Posted on 09/28/2005 4:11:22 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A former physics teacher testified that his rural school board ignored faculty protests before deciding to introduce the theory of "intelligent design" to high school students.
"I saw a district in which teachers were not respected for their professional expertise," Bryan Rehm, a former teacher at Dover High School, said Tuesday.
Rehm, who now teaches in another district, is a plaintiff in the nation's first trial over whether public schools can teach "intelligent design."
Eight Dover families are trying to have the controversial theory removed from the curriculum, arguing that it violates the constitutional separation of church and state. They say it effectively promotes the Bible's view of creation.
Proponents of intelligent design argue that life on Earth was the product of an unidentified intelligent force, and that Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of highly complex life forms.
Aralene "Barrie" Callahan, a former member of the Dover school board and another plaintiff in the case, said that at least two board members made statements during meetings that made her believe the new policy was religiously based.
At a retreat in March 2003, a board member "expressed he did not believe in evolution and if evolution was part of the biology curriculum, creationism had to be shared 50-50," Callahan testified.
At a school board meeting in June 2004, when she was no longer on the board, Callahan recalled another board member complaining that a biology book recommended by the administration was "laced with Darwinism."
"They were pretty much downplaying evolution as something that was credible," she said.
In October 2004, the board voted 6-3 to require teachers to read a brief statement about intelligent design to students before classes on evolution. The statement says Darwin's theory is "not a fact" and has inexplicable "gaps," and refers students to an intelligent-design textbook for more information.
In a separate development Tuesday, two freelance newspaper reporters who covered the school board in June 2004 both invoked their First Amendment rights and declined to provide a deposition to lawyers for the school district.
Both are expected in court Wednesday to respond to a subpoena to testify at trial, said Niles Benn, a lawyer for the papers. Lawyers for the school district have questioned the accuracy of articles in which the reporters wrote that board members discussed creationism during public meetings.
In other testimony Tuesday, plaintiff Tammy Kitzmiller said that in January, her younger daughter opted out of hearing the statement - an option given all students - putting her in an awkward position.
"My 14-year-old daughter had to make the choice between staying in the classroom and being confused ... or she had to be singled out and face the possible ridicule of her friends and classmates," she said.
The Dover Area School District, which serves about 3,500 students, is believed to be the nation's first school system to mandate that students be exposed to the intelligent design concept. It argues it is not endorsing any religious view and only letting students know there are differences of opinion about evolution.
The non-jury trial is expected to take five weeks.
They would say that its all illusion. And they would be right.
You really don't believe in the Theory of Gravity?
Yeah ... one of his "secret" notebooks, too. LOL
And how hard was it for you "to look up" Ghiselin's book -- especially since I linked you to it.
And do you actually think he would quote Darwin if he thought Darwin was referring to biology/science instead of the supernatural (metaphysics)???
Read the quote again:
"Origion of man now proved. -- Metaphysics must flourish. - He who understands baboon would do more toward Metaphysics than Locke." --- Darwin, Notebook M, August 16, 1838
And then look at the Encyclopedia Britannica:
"...At this time, however, Darwin began to lead something of a double life. To the world he was busy preparing his Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle, which was published in 1839. ... Privately Darwin had begun a remarkable series of notebooks in which he initiated a set of questions and answers about "the species problem."
Secret little notebooks. how fascinating!
That's cold.
But evidently it's the Christian thing to do. WWJD? Point, laugh, and go 'ook ook ook', apparently.
The various factions of creationists were also discussed, including Young Earth Creationists, Old Earth Creationists, and Special Creation. Dr. Pennock stated that intelligent design is an attempt to unite the factions.
"It is a strategy to unite against a common enemy," he said.
Methinks this guy sounds like Joe Biden during the Roberts hearings.
Sure, until he said "they would be right."
Belief does not change scientific fact. People are free to not accept the Theory of Gravity, but that doesn't make it any less so.
What?
Care to share some of your knowledge about the actual intent of the founding fathers regarding the Establishment Clause?
We can be absolutely, beyond-a-scintilla-of-a-doubt certain that they didn't object to the teaching of Creationism in tax-funded schools. Do you disagree?
You are free, of course, to disbelieve in the Theories of both Evolution and Gravity. Just don't profess that your personal belief is anything but that.
I might suggest that you don't step off a high cliff, even in your enlightened state. ; )
It isn't so much the number of witnesses, it's more to do with their credibility. What's interesting in this case, according to the reporters' affidavits accepted by the plaintiffs in lieu of deposition testimony, is that apparently the board meetings where these statements were made may have been recorded. If this is a fact, and the recordings have somehow disappeared, that would be a very interesting comment on the credibility of the Board.
But can billions of Indians and Chinese be wrong?
I disagree that they would have taught it as science, yes.
Many or most of them might not have had a problem with religious instruction in taxpayer-funded schools. But instead of making that argument, the proponents of ID have tried a stealth campaign to get their vision of God in public schools. They're trying to re-write the definitions of words in an attempt to sneak faith into science classes.
And personally, I have a very hard time believing that any of the Founders would endorse that sort of dishonest tactic.
You forgot the /sarcasm tag, unless you are seriously suggesting that scientific fact is somehow subject to popular vote.
Heck, many creationists have indeed tried to use that tactic, so you may well be serious. I'd prefer to believe that you're just yanking my chain. ; )
Sarcasm tag, thats what I'm missing, thanks.
"Or maybe this other Michael Ruse?" ~ js1138
He seems as conflicted as Darwin was, doesn't he. Maybe he also lives somewhat of a double life like Darwin did. Ya think?
I wonder if it causes him psychosomatic aliments --painful flatulence, vomiting, insomnia, palpitations--, too. LOL
Encyclopedia Britannica: (excerpts):
"...At this time, however, Darwin began to lead something of a double life. To the world he was busy preparing his Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle, which was published in 1839. ... Privately Darwin had begun a remarkable series of notebooks in which he initiated a set of questions and answers about "the species problem." .... Darwin kept this interest secret while he gathered evidence to substantiate his theory of organic evolution.
..There was no place in Darwin's world for divine intervention, nor was mankind placed in a position of superiority vis-a-vis the rest of the animal world. Darwin saw man as part of a continuum with the rest of nature, not separated by divine injunction.
After the publication of the Origin, Darwin continued to write, while friends, especially Huxley, defended the theory before the public. ...
...Darwin met the issue of human evolution head-on in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), in which he elaborated on the controversial subject only alluded to in the Origin. ...
The second half of the book elaborated upon the theory of sexual selection. Darwin observed that in some species males battle other males for access to certain females. But in other species, such as peacocks, there is a social system in which the females select males according to such qualities as strength or beauty. Twentieth-century biologists have expanded this theory to the selection by females of males who can contribute toward the survival of their offspring; i.e., female selection secures traits that make the next generation more competitive.
Although Darwin's description of female choice was roundly rejected by most scientists at the time, he adamantly defended this insight until the end of his life. While not universally accepted today, the theory of female choice has many adherents among evolutionary biologists.
The last of Darwin's sequels to the Origin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), was an attempt to erase the last barrier presumed to exist between human and nonhuman animals--the idea that the expression of such feelings as suffering, anxiety, grief, despair, joy, love, devotion, hatred, and anger is unique to human beings.
Darwin connected studies of facial muscles and the emission of sounds with the corresponding emotional states in man and then argued that the same facial movements and sounds in nonhuman animals express similar emotional states. This book laid the groundwork for the study of ethology, neurobiology, and communication theory in psychology. ..
Throughout his career Darwin wrote two kinds of books--those with a broad canvas, such as the evolution quartet, and those with a narrow focus ...
Darwin worked alone at home, leading the life of an independent scientist (a privileged existence open to a fortunate few in Victorian England). Money from Robert Darwin made it unnecessary for Charles to seek employment.
After his return from the voyage Darwin knew he would never become a clergyman like his mentor, Henslow. Nor would he remain a bachelor like his brother, Erasmus, who was a man-about-town.
After drawing up lists of the benefits and drawbacks of marriage, he proposed to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood, whom he married on Jan. 29, 1839. She brought fortune, devotion, and considerable housewifely skills that enabled him to work in peace for the next 40 years.
Newly married, the Darwins moved into a house on Gower Street in London, but within a few years Darwin's increasingly poor health prompted them to move to the country. In 1842 the Darwins moved into Down House in the village of Downe, Kent, only 16 miles from London but remote from easy access to the city.
Charles and Emma Darwin had 10 children: two died in infancy and a third, Anne, died at age 10. The surviving five sons went away to school. George, Francis, and Horace became distinguished scientists, and Leonard, a major in the royal army, was an engineer and eugenicist.
William Erasmus was undistinguished, as were his sisters, who prepared at home to follow their mother into marriage. Henrietta married; Elizabeth remained single at Down.
Darwin was devoted to his wife and daughters but treated them as children, obliging Emma to ask him for the only key to the drawers containing all the keys to cupboards and other locked depositories.
Darwin noted in The Descent that the young of both sexes resemble the adult female in most species and reasoned that males are more evolutionarily advanced than females.
His attitude toward women coloured his scientific insights. "The female is less eager than the male," he wrote, "She is coy," and when she takes part in choosing a mate, she chooses "not the male which is most attractive to her, but the one which is least distasteful."
...Comfortable in English society, Darwin treasured his place and feared alienating those who he knew would be offended by his theory. ...
The once adventurous young naturalist was a semi-invalid before his 40th year.
Darwin's illness has been the subject of extensive speculation. Some of the symptoms--painful flatulence, vomiting, insomnia, palpitations--appeared in force as soon as he began his first transmutation notebook, in 1837.
Although he was exposed to insects in South America and could possibly have caught Chagas' or some other tropical disease, a careful analysis of the attacks in the context of his activities points to psychogenic origins.
Throughout the next decades Darwin's maladies waxed and waned. But during the last decade of his life, when he concentrated on botanical research and no longer speculated about evolution, he experienced the best health since his years at Cambridge. ...
Darwin died at Down House on April 19, 1882. ... his work remains central to modern evolutionary theory.
Excerpted from the Encyclopedia Britannica without permission.
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/darwinism.html
It was taught as a fact, and if someone objected the Founders would have had the objector take it up with their school board, not a court.
I'm using "creationism" as the example since it was the case at the time. "Creationism" and ID are not synonymous.
Would either of you object to teaching that life developed without a designer?
I think there's a legal presumption that the records would be harmful to the people who "lost" them. That would tie in with the affidavits very nicely.
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