Posted on 01/12/2006 6:22:24 PM PST by gobucks
*snip*
Next month, Broward County teachers will choose between two new science textbooks. One book toned down Darwin's impact on biology due to the prodding of Christian conservatives. The other includes a few paragraphs about intelligent design, which argues life is so complex that it must have been fashioned by a higher being.
Critics say they don't want intelligent design in schools because it's based on faith, not science. So publishers of the second book, Biology: The Dynamics of Life, have offered to remove the page containing the passages. And Superintendent Frank Till has said he would cut the page to eliminate the controversy if teachers pick the book.
But does anyone seriously think this flap is going away?
If it does, it will only be after all the theories are put on the table, allowing the fittest to survive, a process that Darwin called natural selection.
Will it be evolution or creation? I don't know. But it looks like creation is already in the lead.
According to the Gallup national poll taken in September, 53 percent of the of the 1,005 people sampled said God created humans in their present form the way the Bible describes it. Twelve percent endorsed the strict evolutionary perspective and 31 percent chose a modified perspective, believing human beings evolved from other species, but God guided the process. Four percent had another opinion or none at all. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percent.
*snip*
It's sort of like the tree-falling-in-the-forest conundrum. If you've proven evolution and most people aren't convinced, is it really proven?
If evolution is allowed in the classroom, creation should be also. Plain and simple: To leave one out is censorship.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
Only 12 percent swallow the Darwin creation story hook line and sinker. Wow ... that is a real slap in the face to the nation's science teachers. Oh wait, it must not be their fault. 89 percent of us are just not evolved enough to 'get it'. But maybe there is another angle:
Frank Till would 'cut the page', he said....
Funny, but when you look at the states in which this debate has raged the loudest, an interesting pattern emerges: they have large numbers of Democrats. Georgia and Kansas make lots of headlines, too ... but lately it's the big swing states, and a Big Blue State that are getting all the Headlines: Ohio, PA, California, Fla, etc.
I think if I were a Republican, and I noticed the profound link between belief in Creationism, and adherence to Traditional Marriage, and how those two intersect decisively in favor w/ GOP voting preferences ....
Why, I think I would really be in favor of 'teaching the controversy' at the LEAST!
And if I were a democrat, self-preservation would dictate strong censorship tendancies. Hmmmmm....
hEY,,,, let teachers in govt schools decide anything? they can't defend themselves, let alone science. They will let the fools of ID run right over them.
Tune in to John Stossels's 20/20 show to see how really stupid our educ system and the NEA union really is...on this Friday.
Guess that's consistent with their faith isn't it.
If you're orbited the planet and most people think it's still flat, have you have proven it's not?
What kind of stupid argument is this?
Do we let public opinion decide what's scientific theory, fact, whatever, or not? 25% of Americans don't know where the Pacific Ocean is, and a slightly greater amount think spacecraft from other alien planets visit here all the time.
Nearly half think that Gore or Kerry would be a better President than our current one.
Shall we take a vote on whether the theory of gravity is real?
What is intelligent design?It's the missing link between creationism and religious instruction masquerading as biology.
Bruce Bower
===> Placemarker <===
How is this for a compromise: Allow science teachers to teach science, including evolution and the fact that the earth is older than 6,000 years. Children of Creationists don't have to take science classes that conflict with their beliefs, and will be allowed to use the time to go off-campus and attend Bible classes. Fair enough?
Archival ping.
They are an explanation or best current conclusion based on known facts.
Put a few trilobites next to a fossilized human skeleton in the same rock strata and theory will be totally shaken. But that will never happen.
Censorship??
They must mean that ID or Creationism is cut out and prevented from being taught....
Hey, that's a good idea!
Well, it HAS BEEN the survival of the fittest... until the New Deal and Great Society came along. And unsurprisingly, the level of fitness needed to survive diminished.
???? Are you kidding me? This is your answer?
ID is true that's why it doesn't change. Evolution is a flawed theory of men, and must change constantly to compensate for it's deficiencies in God's world.
Good stuff
Actually I think you will find most professed creationists are middle class WASPs with college degrees
Not likely. Professed Creationists make up 70% of white Evanglicals, but only 30& of white mainline Protestants and Catholics. And 15% of the secular (there's always a few)
OTOH only 27% of college grads are Creationist. So unless you want to claim that Evangelicals are heavilky overrepresented (and mainline Protestants and Catholics super-heavily under-represented) in college graduates, the numbers aren't there.
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