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.''
Nothing I have read about the fossil record gives an indication of conflict. More specifically I have heard nothing about human and dino fossils found together. (I have seen a photo of such but it was simply a prank) Perhaps if you would be a little more specific, post a link if possible, I could do some research.
I just do not understand how extinctions which were caused by unforeseeable catastrophes are arguments for ID. A supernatural creator could indeed cause them, but ID claims to be a supernatural free zone, so it doesn't mesh.
"A Supernatural free zone?? How could this be? A designer by definition has to have powers greater than the created. I am sure on this point we will simply disagree on faith issues but I find it hard to see how a designer of what we know in our universe to be bound by the rules we are goverened by, Physics and such.
I agree. However those at the Discovery Institute, the current source for all things ID, state quite clearly that the supernatural has nothing to do with ID.
"Forgive me if I missed anything, our post-repost is getting quite long, but I do appreciate your replies.
I just broke it into three posts to make it easier to deal with.(I hope)
I would have pointed out that his response was a complete non-sequitur and a cowardly dodge of the fact that creationists are repeatedly defending the repitition of a known lie, but I don't respond to Baraonda anymore, since he -- like Running Wolf -- has made it clear that he has absolutely no interest whatsoever in presenting any information to support his claims (and then there's the fact that a number of his claims are demonstratable lies).
XenuDidit placemark
when? what measurement?
Are you possibly thinking of the age of the Universe?
Ya, I know. But you know me, sometimes I just can't resist. I'm sure some lurker somewhere got a laugh out of it.
Now that we've done so, can you agree that the story is a lie?
That's because for many of them, it's not about truth - it's about propping up their dogma, by any means necessary.
If they were at all interested in scientific truth, they wouldn't ignore the wealth of information that supports the ToE.
Dude, you can believe what you want about fish crawling up on land and becoming elephants, etc. But don't go claiming ID is a cancer on conservatism. ID has "evidence" also, perhaps you'd be open minded enough to read it like I read your "evidence (BS)" See Dec/Jan 06 American Spectator http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=9185.
Nah!
Irreducible Complexity is consistent with evolution.
Real information theory does not support ID.
I have all the evidence of the last 150 years, as you have supposedly reviewed from my last post. You have mumbles, endlessly repeated no matter how often refuted.
Actually, that particular demonstration is not in the materials posted to you, except that if you follow the links down far enough you can find the Kathleen Hunt web article Ichneumon used to piece that justly famous post together. Obviously, you've heard of it from somewhere.
Here's fish-to-elephant in 50 steps of "microevolution". So I'm not just believing what I want to about it. I'm following the evidence as opposed to ignoring it.
Apparently, at least in your mind, you.
"The standards should be created by educators, not politicians," Bush said. "It's not my job." Bush added that evolution should "absolutely" be part of science teachings, but he said there are gaps in the theory and he personally would want science teachers to allow discussions about creationism.What's with this guy?
Like most politicians, he's trying to talk out of both sides of his mouth at the same time. Basically, he's trying to placate his anti-evo constituency, after having pissed them off with his previous remarks.
Assuming that SAT's and ACT's are identical tests taken for entry into college... how are they going to impliment the use of ID and expect the children in Seattle to recognize it as easily as a home-schooled kid from Kansas?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.