Posted on 09/27/2005 10:55:14 PM PDT by Crackingham
Parents in federal court Tuesday described an atmosphere of intimidation and anger when school board members in Dover, Pa., last year decided to require high school biology teachers to read a statement that casts doubt on the theory of evolution. Bryan Rehm, a parent who also taught physics at Dover High School, testified of continual pressure from board members not to "teach monkeys-to-man evolution." He said that the board required teachers to watch a film critical of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and that board members talked openly of teaching creationism alongside evolution. The atmosphere became so heated that neighbors began to call him an "atheist with . . . a lot of words added on to it," Rehm said. He said that "it was turning into a real zoo" and that students were quarreling about evolution.
Rehm is one of 11 people from Dover, a small town south of Harrisburg, who want to block their school board from requiring the reading of that four-paragraph statement that criticizes evolutionary theory. The statement notes that "intelligent design" offers an alternative theory for the origin and evolution of life -- namely, that life in all of its complexity could not have arisen without the help of an intelligent hand. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are representing the parents, along with lawyers from Pepper Hamilton LLP.
Advocates of intelligent design, who include a small band of scientists and philosophers, are silent on whether that intelligent hand belongs to God or perhaps some other being. "It will be clear that this isn't about religion," said Allan Bonsell, a school board member who has attended the opening two days of the trial. "We're not teaching intelligent design. We're making the kids aware of it."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
If evolution is fact, it will easily withstand the challenges posed by ID. If it is bunk, you would think scientists would be the first to want to know. The way to win is to learn more, and the way to learn more is to meet challenges as they arise. Free speech is all about letting the best ideas prevail.
Just like Global warming, use a few observations to create a theory and then force the remaining facts to fit the theory. If anyone disagrees or brings to light facts contrary to the prescribed theory, simply call them ignorant.
Have to disagree with you there. Neither Evolution nor Intelligent Design are religions. Enviormentalism seems to be a religion to some atheistic urbanites; presumably evolution is part of the doctrine, but I do not think it is necessarily against all Christian doctrine. It depends on whether or not you take the story of Creation in Genesis literally or like as a metaphor (like Daniel's prophecy concerning the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman empires, or the Christ's revelation to John etc).
hmmm..
Of course, the tenets of atheism, socialism and agnoticism needed a unified religion of their own. They got it in "Evolution".
Rehm is one of 11 people from Dover, a small town south of Harrisburg, who want to block their school board from requiring the reading of that four-paragraph statement that criticizes evolutionary theory. The statement notes that "intelligent design" offers an alternative theory for the origin and evolution of life -- namely, that life in all of its complexity could not have arisen without the help of an intelligent hand.<<
OOOH a four paragraph statement is the end of evolutionary theories. Imagine that, criticism of a theory. I'm with you. If it it so weak that pointing a student to an ID book to study out of class is terrible, it is a theory ahead of its evidence.
DK
More like a theory without any semblence of evidence.
Oddly enough, I've never gone that far. I've heard of one case of speciation, Goatsbeard (a plant). There is some genetics that seem interesting, covered by a TON of unsupportable hype.
NS evolution has:
Crappy definitions (species is one)
Crappy logic (bones that have a different species definitions than we use for live animals, show something about current species) (how do you determine the species of a germ) etc.
Blithe ignorance Mergers are not in the trees (it's inconvenient)
Overblown utility Evolution is the underpinning theory of all biology. So what major application has it had in technology?
NS evolution is a minor theory. It may develop now the real scientists are looking at it or it may change.
We grow with triumphs and failures. Some people just don't realize it.
DK
And the backing of the Anti Christian Libeling Union.
Funny, the death of Darwin's Daughter rarely makes a mention on these threads - nor the fact that his mother died when he was eight.
The fact that Darwin's only credentialed degree he earned was in Theology is not discussed much either.
He earned it from Christ's College, Cambridge.
Religion, believe what you want.
The point that Evolution is a Religion is that there is a lot of faith being put into something where there are millions of other of potential solutions.
ID has yet to pose a scientific challenge.
The similarity of DNA among the species, like between chimps and humans does not seem to have any other reasonable explanation I am aware of, although I am certainly open to hearing about them.
You haven't heard the latest discovery then, Scientists are shocked to find that genomes are infinite.
We should make a new rule, anyone who uses a) the race card, b) services of the Anti Christian Libeling Union, and c) "emanations of the penumbra" ought to be immediately dismissed and/or disbarred.
What's your specific problem with these? What specific reason do you have for calling Piltdown "infamous"?
The Archopteryx was a forgery created to make a link between birds and dinosaurs. Piltdown man was a fabricated skeleton designed to be the "missing link" between ape and man. Both are frauds.
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