Posted on 02/20/2006 5:33:50 AM PST by ToryHeartland
Churches urged to back evolution By Paul Rincon BBC News science reporter, St Louis
US scientists have called on mainstream religious communities to help them fight policies that undermine the teaching of evolution.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) hit out at the "intelligent design" movement at its annual meeting in Missouri.
Teaching the idea threatens scientific literacy among schoolchildren, it said.
Its proponents argue life on Earth is too complex to have evolved on its own.
As the name suggests, intelligent design is a concept invoking the hand of a designer in nature.
It's time to recognise that science and religion should never be pitted against each other Gilbert Omenn AAAS president
There have been several attempts across the US by anti-evolutionists to get intelligent design taught in school science lessons.
At the meeting in St Louis, the AAAS issued a statement strongly condemning the moves.
"Such veiled attempts to wedge religion - actually just one kind of religion - into science classrooms is a disservice to students, parents, teachers and tax payers," said AAAS president Gilbert Omenn.
"It's time to recognise that science and religion should never be pitted against each other.
"They can and do co-exist in the context of most people's lives. Just not in science classrooms, lest we confuse our children."
'Who's kidding whom?'
Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, which campaigns to keep evolution in public schools, said those in mainstream religious communities needed to "step up to the plate" in order to prevent the issue being viewed as a battle between science and religion.
Some have already heeded the warning.
"The intelligent design movement belittles evolution. It makes God a designer - an engineer," said George Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory.
"Intelligent design concentrates on a designer who they do not really identify - but who's kidding whom?"
Last year, a federal judge ruled in favour of 11 parents in Dover, Pennsylvania, who argued that Darwinian evolution must be taught as fact.
Dover school administrators had pushed for intelligent design to be inserted into science teaching. But the judge ruled this violated the constitution, which sets out a clear separation between religion and state.
Despite the ruling, more challenges are on the way.
Fourteen US states are considering bills that scientists say would restrict the teaching of evolution.
These include a legislative bill in Missouri which seeks to ensure that only science which can be proven by experiment is taught in schools.
I think if we look at where the empirical scientific evidence leads us, it leads us towards intelligent design Teacher Mark Gihring "The new strategy is to teach intelligent design without calling it intelligent design," biologist Kenneth Miller, of Brown University in Rhode Island, told the BBC News website.
Dr Miller, an expert witness in the Dover School case, added: "The advocates of intelligent design and creationism have tried to repackage their criticisms, saying they want to teach the evidence for evolution and the evidence against evolution."
However, Mark Gihring, a teacher from Missouri sympathetic to intelligent design, told the BBC: "I think if we look at where the empirical scientific evidence leads us, it leads us towards intelligent design.
"[Intelligent design] ultimately takes us back to why we're here and the value of life... if an individual doesn't have a reason for being, they might carry themselves in a way that is ultimately destructive for society."
Economic risk
The decentralised US education system ensures that intelligent design will remain an issue in the classroom regardless of the decision in the Dover case.
"I think as a legal strategy, intelligent design is dead. That does not mean intelligent design as a social movement is dead," said Ms Scott.
"This is an idea that has real legs and it's going to be around for a long time. It will, however, evolve."
Among the most high-profile champions of intelligent design is US President George W Bush, who has said schools should make students aware of the concept.
But Mr Omenn warned that teaching intelligent design will deprive students of a proper education, ultimately harming the US economy.
"At a time when fewer US students are heading into science, baby boomer scientists are retiring in growing numbers and international students are returning home to work, America can ill afford the time and tax-payer dollars debating the facts of evolution," he said. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4731360.stm
Published: 2006/02/20 10:54:16 GMT
© BBC MMVI
Isa 48:3 ... I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of My mouth, and I shewed them; I did [them] SUDDENLY, and they came to pass.
Genesis 11. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
NIV Colossians 1:13-17
13. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,
14. in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
17. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.NIV Revelation 4:11
11. "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."NIV Revelation 10:6
6. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, "There will be no more delay!
NIV Matthew 8:2-32. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
3. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.NIV Matthew 21:19
Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.NIV Mark 1:41-42
41. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!"
42. Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.NIV Mark 5:41-4241. He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!").
42. Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.NIV Mark 10:51-5251. "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."
52. "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.NIV Luke 5:13Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And Immediately the leprosy left him.NIV Luke 5:24-2524. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . ." He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home."
25. Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.NIV Luke 8:44She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and Immediately her bleeding stopped.NIV Luke 13:12-1312. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity."
13. Then he put his hands on her, and Immediately she straightened up and praised God.NIV Luke 18:42-4342. Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you."
43. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.NIV Acts 9:33-3533. There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years.
34. "Aeneas," Peter said to him, "Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat." Immediately Aeneas got up.
35. All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.NIV Matthew 8:13
13. Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.NIV Matthew 15:28
28. Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
As I understand the laws of this country, yes.
As long as it is a "personal" reccommendation.
I'm in IT. I sometimes write letters for folks whom I've worked with, to help them get jobs.
I could decide to only write such a letter to a white, stacked, beautiful young woman, if I so chose. And I would have broken no law.
Huh??
Do you disagree with my claim that nmh lied?
Of course, but there are some who like to wear a mantle of being 'balanced and fair'.
Not if the recommendation is based on race or religious beliefs and the person making the recommendation is a state employee using his title and letterhead of the state run university. I don't see what is 'personal' about that. If he wanted to make a recommendation unrelated to his state job and without using his state given title, then it is his choice. But as it is, he is using his title to give credence to this recommendation, so it is not 'personal'.
Boo Hoo!
Come up to Indy, where it was 8 last night!
(Now you REALLY northern folks can chime in ;^)
Um, so your entire complaint then is that the wording he used "closely resembled" an oath?
Again, I don't agree. Looking these things up in the dictionary, your definition for 'affirm' as an oath didn't even show up.
If I *affirm* that Prez Bush is a good man, that is not an oath. It means I *believe*, I *agree*, I say *affirmative* to, that statement.
You're trying very hard to manufacture a complaint where none exists. And the thickest irony is, he would be well within his rights to say he only gives letters to someone who *swears an oath* that they believe in Darwinian evolution before agreeing to write a personal letter.
I'm very sorry, I just don't see any validity to your point so far.
Or one who believes he really is God and maybe you should be euthanized for your own good, lol
But the ToE is like Forrest Gump - "You never know what yer gonna get."
A literal interpretation of a 6 day creation may sound lidicrous, but then so does evolution. Teach both and let the students make their own choice. What's the harm?
Not if the recommendation is based on race or religious beliefs and the person making the recommendation is a state employee using his title and letterhead of the state run university. I don't see what is 'personal' about that. If he wanted to make a recommendation unrelated to his state job and without using his state given title, then it is his choice. But as it is, he is using his title to give credence to this recommendation, so it is not 'personal'.
Apparently, you think that it is okay for the state to regulate the 'personal' recommendations of state employees.
I daresay that anyone can graduate with honors and STILL not believe that EVOLUTION got us to where we are today!
Stacked and beautiful you could get away with. Where you would run afoul is the white young and woman. There is no way one can twist this as personal. It is his position in the university and his job as the student's professor that gives the letter of recommendation credence. You can't separate the letter from his job. This guy would be toast in court.
Why not?
Can the head of a Biology Department at a public university refuse to write recommendations based on race, religion or gender?
Yes or no will do.
No doubt. I'm not going to help them on the way to a career where their irrational beliefs will damage people, though.
It is a scientific FACT that 50% of our doctors graduated in the lower half of the class!
because the existence of God cannot be proven or disproven.
Really? Look around you. Who created it? Humans are still finding things out about the universe to their amazement. They will never know it all or understand it all as much as they try. They try to make themselves SUPREME with 'their' knowledge. It WILL NEVER HAPPEN. There is only ONE SUPREME BEING and that is Our God, Our Creator.
They cannot accept what they won't confront and they won't confront that they don't know (nothing). So they make things to fit their 'own' knowledge and understanding. To some it is quite laughable - it's almost like 'Intelligence Envy. They HAVE to be more intelligent than The ALMIGHTY. It's a dead end road, it will never happen. But don't tell them, let them spin their wheels. Who knows, they may come up with a better shape for a wheel. ;)
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