Posted on 12/26/2005 8:37:06 AM PST by PatrickHenry
Questioned about the national debate over ''intelligent design,'' [Florida] Gov. Jeb Bush last week said he's more interested in seeing some evolution of the science standards that Florida public school students must meet.
He wants those standards to become more rigorous -- and raising the standards should take priority over discussing whether intelligent design has a place in the public schools' curriculum, he said.
Nationally, the discussion over whether to teach intelligent design -- a concept that says life is too complex to have occurred without the involvement of a higher force -- in public school classes heated up after U.S. District Judge John E. Jones ruled that it smacked of creationism and was a violation of church and state separation. (President Bush appointed Jones to the federal bench in 2004.)
Jones, in his decision, wrote that the concept of intelligent design ''cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents,'' according to a Knight Ridder News Service report published Wednesday in The Miami Herald. [PH here: For a more reliable source than the Herald, here's the judge's opinion (big pdf file).]
In Florida, education officials and science teachers will be reviewing the state's science curriculum in 2007 or 2008, after the governor has left office, and ''it is possible that people would make an effort to include [intelligent design] in the debate,'' Gov. Bush told The Watchdog Report on Wednesday. ''My personal belief is we ought to look at whether our standards are high first,'' he said.
SCIENCE FIRST
``The more important point is science itself and how important it is, and we right now have adequate standards that may need to be raised. But worse: Students are not given the course work necessary to do well with those standards.''
Bush, after meeting with Coral Gables Mayor Don Slesnick and city commissioners concerning the community's widespread power outages after hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, also noted that the federal ruling came in a case that involves Pennsylvania's Dover Area School District.
''It is one school district in Pennsylvania,'' he said.
POINT OF VIEW
The Watchdog Report asked a follow-up question: Does the governor believe in Darwin's theory of evolution?
Bush said: ``Yeah, but I don't think it should actually be part of the curriculum, to be honest with you. And people have different points of view and they can be discussed at school, but it does not need to be in the curriculum.''
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There is no doubt they have got it. Now they properly need to soft-pedal it down, and then behave as if the whole idiocy had never happened.
Some will use this as confirmation for their lame evo propaganda. What Jeb says is correct. The highest priority is teach our children the basics - math, science, etc. Everyone should at least agree with that. The way evolution is being taught is a concern but it is farther down the list of priorities.
The science standards that Governor bush is speaking about do not require the first single mention of Darwin's material. Men can take us to the farthest reaches of the universe with science that doesn't quote Darwin one time.
Evolution is a lie. Science does not equal evolution. Science is compatible with creation.
God is dead.
Thanks for the comedy relief. Always nice on a Monday morning.
Science is the study of how things work when God does not intervene.
Theology is the study of how things work when God does intervene.
Thus even if creationism were true, it would be Theology, not Science.
So9
All objecting to evolution - raise your tails and throw a coconut at the vote counter.
Wrong. Non-Sequitor. Correct.
Science is a discipline of observation, hypothesis construction, testing, modification of hypothesis with the prospect of developing sufficient support or refutation of a theory.
That's it babycakes.
Bush said: ``Yeah, but I don't think it should actually be part of the curriculum, to be honest with you. And people have different points of view and they can be discussed at school, but it does not need to be in the curriculum.''
In other words, he wouldn't want to stake his life on Darwin being right. Neither would I.
I think evolutionists will convince about .000001% of creationists, and creationists will convince about .000001% of evolutionists. So I think the most good that could come out of your "list of links" is if you included a list of links on encouraging everyone to think in terms of home schooling and private schools. Leaving curriculum decisions up to government -- ANY government -- means leaving it up to politicians and others who are ethically- or cerebrally-impaired, with a likelihood that beliefs you find abhorrent will be shoved down the throats of your kids, nomatter who you are.
Good call. A true conservative or a true "Patrick Henry" wouldn't support government funded and controlled schools.
Jeb gets it, but he apparently wants to wash his hands of the matter.
I haven't decided whether teaching the theory of evolution should be mandatory or whether parents should be able to opt out of it like some may do with sex education. My inclination is that every student needs to be taught the theory in order to be fully-educated even if the child is taught at home that it's some satanic conspiracy to steal the souls of humans.
Perhaps making it an elective course is the answer. Many people are fully able to function in society without knowing squat about evolution. It depends on what they choose as an occupation and how interested they are in the scientific process.
I dunno. It's a tough issue. I respect a parent's role in deciding what is suitable for their children. I would have a BIG problem with the public schools teaching a mandatory course on the utopian value of communism. I understand the difference between a class preaching a political philosophy vs. a class teaching scientific principles, but that distinction is not visible to the parent who believes in a young earth and Creation.
Let me know how that works out for evolution. Until then, I guess we'll just have to accept it by faith.
"Science is the study of how things work when God does not intervene.
Theology is the study of how things work when God does intervene."
I like to put it this way myself.
Science is the study of HOW God does things. Theology/Religion is the study of WHY God does what He does.
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