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Dispute over evolution goes on trial in U.S. court
Baltimore Sun ^ | September 26, 2005 | Arthur Hirsch

Posted on 09/26/2005 1:53:21 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

A Pennsylvania school district's use of "intelligent design" in its high school biology curriculum goes on trial in federal court today in the nation's first legal challenge to the idea, which contends that evolutionary theory alone does not explain how life on Earth took shape.

The lawsuit, brought by 11 parents in the Dover Area School District, attacks as unconstitutional the year-old policy of telling ninth-grade biology students that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution "is not a fact. Gaps in the Theory exist for which there is no evidence." School officials also recommend a book on intelligent design, or ID.

The plaintiffs, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, argue that the policy -- which does not require students to study intelligent design -- serves religious, not secular ends, violating the First Amendment.

ID proponents say scientists can look at life forms and identify the work of a controlling "intelligence," although ID advocates are not specific about the nature of that force. While they do not reject all evolutionary theory, ID proponents argue that it incorrectly insists life took shape purely through a mindless process.

(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: allcrevoallthetime; anothercrevothread; crevolist; crevorepublic; education; enoughalready; evolution; id; lawsuit; religion; scienceeducation
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To: mlc9852
I pity those who don't believe the Bible and that God is indeed the Creator. So I guess we can just pity each other.

I am an atheist, not an adeist.

281 posted on 09/26/2005 1:17:19 PM PDT by Antonello
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To: mlc9852

Your "truth" has no evidence to back it up.


282 posted on 09/26/2005 1:17:36 PM PDT by Vive ut Vivas
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To: mlc9852
So your truth is more truthful than my truth, is that what you are saying?

I am saying that you never intended to accept any proof even though you said you would. If that is the standard for your 'truth' then perhaps you are correct about what I am saying.

283 posted on 09/26/2005 1:22:09 PM PDT by Antonello
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To: Antonello
I am saying that you never intended to accept any proof even though you said you would. If that is the standard for your 'truth' then perhaps you are correct about what I am saying.

Case in point - post #275.
284 posted on 09/26/2005 1:25:48 PM PDT by Vive ut Vivas
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To: Antonello

Just why is it important to the evos that others believe as they believe? Kinda like religion, isn't it?


285 posted on 09/26/2005 1:27:58 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: Vive ut Vivas
the same that were claiming that the earth is the center of the universe.

I have it on good authority that the Earth was flat before it was spherical. Only at the close of the third age, when the last of the elves sailed to Eldamar was the globed Earth forever separated from the Undying Lands.

286 posted on 09/26/2005 1:28:47 PM PDT by malakhi
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To: mlc9852

Because science isn't just whatever you "believe". The postmodernists haven't taken over yet.


287 posted on 09/26/2005 1:30:06 PM PDT by Vive ut Vivas
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To: Vive ut Vivas

Of course science is what you believe. Do you know there are some scientists who discount Darwin's version of evolution? Does that make them less intelligent than you?


288 posted on 09/26/2005 1:32:13 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: Gumlegs
You'd be surprised how well this sells.

It wouldn't even have to taste good.

289 posted on 09/26/2005 1:34:43 PM PDT by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: mlc9852

Most evolutionists don't care what others personally believe, but they do start caring when people try to insert religious dogma ("intelligent design") cloaked as science into the public schools.


290 posted on 09/26/2005 1:35:55 PM PDT by JasonSC
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To: mlc9852
Just why is it important to the evos that others believe as they believe?

It is important to science that it remain a discipline that relies on evidence and the testing of that evidence. Broadening its scope to include religious, mythical, and other supernatural musings erodes its ability to function as a tool for studying and defining physical existence.

Kinda like religion, isn't it?

No.

291 posted on 09/26/2005 1:36:05 PM PDT by Antonello
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To: Quark2005
This is what I don't understand:

...understand that the theory is of great use to biological scientists...

It seems to me that much (perhaps all) biological science investigation could continue unchanged, without being affected by an evolution or creation backdrop.

Just how does the notion of evolution make scientific investigation more valid?

I suppose I'm looking for the practical implications of pushing evolution and squelching creation. I don't see how a belief in creation is such a horrendous thing that will somehow stop scientific investigation, as many on these threads infer. I think it's absolutely nuts to say that you have to accept evolutionary theory to "do real science"...abso-freaking-lutely nuts.

292 posted on 09/26/2005 1:38:31 PM PDT by KMJames
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To: mlc9852
Of course science is what you believe.

I am relishing the fact that this is coming from someone who would call us relativists.

Do you know there are some scientists who discount Darwin's version of evolution? Does that make them less intelligent than you?

The theory of evolution has advanced in the 150 years since Darwin. So, naturally, scientists don't subscribe to evolution exactly as Darwin articulated in Origin of Species.
293 posted on 09/26/2005 1:41:10 PM PDT by Vive ut Vivas
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To: Vive ut Vivas

I didn't call you a relativist, did I? I can't imagine I would since I don't know what that would have to do with evolution.


294 posted on 09/26/2005 1:43:38 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: RadioAstronomer
Did you take some time to look at the links I provided yet?

They won't. Since the links do not support creationism, they are automatically wrong. No need to waste precious minutes reading them!
295 posted on 09/26/2005 1:44:22 PM PDT by Vive ut Vivas
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To: mlc9852
I didn't call you a relativist, did I? I can't imagine I would since I don't know what that would have to do with evolution.

Neither do I. But one of the main creationist arguments against evolution is that it "promotes moral relativism" and the "religion of materialism". Or something. I'm glad that I'm not going to hear that from you, at least.

Anyway, science is not whatever you believe. As a scientist, you have to accept the evidence that exists. There are more than four elements regardless of whether or not you "feel" that only earth, wind, fire, and water exist.
296 posted on 09/26/2005 1:50:25 PM PDT by Vive ut Vivas
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To: Vive ut Vivas

Evidence can always be interpreted more than one way. Any scientist will tell you that.


297 posted on 09/26/2005 1:51:30 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: hyperkitty
Flapdoodle?????

about all that the lion share of 'creationists' and their 'id' brethren can understand

298 posted on 09/26/2005 1:53:52 PM PDT by Vaquero (" an armed society is a polite society" Robert Heinlein)
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To: mlc9852

It has been proven over and over to you...please open your eyes.


299 posted on 09/26/2005 1:55:01 PM PDT by Vaquero (" an armed society is a polite society" Robert Heinlein)
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To: Vaquero

No one has proved to me that humans descended from apes.


300 posted on 09/26/2005 1:57:09 PM PDT by mlc9852
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