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[Pennsylvania] Gov. Rendell backs evolution
York Daily Record [Penna] ^ | 30 September 2005 | NICOLE FREHSEE

Posted on 09/30/2005 7:45:00 AM PDT by PatrickHenry

The Campaign to Defend the Constitution, a group organized to promote the teaching of evolution, sent letters Thursday to all 50 governors, urging them to ensure that science classes teach material based on established science.

The letters were signed by more than 100 scientists and clergy of various faiths, the group said.

Although Gov. Ed Rendell had not received the letters as of Thursday afternoon, spokeswoman Kate Philips said he is committed to the idea of teaching evolution in science classes.

Rendell "believes that (intelligent design) is more than appropriate to be taught in religion classes, but has no room in science classes in public schools," Philips said. "But this is in the court's hands now, and other than his opinion, he has no influence."

But a spokeswoman for DefCon, the group's nickname for itself, said the group hopes that after governors receive the letter, they will make a public announcement opposing the teaching of intelligent design.

"It would be nice if (Rendell) took a stance and said, whether it's in the Dover district or any other Pennsylvania district, 'We need to protect the teaching of science in our science classrooms,'" Jessica Smith said.

The group named Dover its top "Island of Ignorance" in the country. It has targeted areas in the country where it says evolution is being challenged at the state level or in public school science classrooms. They include Cobb County, Ga.; Kansas; Blount County, Tenn.; Ohio; Grantsburg, Wisc.; Alabama; Utah; South Carolina; and Florida.

Advocates of intelligent design say life is so complex that it is likely the result of deliberate design by some unidentified creator, not random evolutionary mutation and adaptation.

Critics say it is essentially creationism and violates the separation of church and state when it becomes part of a public school curriculum.

"We can do better when we let science do its job, and ask religion to do its job," former ACLU executive director Ira Glasser said Thursday, "and if there's a need for conversation, please, let's not do it in the classrooms of our children."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; Philosophy; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: crevolist; dover; evolution; oviraptor
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To: keithtoo
Certainly you must know that Eugenicists from Margaret Sanger to Hitler have used Evolution to excuse their evil schemes.

And terrorists use the science of chemistry to manufacture explosives to kill civilians. What's the point here?

Whether or not people misuse scientific knowledge has nothing to do with whether or not it is true. Not only that, but any evolutionary biologist will tell you that eugenics was based on the misunderstanding of evolution - all the more reason to make sure it is taught accurately.

141 posted on 09/30/2005 12:04:15 PM PDT by Quark2005 (Where's the science?)
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To: keithtoo

So Darwin believed apes and Negroes were closely related? Is that what he said?


142 posted on 09/30/2005 12:04:38 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: Antonello; Dimensio

See my previous post to realize that my first post was correct as written. You are wrong, but will be forgiven if you humbly admit your error and promise to amend your ways.


143 posted on 09/30/2005 12:05:14 PM PDT by keithtoo (Howard Dean is a Rove plant, Rove is a NeoCon plant, NeoCons are Trilateralist plants....)
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To: doc30

If you're tired of repeating yourself, why bother?


144 posted on 09/30/2005 12:05:22 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: mlc9852

Look it up for yourself.


145 posted on 09/30/2005 12:06:23 PM PDT by keithtoo (Howard Dean is a Rove plant, Rove is a NeoCon plant, NeoCons are Trilateralist plants....)
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To: keithtoo

I can pretty much guarantee that won't happen, at least with Dimensio! LOL


146 posted on 09/30/2005 12:06:40 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: mlc9852
The atheists want to make sure ID isn't in the schools.

ID is an issue that easily makes conservatives look like fools. So organizations such as the ACLU, which is primarily a leftist political organization, not necessarily an atheist organization, goes after ID.

It's no different that when the left went after guns a decade ago. ID is simply a handy attack point. And it wouldn't be if you people would figure out that evolution isn't an atheist dogma and go on to some other subject.

147 posted on 09/30/2005 12:07:01 PM PDT by narby
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To: keithtoo
Fair enough. Can I then discount the bible for having racist overtones?

When a slave owner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner's property. (Exod. 21:20-21)
148 posted on 09/30/2005 12:07:07 PM PDT by Mr. Blonde (You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
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To: Quark2005
BTW, I would never try to prove creation wrong in a science classroom- this can't be done. It is a non-falsifiable concept. I would demonstrate why it is a non-scientific model.

No, but if it's forced into the classroom, science will point out that there's no evidence for such events as a global flood. I really don't think creationists or ID advocates are really prepared for the way this would be taught.

149 posted on 09/30/2005 12:07:20 PM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: narby

You obviously don't know much about the ACLU or you are being intentionally dishonest. You don't think they are an atheist organization? Seriously? Come on, you know better than that. But don't be ashamed - I'm sure the ACLU does a lot of good in American! SARCASM


150 posted on 09/30/2005 12:08:32 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: narby

Interesting thoughts, narby...I can't refute the lawsuit and public school comment, but I do stipulate that says more about the lunacy of government sponsored education than about the foibles of ID.
Your comment about liberals I find fascinating, albeit utterly puzzling...are you advancing a theory that if we conservatives stand shoulder to shoulder with them on an issue they will see the error of their ways and embrace us with the greatest of celerity? That they will then love us and whisper sweet nothings of agreement with conservative thought in our ears? That if we were to firmly reject any argument that, however meek in its assertions, dares at all to impinge upon the holy writ of evolution, that liberals will respond in kind and admit to the virtue of the war on terror?
As I say, interesting theory...


151 posted on 09/30/2005 12:09:39 PM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: Mr. Blonde
I cannot stop you from doing what you will, but I can tell you that you are wrong if you do.

Christ didn't die for any particular race of people, even though he was from a 'peculiar' race of people himself. Not everyone is treated equally - in this life - in the Bible, that is for sure. I believe that everyone will, in the end, have equal justice applied to their lives.

152 posted on 09/30/2005 12:11:34 PM PDT by keithtoo (Howard Dean is a Rove plant, Rove is a NeoCon plant, NeoCons are Trilateralist plants....)
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To: keithtoo
"Certainly you must know that Eugenicists from Margaret Sanger to Hitler have used Evolution to excuse their evil schemes."

Certainly you know that Hitler wasn't an evolutionist but a creationist, right?

"Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent Creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise."

" It is a sin against the will of the Eternal Creator if His most gifted beings by the hundreds and hundreds of thousands are allowed to degenerate in the present proletarian morass, while Hottentots and Zulu Kaffirs are trained for intellectual professions."

"What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproductionof our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purityof our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that ourpeople may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the Creator of the universe."

He wasn't a Christian Creationist, but he did believe that God's most special creation was the Aryan Race and that it was a sin to destroy it. He didn't believe in evolution.

As for Sanger, she (as is true of most eugenicists)was more influenced by the new science of Mendelian genetics than evolutionary theory. That doesn't make Mendel the progenitor of race policies than it does Darwin.
153 posted on 09/30/2005 12:11:36 PM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman ("There is a grandeur in this view of life...")
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To: mlc9852

What didn't you understand about my post? Be specific, nothing in there very complicated. Quote it back to me and explain what you didn't get.


154 posted on 09/30/2005 12:12:04 PM PDT by Thatcherite (Conservative and Biblical Literalist are not synonymous)
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To: mlc9852

We always have hope.


155 posted on 09/30/2005 12:12:32 PM PDT by keithtoo (Howard Dean is a Rove plant, Rove is a NeoCon plant, NeoCons are Trilateralist plants....)
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To: mlc9852
Thanks for responding. That's a pretty silly response, however. Of course direct linearility is difficult to establish, and you'd understand that if you ever examined mosaics of primitive and derived traits. Moreover, every new transitional species creates two new "holes."

I never claimed that human origins were set in stone -- that we had an exact uncontroversial picture. That said, everyone -- the entire scientific community -- accepts that the species I listed are transitional between non-human apes and humans. Their exact place on the tree is debatable, but their presence on it is not.

156 posted on 09/30/2005 12:12:49 PM PDT by Alter Kaker (Whatever tears one may shed, in the end one always blows one’s nose.-Heine)
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To: CarolinaGuitarman
I am not one of them, but you must know that MANY people claim to believe in Creation (of a limited sort) and Evolution at the same time.

Hitler apparently had leanings toward Paganism, that much is true. He even claimed to admire Christ - not because of His teachings, but because He still had followers almost 2000 years after His appearance on Earth.

157 posted on 09/30/2005 12:15:49 PM PDT by keithtoo (Howard Dean is a Rove plant, Rove is a NeoCon plant, NeoCons are Trilateralist plants....)
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To: Thatcherite

Something about 20 million species and 8 people. Not sure where you are going with that.


158 posted on 09/30/2005 12:16:38 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: keithtoo
"I am not one of them, but you must know that MANY people claim to believe in Creation (of a limited sort) and Evolution at the same time.

Hitler apparently had leanings toward Paganism, that much is true. He even claimed to admire Christ - not because of His teachings, but because He still had followers almost 2000 years after His appearance on Earth."

And he wasn't an evolutionist, he was a special creationist (non-Christian).
159 posted on 09/30/2005 12:17:47 PM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman ("There is a grandeur in this view of life...")
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To: Alter Kaker

I'm sure there are those who would argue that apes and humans are not the same and never were. But this is all becoming tiresome as I have been at it all day. I guess we just have to agree to disagree until we have proof, which we probably never will in our lifetimes. I imagine when we die we'll know if we were right or wrong.


160 posted on 09/30/2005 12:18:33 PM PDT by mlc9852
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