Posted on 11/08/2005 4:17:17 AM PST by PatrickHenry
For the past six weeks, the debate over evolution and intelligent design has played out in a Pennsylvania courtroom.
Today, Kansas gets the national spotlight back and with it, the possibility of a federal lawsuit here.
Whats going on in Kansas, said Kenneth Miller, a Brown University biologist, is much more radical and much more dangerous to science education than the contested decision in Dover, Pa., to mandate the teaching of intelligent design in public school science classes.
Intelligent design speculates that the world is too complex to have evolved without the help of an unknown designer an alien, perhaps, or God. Such teachings in public schools, the ACLU says, violate constitutional restrictions on the separation of church and state.
Absolutely, absolutely, said T. Jeremy Gunn, director of the ACLUs Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, when asked if the new science standards Kansas is expected to adopt today could be vulnerable to litigation.
An official with the Discovery Institutes Center for Science and Culture, which helped defend the Dover school board, said Kansas should be able to avoid legal scrutiny. Casey Luskin said the standards here critique evolution, but they dont promote intelligent design.
Its definitely a different issue in Kansas than in Pennsylvania, Luskin said.
More radical
Its a different battle, perhaps, but definitely the same war. Many of the participants in the Pennsylvania trial are veterans of the Kansas evolution debates, and are keeping a close eye on todays meeting of the Kansas Board of Education.
Miller, for example, testified in the Pennsylvania trial against intelligent design. He came to Kansas in 2000 to campaign against conservative school board members the last time the evolution debate flared up here.
The new Kansas standards literally change the definition of science, he said, so that natural explanations arent necessary to explain natural phenomena. That opens the door, he said, for astrology to be taught in public school classrooms.
Is this what proponents on the Kansas Board of Education have in mind? Miller asked.
Michael Behe, a Lehigh University scientist, wrote Darwins Black Box a touchstone text of the intelligent design movement. He testified in Pennsylvania, and before the Kansas Board of Education when it held hearings on the science standards.
I think having students hear criticisms of any theory is a great idea, Behe said. I think in one respect, itll mean its permissible to question evolution. For odd historical reasons, questioning evolution has been put off-limits. If Kansas can do it, it can be done elsewhere.
More evolution?
Luskin agreed.
In contrast to what everybody has said, Kansas students will hear more about evolution and not less about evolution, he said. This is a victory for people who want students to learn critical thinking skills in science.
But Gunn noted that the vast majority of scientists believed in evolution as a proven explanation for the origins of life. The handful who dont, he said, have resorted to making their case through politics instead of through traditional scientific methods.
Do we teach both sides of the controversy on astrology in science class? Do we teach both sides of phrenology? Gunn said. This is not a scientific controversy, its a political controversy.
Testimony in the Pennsylvania trial wrapped up on Friday. A ruling in that case is expected in January.
Looks like a diatribe rather than an inquiry. The fact that the entire post lacks question marks makes it rather difficult to spot the "questions" you assert are not being addressed.
Cheez, for a bunch of scientists, you lack logic (THAT WAS SARCASM).
Okay, I can see that I'm wasting my time. I'll answer the other egghead then I'll get to work (breakfast actually).
Perhaps you should re-read it, and maybe look for the smaller words that are easier to understand (SARCASM).
Or perhaps you should look for the words from your red herring WITHIN the material, and try to combine that with those smaller words (SARCASM).
Sorry for the sarcasm, but I'm bored and not really getting anything out of this. Perhaps you should read the whole article, as I found it interesting.
But, of course, that's not what this is about, is it? This is, I suspect, more about scoring a few rhetorical points, devoid of any actual substance, and then abandoning the field. Perhaps you should change your handle to ModernDayProtagoras - it seems somehow more fitting. Enjoy your breakfast.
I'm familiar with Denton's arguments (I've been arguing this a long time). They're specious.
You face Mecca five times a day and pray to Allah? Well done! Your houris will be beauteous, and the melons you feast on will be moist and sweet.
I am shocked (and amused) that so-called scientists will fight so bitterly and emotionally to defend a theory that is clearly flawed, when you eggheads are supposed to welcome skepticism and challenge to the status quo.
Funny, I've been at this more or less for 40 years, and I haven't run into the flaws. It looks pretty darn convincing and comprehensive theory to me.
Even for an utter moron like myself, it is a pretty big stretch to look at life here on earth and believe that the beauty, intricacy and balance was all achieved randomly.
Ah, there's your problem. You think evolution is a random process. Not at all.
The Dover school board did, when they introduced ID into the curriculum in an attempt to sneak their faith past Constitutional prohibitions in science classes.
You have since confirmed it. Thank you for showing why they deserved to lose their seats, and why the board deserves to lose this case.
What do you want to know about the evoution of flower seeds?
I have a powerpoint presentation I created for one of my grandkids on the subject and will happily post some of it for you, but it's too long to post thw whole thing.
Science has no problems with it's limitations. That's where all the research is done. The question for this thread is whether we should stop teaching science in school (in my school evolution wasn't taught) and do something else.
Complexity is a scientific concept but not in the way that you used the term in your example. The fact that something is unknown now doesn't mean it will remain unknown forever. Cells used to be unknown. Cell organelles used to be unknown. DNA used to be unknown. All of molecular chemistry used to be unknown.
Would you have blocked the study of these things because they were "complex"?
I'd like to see it.
then you shouldn't mind having them presented in a classroom and show how specious they are.
You seem to think we spend our time in class refuting wrong theories. We don't. It's not a useful way to teach, and we don't have time to cover all the good theories we need to cover.
You seem to think we spend our time in class refuting wrong theories. We don't. It's not a useful way to teach, and we don't have time to cover all the good theories we need to cover.
For someone who is pro-science I'll happily post the whole thing if you can tell me how to upload it or freepmail it or whatever would work.
Otherwise: here's a summary:
Ferns reproduce by making spores which drift about then land on moist ground and grow into small structures called prothalli (one of them is a prothallus).
On the prothallus there grow other structures which produce the gametes, which fuse and produce a new fern plant (called a sporophyte)
picture of a prothallus:
http://phobos.ramapo.edu/%7Espetro/Slides/_fern_proth40x.jpg
and here's a picture of a fern life cycle:
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/F/Ferns.html
Now what?
The big deal is to get that pro-thallus onto the fern frond so in drier evironments it has a chance to grow. This happened with the now extinct seed ferns. I'll do those in the next post.
why can't you just have a class for credit called something like "refuting all of the ridiculous questions regarding Darwin's Theory of Evolution" and just dedicate an entire semester to it. then you wouldn't have to spend your chemistry class time refuting wrong theories. i guarantee you that it would be well attended. plus, maybe the polls would then show more than 25% of America believing in the astronomical mathematical odds of what we now know as human beings evolving from a cells spontaneously generated by some unknown source of energy causing life to originate from no life.
OK, you plan to raise taxes to pay for this?
Oh, and what courses would you cut to get the time?
And if these so-called Christians are the ones who end up in heaven, what thoughtful person would choose to join a religion that rewards such despicable people?
And could an eternity spent with such folks really be called heaven? Sounds a lot closer to hell.
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