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Let's Have No More Monkey Trials - To teach faith as science is to undermine both
Time Magazine ^ | Monday, Aug. 01, 2005 | CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

Posted on 08/01/2005 10:58:13 AM PDT by wallcrawlr

The half-century campaign to eradicate any vestige of religion from public life has run its course. The backlash from a nation fed up with the A.C.L.U. kicking crèches out of municipal Christmas displays has created a new balance. State-supported universities may subsidize the activities of student religious groups. Monuments inscribed with the Ten Commandments are permitted on government grounds. The Federal Government is engaged in a major antipoverty initiative that gives money to churches. Religion is back out of the closet.

But nothing could do more to undermine this most salutary restoration than the new and gratuitous attempts to invade science, and most particularly evolution, with religion. Have we learned nothing? In Kansas, conservative school-board members are attempting to rewrite statewide standards for teaching evolution to make sure that creationism's modern stepchild, intelligent design, infiltrates the curriculum. Similar anti-Darwinian mandates are already in place in Ohio and are being fought over in 20 states. And then, as if to second the evangelical push for this tarted-up version of creationism, out of the blue appears a declaration from Christoph Cardinal Schönborn of Vienna, a man very close to the Pope, asserting that the supposed acceptance of evolution by John Paul II is mistaken. In fact, he says, the Roman Catholic Church rejects "neo-Darwinism" with the declaration that an "unguided evolutionary process--one that falls outside the bounds of divine providence--simply cannot exist."

Cannot? On what scientific evidence? Evolution is one of the most powerful and elegant theories in all of human science and the bedrock of all modern biology. Schönborn's proclamation that it cannot exist unguided--that it is driven by an intelligent designer pushing and pulling and planning and shaping the process along the way--is a perfectly legitimate statement of faith. If he and the Evangelicals just stopped there and asked that intelligent design be included in a religion curriculum, I would support them. The scandal is to teach this as science--to pretend, as does Schönborn, that his statement of faith is a defense of science. "The Catholic Church," he says, "will again defend human reason" against "scientific theories that try to explain away the appearance of design as the result of 'chance and necessity,'" which "are not scientific at all." Well, if you believe that science is reason and that reason begins with recognizing the existence of an immanent providence, then this is science. But, of course, it is not. This is faith disguised as science. Science begins not with first principles but with observation and experimentation.

In this slippery slide from "reason" to science, Schönborn is a direct descendant of the early 17th century Dutch clergyman and astronomer David Fabricius, who could not accept Johannes Kepler's discovery of elliptical planetary orbits. Why? Because the circle is so pure and perfect that reason must reject anything less. "With your ellipse," Fabricius wrote Kepler, "you abolish the circularity and uniformity of the motions, which appears to me increasingly absurd the more profoundly I think about it." No matter that, using Tycho Brahe's most exhaustive astronomical observations in history, Kepler had empirically demonstrated that the planets orbit elliptically.

This conflict between faith and science had mercifully abated over the past four centuries as each grew to permit the other its own independent sphere. What we are witnessing now is a frontier violation by the forces of religion. This new attack claims that because there are gaps in evolution, they therefore must be filled by a divine intelligent designer.

How many times do we have to rerun the Scopes "monkey trial"? There are gaps in science everywhere. Are we to fill them all with divinity? There were gaps in Newton's universe. They were ultimately filled by Einstein's revisions. There are gaps in Einstein's universe, great chasms between it and quantum theory. Perhaps they are filled by God. Perhaps not. But it is certainly not science to merely declare it so.

To teach faith as science is to undermine the very idea of science, which is the acquisition of new knowledge through hypothesis, experimentation and evidence. To teach it as science is to encourage the supercilious caricature of America as a nation in the thrall of religious authority. To teach it as science is to discredit the welcome recent advances in permitting the public expression of religion. Faith can and should be proclaimed from every mountaintop and city square. But it has no place in science class. To impose it on the teaching of evolution is not just to invite ridicule but to earn it.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: acanthostega; charleskrauthammer; creation; crevolist; faith; ichthyostega; krauthammer; science; scienceeducation; scopes; smallpenismen
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To: wallcrawlr
Evolution smevolution.
Everyone knows we were created by space aliens.
1,541 posted on 08/04/2005 6:13:04 AM PDT by Condor51 (Leftists are moral and intellectual parasites - Standing Wolf)
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To: Elsie

I am at least halfway there myself as well. I am beginning to suspect that zits might prove, in retrospect, to be not as bad as wrinkles and gray hair will be.


1,542 posted on 08/04/2005 6:19:30 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Analog Artist
 
Eleni121 and Elsie chanting....
 
"Digital....   Digital...   digital...."

1,543 posted on 08/04/2005 6:20:02 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going....)
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To: Rockingham

Hair???

You got HAIR???!


1,544 posted on 08/04/2005 6:21:17 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going....)
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To: Elsie

Hey, now, I said "biblical literalists/Young Earth Creationists" specifically because often I cannot tell what the heck these people actually believe. But, I've read people's comments on these boards that they think the Earth is only a few thousand years old.


1,545 posted on 08/04/2005 6:23:37 AM PDT by WildHorseCrash
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To: eleni121

If we're Creationists, why does both our screen names start with the letter "E"????


1,546 posted on 08/04/2005 6:24:22 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going....)
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To: Elsie

If we're Creationists, why does both our screen names start with the letter "E"????




Evolutionary my dear Elsie. Or maybe excellent.


1,547 posted on 08/04/2005 7:22:30 AM PDT by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
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To: Analog Artist

Wahhabi wannabes




Take a chill pill.

The fact that darwinists desperately want to control all thought in the classroom makes then somehow ---lenient and gentle practitioners of Democracy?

You got it backward.


1,548 posted on 08/04/2005 7:35:01 AM PDT by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
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To: eleni121
The fact that darwinists desperately want to control all thought in the classroom makes then somehow ---lenient and gentle practitioners of Democracy?

Yeah, let's overthrow the totalitarianism of math teachers and give equal time to the theory that pi = 3.

And pay no attention to the close working alliance between creationists and Turkish Islamists. Pointing out they're both theocratic absolutists who want to replace science education with fundamentalist religious instruction, and who actively collaborate to bring it about, is just 'guilt by association'.

1,549 posted on 08/04/2005 7:41:54 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor
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To: Alamo-Girl; xzins
Any attempt at using probability calculations to disprove abiogenesis is a waste of time partially because of the same reason. Without knowing the initial conditions, without being able to differentiate between life and non-life, and without knowing what minimum requirements are necessary for life the calculations have no meaning.

Unfortunately there are so many calculations out there that on the face of them look reasonable it is also necessary to debunk the assumptions made in those calculations.

Thanks for the response.

Not to get into a debate I have no ammunition for, but I noticed that you do not differentiate between prebiotics and modern complex organisms when considering the dividing line between life and non-life. Why?

1,550 posted on 08/04/2005 7:57:07 AM PDT by b_sharp (Science adjusts theories to fit evidence, creationism distorts evidence to fit the Bible.)
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To: chariotdriver
"DEMENTED LOOSES ?" He looses what, where?
1,551 posted on 08/04/2005 8:01:01 AM PDT by b_sharp (Science adjusts theories to fit evidence, creationism distorts evidence to fit the Bible.)
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To: xzins
"The most intriguing is "live rabbit versus dead rabbit." What is missing from one to the other that makes it no longer living? Great question."

A better question is what is the difference between a prion and a virus.

1,552 posted on 08/04/2005 8:03:23 AM PDT by b_sharp (Science adjusts theories to fit evidence, creationism distorts evidence to fit the Bible.)
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To: b_sharp

How about "what's the difference between a live human and a dead one?"

Isn't a prion a new hybrid car....:>)

(Think the competition will come out with the "New FORD Virus!"


1,553 posted on 08/04/2005 8:07:17 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It!)
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To: Elsie
"Aren't they amazing at this age! "

Absolutely.

"Human vacuum cleaners in the sense that they are just sucking up all kinds of knowledge!"

Yet still demand grandpa play with them like he did when they were 5.

My grandson is probably the most important person in my life right now. It may be a toss up between him and my wife.

1,554 posted on 08/04/2005 8:08:30 AM PDT by b_sharp (Science adjusts theories to fit evidence, creationism distorts evidence to fit the Bible.)
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To: Elsie
Thanks Elsie. xzins also explained it to me a few posts earlier. It's nice to see help is only a yell away.
1,555 posted on 08/04/2005 8:10:32 AM PDT by b_sharp (Science adjusts theories to fit evidence, creationism distorts evidence to fit the Bible.)
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To: Right Wing Professor
Yeah, let's overthrow the totalitarianism of math teachers and give equal time to the theory that pi = 3.

It's quite amusing that the supernaturalists are suddenly claiming that they're the victims of the "tyranny of science." First, we had religions (and not only Christians) that, when in their virulent, anti-reason mode, aggressively persecuted other views -- especially views of those who advocate reason. Socrates was sentenced to death, Bruno was burned at the stake, Galileo was kept under house arrest for life, etc. But science persisted despite these persecutions; and it's been successful.

In response, the anti-reason crowd tried to outlaw the teaching of science. That was the issue in the Scopes trial. The anti-reason crowd ended up looking like idiots. The Evolution Controversy. Scopes trial and some Supreme Court cases.

Then, the anti-reason crowd tried to get "balanced treatment." They failed.
McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education (1982). Arkansas statute for "balanced treatment" of "creation-science" & "evolution-science" is unConstitutional.

Now the anti-reason crowd has repackaged the old kool-aid as "Intelligent Design," in a transparently obvious effort to slip into science classrooms disguised as science, while chanting mantras like "freedom of speech" and "teach the controversy."

And when their age-old plot is exposed, they have the gall to claim that they're being persecuted!

1,556 posted on 08/04/2005 8:12:31 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. The List-O-Links is at my homepage.)
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To: Elsie
If you've got EIGHT strings and only the THIRD one can win, why aren't the odds one in eight?

Sorry about that. I realized the problem with it last night after going to bed. The 8 strings were selected from a group of 16 possible, using 4 positions of 2 possible letters.

1,557 posted on 08/04/2005 8:24:03 AM PDT by b_sharp (Science adjusts theories to fit evidence, creationism distorts evidence to fit the Bible.)
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To: Elsie
WOW! Great minds... (you know...)

At least there is one thing we agree on! ;o)

1,558 posted on 08/04/2005 8:25:17 AM PDT by malakhi
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To: xzins
The probability of the asked for outcome will remain so far out of the reach of the odds of each trial that it will effectively be zero.

Suppose, though, that the possibility of a specific occurrence happening is not once a week, or once a year, but rather billions or trillions of times per second. And suppose further that you aren't limited to 50 years, but have 500 million or a billion years to work with. The odds become much more favorable.

1,559 posted on 08/04/2005 8:28:12 AM PDT by malakhi
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To: Dimensio
These unfair comparisons to Islam would make you think that creationists are inviting Islamic extremists to speak on their behalf.

And so far, no creationist has complained about this practice of using taxpayer money to fund Islamic extremists.

1,560 posted on 08/04/2005 8:35:19 AM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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