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Religious idea forced on classes, court told
Harrisburg Patriot-News ^ | 9/28/05 | Bill Sulon

Posted on 09/28/2005 11:15:47 PM PDT by Crackingham

Dover Area School District's policy of informing students about intelligent design was the culmination of efforts by some school board members to impose their religious beliefs on students in science class, three Dover Twp. residents testified yesterday.

"I feel they brought a religious idea into the classroom," Tammy Kitzmiller said of the district's policy, which mandates that teachers or administrators inform students that Darwinian evolution is "just a theory" with "gaps" and that "intelligent design is an explanation of origin of life that differs from Darwin's view."

Kitzmiller is one of 11 parents who, with support from the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the school board in an attempt to have the statement eliminated. They argue that it violates the principle of the separation of church and state. The ACLU wants to link religion to the Dover statement and argue that the connection violates the First Amendment ban on establishment of religion. The board's lawyers, from the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center, have said the statement is not rooted in religion.

"It is absolutely religiously based," said Aralene "Barrie" Callahan, who served on the school board from 1993 to 2003, when she lost her bid for re-election.

Callahan, testifying in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, called intelligent design "clearly religious" and said that a book mentioned in the district's statement, "Of Pandas and People," is "outdated" and "unworthy as a science book."

"Pandas" -- there are 50 copies in the Dover High School library -- raises questions about evolution and offers intelligent design as an alternative. Supporters of intelligent design believe the universe and many living things are so complex that they must have been created by an intelligent, higher being.

Callahan said school board member Alan Bonsell, while at a district-sponsored retreat in March 2003, said he "did not believe in evolution" and that if evolution needs to be part of the science curriculum, it should be balanced out "50-50" with lessons on creationism.

Callahan said her daughter went through 10th-grade science class at Dover without a biology textbook, because the district did not buy copies of the textbook that year. She said when she asked William Buckingham, then a school board member, why the district did not buy the textbook, he replied that it was "laced with Darwinism."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: aclu; acluagain; education; educrats; moralabsolutes; schools
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1 posted on 09/28/2005 11:15:49 PM PDT by Crackingham
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To: Crackingham
"..which mandates that teachers or administrators inform students that Darwinian evolution is "just a theory" with "gaps""

Much like the GAPS in evolutionists heads. Evolution makes as much sense as a junkyard crane randomly trying to put together pieces together with cars parts to make a functioning computer.

Blundering, atheistic boobs. All of em.

2 posted on 09/28/2005 11:18:29 PM PDT by Windsong (FighterPilot)
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Comment #3 Removed by Moderator

To: Windsong
Evolution makes as much sense as a junkyard crane randomly trying to put together pieces together with cars parts to make a functioning computer.

Blundering, atheistic boobs. All of em.

If junkyard parts had the habit of mating & producing little junkyard partlets that looked almost exactly like their parents (but a little bit different due to mutations), then you may have a point. But they don't, so you don't.

Since I'm an adult, I won't call you a creationist boob.

4 posted on 09/28/2005 11:31:06 PM PDT by jennyp (WHAT I'M READING NOW: my sterling prose)
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To: Windsong


idea forced on classes, court told.
All the other ideas are forced on classes, why is this idea so different?? What the hell are they so afraid of? Somebody might believe in god?? Oh the horror.


5 posted on 09/28/2005 11:34:02 PM PDT by calljack (Sometimes your worst nightmare is just a start.)
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To: Crackingham

Heavens!!! RELIGION???? Oh my!!! In Public schools??? Horrors!!! CREATION??? I think I'll faint!


6 posted on 09/28/2005 11:35:00 PM PDT by whenigettime
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To: Fred63

I always liked the idea that God made the Big Bang.
Can't really find anything in there for anybody to get upset with. There, I have solved the big question, now can I have fries with that burger??


7 posted on 09/28/2005 11:36:49 PM PDT by calljack (Sometimes your worst nightmare is just a start.)
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To: Windsong

Actually, most life forms are breathtakingly simple:
mix 2 parts booze, one part of hot air, one part of old money, one cup of ambition, a cup of connections, and a cup of leftism - and you get a kennedy. You do not even need to shake and bake. And the design of this recipe is surely not particularly intelligent, either.


8 posted on 09/28/2005 11:42:17 PM PDT by GSlob
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To: Windsong
Evolution makes as much sense as a junkyard crane randomly trying to put together pieces together with cars parts to make a functioning computer.

Didn't they do this? Isn't it called the Space Station?

9 posted on 09/28/2005 11:56:22 PM PDT by taxesareforever (Government is running amuck)
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To: Jay777

ping


10 posted on 09/29/2005 12:09:02 AM PDT by Cindy
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To: calljack
What the hell are they so afraid of? Somebody might believe in god?? Oh the horror.

Exactly. Also, they are afraid if they admit that any, no matter how finite, portion of their theory is false the whole wall will come tumbling down like dominoes.

11 posted on 09/29/2005 12:09:18 AM PDT by taxesareforever (Government is running amuck)
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To: taxesareforever; All

HUGE Troll alert!!!!!


12 posted on 09/29/2005 12:20:05 AM PDT by Rca2000 ( "What? No gravy? (POW!!) "Next time, remember the gravy!!!"(From "Chow Hound",1951.))
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To: Crackingham; PatrickHenry; <1/1,000,000th%; balrog666; BMCDA; Condorman; Dimensio; ...
Yesterdays recap.

I suppose it depends on where you live and what time you either end the party or get up for work whether we'll call this the late night or the early morning ping.

13 posted on 09/29/2005 1:43:55 AM PDT by shuckmaster (Free SeaLion and ModernMan!)
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To: Windsong
Evolution makes as much sense as a junkyard crane...

Does a junkyard crane give birth to and suckle little baby junkyard cranes who grow up to be adult junkyard cranes who then mate and bear little junkyard cranes of their own? If not, then your analogy is a severe display of ignorance that has absolutely nothing to do with the biological process of evolution.

14 posted on 09/29/2005 1:49:46 AM PDT by shuckmaster (Bring back SeaLion and ModernMan!)
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To: Fred63

"Oh, but I guess the belief that some guy comes out of nowhere and creates the entire universe makes more sense?

That "some guy" as you so ineptly put it is Father God, and yes it makes all the sense in the world. Amen.


15 posted on 09/29/2005 1:55:59 AM PDT by gakrak ("A wise man's heart is his right hand, But a fool's heart is at his left" Eccl 10:2)
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To: Crackingham
The solution is simple, let each parent pay for their own children's education. Not this "send our money to Washington and get some of it back in a voucher stuff".
If the parent wants their children indoctrinated with this evolution nonsense, let them pay for it just like I had to pay to send my kids to a Christian school.(I had to pay for public schools at the same time).
The poor would have to receive assistance to educate their children through the voucher system.
16 posted on 09/29/2005 2:10:57 AM PDT by liliesgrandpa
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To: Crackingham

As opposed to a homosexual agenda idea?


17 posted on 09/29/2005 2:18:29 AM PDT by Lancer_N3502A
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To: shuckmaster

Thanks. I'm looking for the right thread to ping for today. I'm keeping this down to one per day. If nothing better turns up, it'll be this thread. I'll decide soon.


18 posted on 09/29/2005 3:21:30 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Disclaimer -- this information may be legally false in Kansas.)
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To: liliesgrandpa
If the parent wants their children indoctrinated with this evolution nonsense,

Why do you call evolution "nonsense"? Be specific.
19 posted on 09/29/2005 3:59:52 AM PDT by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: Windsong
Blundering, atheistic boobs. All of em.

Someone has already explained the absurdity of your "junkyard crane" analogy, so I'll call you out on your false association of evolution with atheism. Not all who accept evolution are atheists; I daresay that the majority are not. This means that not only do you not understand evolution (hence your false analogy), but you also don't understand the people who accept it. As such, I do not see why you should be considered qualified to address the subject in any way, shape or form.
20 posted on 09/29/2005 4:01:54 AM PDT by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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