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.''
So, just to be sure, are you saying that there is evidence supporting the Biblical version of the Exodus in circa 1200 B.C., with enslaved Hebrews escaping from their Egyptian captors?
Or are you saying that, in accordance with archaeological evidence, Exodus is a story based on the historically documented forced expulsion of the evil, Baal worshiping, oppressive Hyksos by the Egyptians around 1570 B.C.?
There is quite a bit of difference in the two stories, you know. Almost like one is a revisionist historical view meant to portray the writer's past in a more affectionate way.
Sorry, that's just wishful thinking - aka spin.
People who believe in Evolution are the ones who believe they are superior not vice versa.
Oh so the ones who stand up for what they believe are intolerant if they don't believe and concede to the man-made version of how man was designed?
I get it now! Too bad you don't!
I'm saying 1, evidence exists for exodus, and 2, that dismissing the bible, a first hand account, simply because it is religious is ridiculous, and to do so universally (removing any religious text as a historical basis) would radically alter accepted history.
Certainly the eqyptians would have a reason to cover up exodus with revisionist history as well would they not?
" People who believe in Evolution are the ones who believe they are superior not vice versa."
Nonsense. Creationists, out of their own pride, can't stand the fact they too are a part of the natural world and a product of evolution. Evolutionists are far far more humble. We can accept what is and move on. Creationists can't.
:)
This could just as easily have been the headline. Obviously, the authors chose the part of the interview that suited their agenda.
Grasping at straws and ignoring media bias is a flawed characteristic, mostly associated with liberal media and their followers.
It is your problem if you believe you came from an ape. If someone can honestly take a long look at the world, the universe, the way in which everything was designed (including man who is unique in numerous ways), and then say they evolved from an ape then by all means believe what you must.
It is my right to choose what I choose to believe and if I don't want those man made ideas taught to my children or me then it is my choice.
Dumbing down the public school system has been the job of the NEA and others for quite some time but I have to hand it to you guys...this come straight out of the Communist Manifesto that the only g-d is government ran by man. Eventually your theories will fall as did Communism in Russia but how many will you mislead before the truth is known?
Darwin admitted in the end he was wrong. When will you?
"Darwin admitted in the end he was wrong."
The story that Darwin recanted is a myth. His own children said it was a lie. He never said his theory was wrong. He died an agnostic.
"If so, is this your opinion, or do you have some evidence to support this?"
If I wrote it must be MY opinion, wouldn't you say.
Evidence contrary to the ToE, my great grandad's dad was not a monkey.
The Soviet Communists also banned Darwin in favor of the pseudoscientific biology of Trofim Lysenko. With regard to Darwin, creationists have far more in common with Communists than evolutionists do.
Any real arguments against the validity of evolution here, or are you just making noise and assisting in the "dumbing down" of science education by throwing out perfectly legitimate science just because it is offensive to your PC sensitivities? (Or, are you just trolling?)
There are many different creation stories out there that are also incompatible with each other (although I can't think of any wars fought over it).
Indeed :-)
"We ARE apes."
We are NOT apes. We're not descendants from apes.
It's laughable to pose a theory that makes a connection to monkeys from a billion years ago. This is all cooked up stuff.
"Yeah. I hear that all the time when creationists refuse to accept evolution because of their pride in being human. They think they're special or something. "Superior" was your word."
We humans have a superior brain to all other living things. It follows then that a superior being must have created us in his image. That superior being is God.
(I meant shooting wars...) ;-)
"So why not take into account the findings from the scientific community?"
But we do.
But it is also incumbent upon us to reject false findings that are only intented to destroy a religion, a people and its culture. The ToE ultimate goal is exactly that, and we reject it, of course.
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