Posted on 02/28/2006 4:05:45 AM PST by PatrickHenry
House lawmakers scuttled a bill that would have required public school students to be told that evolution is not empirically proven - the latest setback for critics of evolution.
The bill's sponsor, Republican state Sen. Chris Buttars, had said it was time to rein in teachers who were teaching that man descended from apes and rattling the faith of students. The Senate earlier passed the measure 16-12.
But the bill failed in the House on a 28-46 vote Monday. The bill would have required teachers to tell students that evolution is not a fact and the state doesn't endorse the theory.
Rep. Scott Wyatt, a Republican, said he feared passing the bill would force the state to then address hundreds of other scientific theories - "from Quantum physics to Freud" - in the same manner.
"I would leave you with two questions," Wyatt said. "If we decide to weigh in on this part, are we going to begin weighing in on all the others and are we the correct body to do that?"
Buttars said he didn't believe the defeat means that most House members think Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is correct.
"I don't believe that anybody in there really wants their kids to be taught that their great-grandfather was an ape," Buttars said.
The vote represents the latest loss for critics of evolution. In December, a federal judge barred the school system in Dover, Pa., from teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in high school biology classes.
Also last year, a federal judge ordered the school system in suburban Atlanta's Cobb County to remove from biology textbooks stickers that called evolution a theory, not a fact.
Earlier this year, a rural California school district canceled an elective philosophy course on intelligent design and agreed never to promote the topic in class again.
But critics of evolution got a boost in Kansas in November when the state Board of Education adopted new science teaching standards that treat evolution as a flawed theory, defying the view of science groups.
You're right. Evolution teaches that we are STILL apes.
No, it doesn't. Nice try at frequently-repeated erroring.
"You're right. Evolution teaches that we are STILL apes."
No, taxonomy does. We ARE apes.
Please point me to the single best instance in that long comment above, where you see an animal species generate a different animal species. I don't see a single one. In every case, the species is still what it started out to be, but a scientist "sees a possibility".
Section 5.1.2 is where I would expect the meat to be and it's pitifully short and devoid of content. Later in the document are quite a few "examples" which are not actual examples of anything.
I find it quite unconvincing.
Now the real agenda comes out...I guess the "educated" "enlighten" just can deal with someone who might burst their bubbles brfore they can indoctrinate them!
Then why don't we allow gorillas the right to vote? How can we lock up chimpanzees in zoos without due process? Chimps are people too.
I'd be happy if they could show a single instance where dirt has evolved into any kind of living creature.
Mutation is quite neat, ain't it!
"Then why don't we allow gorillas the right to vote?"
Because they are not human.
"How can we lock up chimpanzees in zoos without due process?"
Because they are not human.
"Chimps are people too."
No, they are not. Check your premises.
Whew! Thanks.
And humans were created in the image of God.
Why is it that the threshold for belief in evolution is "empirical proof", but the threshold for belief in creationism is the simple existence of the Bible?
Why is one theory held to a different standard?
If you refuse to acknowledge that you were created in the image of God, then evolution is the theory for you. Have fun with it.
"I'd be happy if they could show a single instance where dirt has evolved into any kind of living creature."
Another good try at frequently-repeated erroring.
This thread concerns an action which is not about pushing Creationism in public schools. The action is about admitting that Evolution is not universally accepted.
It seems to me that anytime someone says "I'm not sure about Evolution" the response becomes "Stop pushing Creationism on me!"
Are you implying that life did not evolve from dirt?
Do you have any proof for that premise?
"The notion that Evolution has been "proven" is what we might call a "frequently-repeated error"."
Dear Clear.....you logic is MUDDY.
Evolution is a vital, well-supported, unifying principle of the biological sciences, and the scientific evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the idea that all living things share a common ancestry. Although there are legitimate debates about the patterns and processes of evolution, there is no serious scientific doubt that evolution occurred or that natural selection is a major mechanism in its occurrence. It is scientifically inappropriate and pedagogically irresponsible for creationist pseudoscience, including but not limited to "intelligent design," to be introduced into the science curricula of our nation's public schools.
Gotcha. It's appropriate to reject one theory based on its lack of "proof" (read: evolution), but one must accept without question the other theory (read: Christian creationism).
OK. Not a lot of room for actual conversation with you on this topic, is there? I guess it would be silly to ask you what other scientific theories you reject on the basis of this lack of proof.
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