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.''
As Frank Zappa would say: Who you jivin' with that cosmic debris?
Profile in courage there.
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.''
Staples then? How about duct tape?
"Perhaps we'll credit you with a gift certificate for the Darwin Central Canteen and Glee Club next time you're in the Galapagos."
Mmmmm. Tortoise stew.
The central theme of that quote is that Jeb Bush does not believe that the cult of evolution should be thought in schools alongside other science and pseudo science courses. So, in this sense I believe that he believes that evolution is, at best, only speculation.
No, I am just remarking on the fact that God can't seem to be able to count the number of legs on the grasshopper that he supposedly created. Or maybe the problem is that God didn't write the bible, but man did?
You would seat yourself above God.
No, but thank you for your false judgement of me.
You are going to be surprised at the sentence against such arrogance one day.
There is no such thing, so there is nothing to be surprised about.
God prepared a great fish in Jonah ch. 2, and our Lord Jesus called it a whale. You will say that the Bible is a mess for calling a whale a fish when it is, by humanly written textbooks, a mammal.
No, but I do find it surprising that two parts of a tri-partite God system disagree on what kind of critter supposedly swallowed Jonah.
We know how to distinguish between these things when reading humanly written textbooks. That does not change the fact that God has the prerogative to call a butterfly an elephant if He were to so desire.
That would make it really difficult to understand him, and would also make him look totally ridiculous. The errors in the bible are bad enough as it is.
It changes nothing--it only tests you, to see whether you will let God be God, or whether you will continue to consider yourself smarter than Him.
I do not consider myself smarter than God. I do consider myself more knowledgable than the bronze age nomads that wrote the bible. It is obvious to me that God did not write that book. It has way too many errors to be divine.
I merely asked a question. What really amazes me is that there are people who reference obvious charlatans like Behe, Dembski, and Johnson as though they believe that would somehow lend credibility to blatantly bogus pseudo science.
Was Job dumber than an average public school 5th grader?
Maybe it was not time for 'atomic secrets' to be revealed?
What does the bible say about the right time for revealing atomic secrets?
>>The Theory of Evoilution is chock full of stuff that we now know not to be true
>Please give us an example. You say it's chock full and all I ask one example. That shouldn't be too hard should it?
You tell me how many witnesses have there been that have seen a bird evolve into a dinosaur or a fish evolve into a man? NONE!!
This evolution cult takes over seemingly intelligent minds.
"science covers more than just evolution"
I think that captures the Govs point. Students can believe what they want about God's intervention, but they need to know what is going on also. When you see the doctor I hope you hope she knows more than just prayers. Same goes for that DOT guy that designed the bridge you drive over.
You tell me how many witnesses have there been that have seen a man make a fool of himself on a public forum?
The solution to malaria is called DDT, and not sickle-cell anemia.
Well, I just witnessed Baraonda dodge a question so hard he nearly dislocated something - does that count?
Once again your insulting response to me;
Nowhere else can I find such entertaining interaction involving large numbers of conservatives who are either: (a) truly educated and intelligent people; or (b) truly un-educated people with no rational capacity whatsoever. It's fascinating.
Show me the difference.
Intended as a response to #240,oops.
In court, you have eyewitness testimony and you have forensic evidence. The latter is much more reliable.
How many witnesses do we have to Ted Bundy's or Charlie Manson's murderous activities?
How much forensic evidence?
What happend to them?
How many witnesses do we have for dino-to-bird evolution?
How many Archeopteryx fossils? How many feathered dino fossils? [hint: it's easy to find answers to these questions]
How many witnesses to reptile-to-mammal evolution?
How many mammal-like reptile fossils; how many reptile-like mammal fossils? [Hint: there are a lot]
How many mammals species start out in the womb with ear bones in the lower jaw, just like a reptile, and have them move into the ear before it is born, just like in the fossil sequence I linked to? [Hint: this is a trick question - think platypus]
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