Posted on 10/27/2005 1:41:22 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A former school board member who denied advocating that creationism be taught alongside evolution in high-school biology classes changed his story Thursday after lawyers in a federal courtroom played a TV news clip that recorded him making such a comment.
William Buckingham explained the discrepancy by saying that he "misspoke."
Buckingham's testimony came in the fifth week of testimony in a lawsuit filed by eight families who are challenging the Dover Area School District's policy that students hear a statement about intelligent design in biology classes. Critics say intelligent design is a repackaging of the biblical view of creation and thus violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
Buckingham, who led the board's curriculum committee when it approved the policy a year ago, confirmed Thursday that he said during a June 2004 board meeting that the biology textbook is "laced with Darwinism." The clip that was shown later in the day came from an interview that he gave to a news crew from WPMT-TV in York later in the month.
"It's OK to teach Darwin," he said in the interview, "but you have to balance it with something else, such as creationism."
Asked to explain by a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Buckingham said he felt "ambushed" by the camera crew as he walked across a parking lot to his car and that he had been consciously trying to avoid mentioning creationism.
"I had it in my mind to make sure not to talk about creationism. I had it on my mind. I was like a deer in the headlights. I misspoke," he told U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III, who is presiding over the non-jury trial.
Earlier in Thursday's court session, Buckingham claimed that he had been misquoted in stories from two newspapers that reported his advocating the teaching of creationism to counterbalance the material on evolution.
"It's just another instance when we would say intelligent design and they would print creationism," he said.
When Stephen Harvey, the plaintiffs' lawyer, noted the similarity of the newspaper reports to what he told the TV crew, Buckingham replied, "That doesn't mean it's accurate."
Buckingham moved to North Carolina in July and resigned from the board, citing health problems.
The statement that the Dover teachers are required to read before ninth-grade biology lessons on evolution says Darwin's theory is not a fact and has inexplicable gaps. It refers students to a textbook, "Of Pandas and People," for more information.
Intelligent design supporters argue that natural selection, an element of evolutionary theory, cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of highly complex life forms.
The trial began Sept. 26 and could last through early November.
The plaintiffs are represented by a team put together by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The school district is being represented by the Thomas More Law Center, a public-interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich., that says its mission is to defend the religious freedom of Christians.
Actually, most of these people aren't intentionally lying -- except for a hard-core few who have their bogus quotes exposed, and who then go on to repeat them. For the others, I think they're genuinely clueless, and couldn't distinguish fact from fantasy under any circumstances. So they're just repeating comforting slogans. The real liars are the creationist websites where the creationist posters get their material. And of course, the Discovery Institute -- truly Satan's HQ on earth.
I had lumped AIG in with all but some type of war is going on. AIG posts an inteview leading with "Behe is not our friend" and AID has pointed out fraud like the use of the Ica stones to support man co-existing with dinosaurs.
And of course, the Discovery Institute -- truly Satan's HQ on earth.
Methinks you're giving them too much credit. But it's good for their ego, which will hopefully propel them further in the wrong direction, making my life easier.
The war is for the money from dupes who buy the videos and books. AiG loves to put the boot in on Discovery or DrDino, and vice versa. Religion is nothing to do with it; they are con-man rivals after the same marks, that's all.
I vote for AIG. But DI and AIG are the two towers.
Public schools were a very bad idea that needs to be forgotten and defunded. That would sure take care of all these endless wars about who makes the ultimate decision concerning their children's curriculum.
Nobody could complain or whine if the Public schools were erased in favor of private schools of choice.
Private schools are far superior in almost every case.
Hmmm. I wonder. If that is all it is about, then maybe what we are seeing here is like on the stock bulletin boards - paid spammers pumping and dumping ...
Especially thost that teach that the earth is only 6000 years old, right?
The war is for the money from dupes who buy the videos and books. AiG loves to put the boot in on Discovery or DrDino, and vice versa. Religion is nothing to do with it; they are con-man rivals after the same marks, that's all.
Unfortunately, IMHO, the 'dupes' can vote.
I had it on my mind to call for the end of Government Schools as we know it so homeschoolers can teach all the false mythology they want. But I just misspoke.
My post was inoperative.
I guess I have too much libertarian in me to want to favor the increased government coercion that I think was represented when the public schools were created.
If parents want to send their kids to a private school they like, I don't have a problem with that, I am sorry that you do, but I will bet if you think it through, you will reconsider.
So you are in favor of teaching school children that God may be dead?
I guess I don't have that much libertarian in me.
If parents want to send their kids to a private school they like, I don't have a problem with that, I am sorry that you do, but I will bet if you think it through, you will reconsider.
Watergate "I can't recall" redux.
Placemarker
Always flip-flopping, and denying what they are known to have said...pretending they are pro-science when they are totally ignorant about it...forming alliances with shuckster lawyers...I'm surprised that the IDiots didn't vote en masse for Kerry, when they have so much in common.
Okay, great, I think we are in agreement on this one then
You need to reread my post, I am for privatization of the education system, always have been. I am for the complete elimination of public schools.
We all need to work to get this movement against public schools rolling on FR, it would be a great thing for freedom of education and it would eliminate all the politics involved and just focus on education.
Separation of Education and State is the non-coercive, free-market solution. Educational content would no longer be a political hot potato, and the market place would not only dictate what schools taught, but what their graduates were worth in the labor market after having been through their respective curricula.
Personally, I have no doubt whose kids are going to end up flipping burgers, and whose are going to be placing their orders at the drive through while driving their expensive cars. Actions have consequences, and in the 21st century the economic consequences of putting children through a school system whose curriculum is fundamentally anti-reality will be profound.
I thought you were in favor of private schools.
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