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Board member to resume testimony in 'intelligent design' trial
Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, PA) ^ | 02 November 2005 | MARTHA RAFFAELE

Posted on 11/02/2005 3:35:41 AM PST by PatrickHenry

A school board member who was questioned by a federal judge about discrepancies in his testimony on the purchase of "intelligent design" textbooks was expected to return to the witness stand Wednesday.

Dover Area School Board member Alan Bonsell was to undergo redirect questioning by an attorney representing the board in a landmark trial over whether intelligent design can be introduced in high school science classes.

Bonsell testified Monday that he had received an $850 check from fellow board member William Buckingham. The check was made out to Bonsell's father, who volunteered to donate copies of "Of Pandas and People" to the district.

U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III asked Bonsell why he never shared that information in a January deposition when he was repeatedly asked under oath about who was involved in making the donation. Bonsell, who served as the board's president in 2004, said he misspoke. [Note to school board lawyers: When the judge asks your client why he's lying, it's usually not a good sign.]

Buckingham testified Thursday he collected $850 in donations to help purchase the books during a Sunday service at his church.

The board is defending its October 2004 decision to require students to hear a statement about intelligent design before ninth-grade biology lessons on evolution. The statement says Charles Darwin's theory is "not a fact," has inexplicable "gaps," and refers students to the textbook for more information.

Eight families are suing to have intelligent design removed from the biology curriculum because they believe the policy essentially promotes the Bible's view of creation, and therefore violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

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 is expected to conclude on Friday.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bearingfalsewitness; creationisminadress; crevolist; dover; rwc1tempertantrum
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To: Rightwing Conspiratr1
The State must shove Darwinism and athiesm down their throats until we eliminate this this scourge called Christianity.

Teaching Intelligent Design or Creationism -- so long as prior to either objectively succeeding in science, and therefore including them in curricula on the basis of "intellectual affirmative action" -- will do (and even the attempt has done) far, far more damage to Christianity.

Affirmative action is usually a disaster when applied to persons (i.e. apart from very special and limited circumstances), but it's always damaging (and discrediting) to ideas which receive its "help".

21 posted on 11/02/2005 7:36:24 AM PST by Stultis
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===> Placemarker <===
22 posted on 11/02/2005 7:37:49 AM PST by Coyoteman (I love the sound of beta decay in the morning!)
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To: WildHorseCrash
Would it shock you to know he was writing in 1833, well before the passage of the 14th Amendment, and that his views are a minority view of what the law is???

Well Duh! The 14th amendment did not change the meaning of 1st amendment and did not institute a WALL of SEPARATION. Only liberals, communists, athiest monkey worshippers and other anti-conservative neo-nazi swine believe that FDR's socialist/communist packed court did not change the meaning of the law.

Jesus Christ belongs in the public schools.

23 posted on 11/02/2005 7:39:22 AM PST by Rightwing Conspiratr1 (Lock-n-load!)
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To: Rightwing Conspiratr1

"Wall of separation" comes from Jefferson himself. Direct quote, in a letter preserved for the ages.

Rehnquist is trying to tell us that Jefferson didn't really mean what he said he mean in that letter. It's a nice try, but an uphill argument.


24 posted on 11/02/2005 7:44:51 AM PST by highball ("I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." -- Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Stultis
Affirmative action is usually a disaster when applied to persons (i.e. apart from very special and limited circumstances), but it's always damaging (and discrediting) to ideas which receive its "help".

This is an attempt at affirmative action for athiesm and monkey worshippers. A small minority of God-less heathens and communists want to remove any and all references to Jesus Christ and the God of Abraham from the public sphere.

God created the world and man and it can and shall be mentioned in the public school.

25 posted on 11/02/2005 7:45:10 AM PST by Rightwing Conspiratr1 (Lock-n-load!)
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To: Rightwing Conspiratr1
Jesus Christ belongs in the public schools.

But does he belong in a science class?

How about Buddha? Krishna? Mohammed?

If not them, why not them?

26 posted on 11/02/2005 7:48:14 AM PST by highball ("I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." -- Thomas Jefferson)
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To: VadeRetro

"[Whoops! There goes another load of winged monkeys out of my rectum!]"

Is that where they are coming from? Call them back.

They're polluting the atmosphere.
They're disgusting.
They cause global warming.
They may give birth to a turkey (or already have).


27 posted on 11/02/2005 7:48:15 AM PST by furball4paws (One of the last Evil Geniuses, or the first of their return.)
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To: Stultis

Affirmative action and content neutrality are hotfixes for a weak platform.


28 posted on 11/02/2005 7:49:43 AM PST by cornelis (Fecisti nos ad te.)
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To: highball
Reynolds v. U.S (1878), "The great vital and conservative element of our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Cittations for support? - Jefferson's 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.

Communists, athiests and monkey worshippers can only cite the phrase out of context.

29 posted on 11/02/2005 7:51:21 AM PST by Rightwing Conspiratr1 (Lock-n-load!)
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To: PatrickHenry
FLASH TRAFFIC!!!

MESSAGE SENT 15:44 UTC 2 NOVEMBER 2005 VIA DARWINCENTRAL'S LOW FREQUENCY "GALAPAGOS NET"........

"IN VIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE INTELLIGENT DESIGN TRIAL AT DOVER,PA, ALL DARWINCENTRAL™ OPERATIVES AND UNITS ARE ADVISED TO HENCEFORTH REFER TO THE TRIAL AS THE "PERJURY-FEST IN DOVER"

MESSAGE ENDS.

[signed] PER ORDER OF THE GRANDMASTER, DARWINCENTRAL™, etc. etc.....

30 posted on 11/02/2005 7:52:41 AM PST by longshadow
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To: highball
How about Buddha? Krishna? Mohammed?

"Had the people during the revolution had any suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, the revolution would have been strangled in its cradle . . . At the time of the adoption of the constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was the Christianity should be encouraged, but not any one sect . . . In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity. That was the religion of the founders of the Republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants." - House Judiciary Committee 1854

See earlier quote by Justice Story on the Founder's intent that Chrisitanity NOT be prostrated before Mohametism.

31 posted on 11/02/2005 7:53:57 AM PST by Rightwing Conspiratr1 (Lock-n-load!)
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To: furball4paws
It's too late! I've turned them loose! SURRENDER, DOROTHY!!
32 posted on 11/02/2005 7:54:20 AM PST by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: highball
If not them, why not them?

Insofar as world history is part of a curriculum you would teach these. Remember, this is elementary and basic education, and you don't have to worry that too much time will be spent teaching about some obscure mystery from the jungles of Papua New Guinea. If that happens, we have a different problem.

Although I think that with your query you underestimate the character of Americans.

33 posted on 11/02/2005 7:56:30 AM PST by cornelis (Fecisti nos ad te.)
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To: Rightwing Conspiratr1
"There is simply no historical foundation for the proposition that the framers intended to build a wall of separation...
... the "wall of separation between church and State" is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned."
-- Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, William Rehnquist

I have no objection to teaching religion in public schools, I just object to teaching it as science.

So9

34 posted on 11/02/2005 8:07:13 AM PST by Servant of the 9 (Trust Me)
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To: Rightwing Conspiratr1
It didn't change the meaning of the law, you half-wit, it changed the interpretation of the law. And the US held out to the world that it wasn't a Christian nation from the beginning.

The Constitution protects my kids from being brainwashed in public schools with your superstitious nonsense. And anyone who says that their theolgy should be promoted by the government is a domestic enemy and terrorist and should be fought, with arms if necessary, to prevent them from accomplishing that evil deed.

35 posted on 11/02/2005 8:08:45 AM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: Servant of the 9
I just object to teaching it as science

It takes a fit of religious fervor to claim that science is must be autonomous. But this much will be repeated even after all the courts have decided, there is no such thing as content neutrality when it concerns human nature.

36 posted on 11/02/2005 8:14:09 AM PST by cornelis (Fecisti nos ad te.)
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To: WildHorseCrash
It didn't change the meaning of the law, you half-wit, it changed the interpretation of the law. And the US held out to the world that it wasn't a Christian nation from the beginning.

Runkel v. Winemiller (1796) - "By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion, and the sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing."

The Constitution protects my kids from being brainwashed in public schools with your superstitious nonsense.

No. You are thinking of Article 52 of Constitution of the Soviet Socialist Republic. You might like that, but we're not going to let you Communists interpret Our Consitution any more. Get thee back to mother Russia.

37 posted on 11/02/2005 8:20:01 AM PST by Rightwing Conspiratr1 (Lock-n-load!)
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To: VadeRetro

OK you've hasked for it. Toto will take care of them. That kamikaze canine.

"TOTO, TOTO I have a little job for you."


38 posted on 11/02/2005 8:23:58 AM PST by furball4paws (One of the last Evil Geniuses, or the first of their return.)
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To: cornelis
"Insofar as world history is part of a curriculum you would teach these."

Of course you would. But that's not what Rightwing Conspiratr1 meant. He wants the Christ's divinity taught as truth instead of as faith.

Put all the world's religious figures in context, and teach them in history and philosophy classes. But not in science classes - they just don't belong there.

39 posted on 11/02/2005 8:27:01 AM PST by highball ("I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." -- Thomas Jefferson)
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To: furball4paws

Horse manure giving birth to a Theocratic fungus placemarker.


40 posted on 11/02/2005 8:27:23 AM PST by furball4paws (One of the last Evil Geniuses, or the first of their return.)
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