Posted on 11/10/2005 4:22:26 AM PST by PatrickHenry
Pennsylvania school rejects intelligent design, just as Kansas embraces it.
Despite fierce opposition from scientists and teachers, the Kansas State Board of Education has adopted teaching standards that support intelligent design, the idea that an intelligent creator shaped the course of evolution.
"This is just the latest in a series of troubling decisions by the board," Kathleen Sebelius, the Democratic governor of Kansas, said in a statement. "If we're going to continue to bring high-tech jobs to Kansas and move our state forward, we need to strengthen science standards, not weaken them."
At the same time, things have moved in the opposite direction in Dover, Pennsylvania, which is home to the highest profile court case against intelligent design.
The Dover school board has been in court since September (see 'School board in court over bid to teach intelligent design'), after adopting standards that criticize evolution and, say parents, violate the separation of church and state.
On 8 November, eight of the nine members of the school board were voted out by the community. They were replaced by people who oppose the teaching of intelligent design in science class.
Critical assessment
In Kansas, this is the second time in six years that there has been a vote to change education standards in favour of what scientists see as a pro-religion agenda. In 1999, the school board voted to eliminate teaching evolution, cosmology, and some aspects of geology (see 'Kansas kicks evolution out of the classroom').
The following year, a vigorous campaign by scientists and teachers cost conservatives a majority on the elected board and led to the standards being overturned.
But now the new standards, adopted by a six to four vote on 8 November, require the teaching of specific criticisms of evolution in high school classrooms. These talk about a lack of evidence for a "primordial soup" in which life originated and "a lack of adequate natural explanations for the genetic code".
"This is a huge victory for students in Kansas," says Casey Luskin, a programme officer in policy and legal affairs at the Discovery Institute, an intelligent-design think-tank in Seattle.
Luskin says that the standards will help students to recognize legitimate scientific criticisms of evolution. He notes that they make no direct reference to intelligent design: "Critics say that the school board is bringing religion into the classroom, but they're not."
Open door
Not so, says Jack Krebs, vice-president of Kansas Citizens for Science, which opposes the new standards. Krebs fears that the standards will embolden teachers in conservative schools across the state to begin teaching intelligent design. "This decision is going to open the door for anyone who's leaning towards creationism," he says.
The decision had long been expected, and some scientific groups have already stated their opposition to the changes (see 'Kansas backs lessons critical of evolution').
The National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association recently withheld the copyright for the national science standards on which Kansas' standards are based, as a protest against the changes.
Krebs says he hopes that still more support will be rallied in the months ahead. "I think it will be critical to get the religious and academic communities aroused and involved," he says.
Meanwhile the trial in Dover awaits a decision. Although the ruling, expected in December or January, may no longer have a direct effect on the school that started the case, the legal precedent it sets could influence the way schools teach evolution nationwide.
The same individual who will try to console a parent who has just lost a child in infancy with the words, "The Lord works in mysterious ways" will state categorically that G-d could not possibly have used evolution to further His creation
That hurts. I actually showed the local Presbyterian minister the door when he told me that. 20 years before I would have flattened him.
Yeah - I'm sure the interviewer really took him to task. *rolls eyes*
By the way, it's DR. MEYER.
From the DI: Meyer earned his Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University for a dissertation on the history of origin of life biology and the methodology of the historical sciences. Previously he worked as a geophysicist with the Atlantic Richfield Company after earning his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Geology.
Dr. Meyer has recently co-written or edited two books: Darwinism, Design, and Public Education with Michigan State University Press and Science and Evidence of Design in the Universe (Ignatius 2000).
He has also authored numerous technical articles as well as editorials in magazines and newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Houston Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, First Things and National Review.
Sorry your Dr Meyer, or whatever he is called, isn't exactly a household name over here so big apologies for not catching his name. I'll try to do better next time.
From the DI: Meyer earned his Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University for a dissertation on the history of origin of life biology and the methodology of the historical sciences. Previously he worked as a geophysicist with the Atlantic Richfield Company after earning his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Geology.
So in other words someone with no credentials whatsoever in the biological sciences. Whoa, I'm impressed.
I don't care how many degrees he's got, he still sounded like a complete muppet. Long on bombast, short on facts and even shorter on manners.
Typical creationist really.
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