Posted on 05/09/2005 11:35:25 PM PDT by Crackingham
While Kansas State Board of Education members spent three days soaking up from critics of evolution about how the theory should be taught in public schools, many scientists refused to participate in the board's public hearings. But evolution's defenders were hardly silent last week, nor are they likely to be Thursday, when the hearings are set to conclude. They have offered public rebuttals after each day's testimony. Their tactics led the intelligent design advocates -- hoping to expose Kansas students to more criticism of evolution -- to accuse them of ducking the debate over the theory. But Kansas scientists who defend evolution said the hearings were rigged against the theory. They also said they don't see the need to cram their arguments into a few days of testimony, like out-of-state witnesses called by intelligent design advocates.
"They're in, they do their schtick, and they're out," said Keith Miller, a Kansas State University geologist. "I'm going to be here, and I'm not going to be quiet. We'll have the rest of our lives to make our points."
The scientists' boycott, led by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Kansas Citizens for Science, frustrated board members who viewed their hearings as an educational forum.
"I am profoundly disappointed that they've chosen to present their case in the shadows," said board member Connie Morris, of St. Francis. "I would have enjoyed hearing what they have to say in a professional, ethical manner."
Intelligent design advocates challenge evolutionary theory that natural chemical processes can create life, that all life on Earth had a common origin and that man and apes had a common ancestor. Intelligent design says some features of the natural world are best explained by an intelligent cause because they are well ordered and complex. The science groups' leaders said Morris and the other two members of the board subcommittee presiding at the hearings already have decided to support language backed by intelligent design advocates. All three are part of a conservative board majority receptive to criticism of evolution. The entire board plans to consider changes this summer in standards that determine how students will be tested statewide in science.
Alan Leshner, AAAS chief executive officer, dismissed the hearings as "political theater."
"There is no cause for debate, so why are they having them?" he said. "They're trying to imply that evolution is a controversial concept in science, and that's absolutely not true."
I just think biologists are intimidated by the word "intelligent".
LOL
Here's Showtime's description of the upcoming (3rd season), show:
New Episode
Monday, May 16th at 10 pm ET/PT
Today, it's hip to have a therapist. In fact, you're really "in" if you skip doc's diagnosis and head straight to a "Life Coach" for motivation. The training of psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health "professionals" does little or nothing to make them better equipped as counselors or therapists. We'll reveal the bullsh*t that Freud made famous, and we'll find out what the experts think about the degree to which drug therapy is being used. Is it really helping? Or, are we over-medicating our way to an unknown future.We'll expose the truth behind the lucrative mind games industry, tracing its history to the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. We'll weave our way through all the trends in psychobabble, including the latest scam, life coaching. We'll catch coaches in action as they celebrate International Coaching Week with an array of events and activities. To top it all off, we'll create our own psychotherapist and thread him throughout the show. Skip the therapy & coaching, talk to a good friend and take some notes during this episode of Bullsh*t!
Replacement of potentially objectionable vowels is mine.
I'll keep an open mind about ID or creationism when I see some actual evidence for it.
Sounds fun! I'll have to check it out!
Maybe he went to a high school where the students weren't allowed to know what they were learning and the teachers weren't allowed to know what they were teaching.
It may be hard to understand at the High School level, but it's not weak at any level. And there's no evidence for anything else.
It's nice to know that I write software that control spacecraft with ... theology.
Or is that witchcraft?
I've always been math challenged. I can get completly lost trying to understand graphic transformations that only have 10 variables or so. But I can keep the structure and varable list in my head of 20k lines of code.
You apparently missed my point. I didn't mention creationism. I meant keep an open mind about the theory of evolution (which of course is actually many theories covering many topics).
Done.
That statement will have legs within the Democratic base. The stupidity of the Kansas school board handed them this gem.
It certianly is an unjustified conclusion. But it WILL be successfully sold to the left.
No, I did not, in fact, major in biology.
Obviously, it needs more work.
I keep an open mind about evolution too. Indeed, if something comes along that explains the evidence and observations of all those diverse scientific disciplines far better than evolution, and has evidence and observation to support it that does not also support evolution, I'll ditch ol' Darwin in a New York minute. However, I have yet to see any such coming out of those who sit on the sidelines and carp.
Then you clearly don't understand it. You're just hacking along to get the job done.
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