If evolution needs to be sacrificed in order to start the ground swell of populust support required to get calculus out of the schools, then so be it.
BUNK
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