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.
I have already done this...its up to the moderators...
"Nobody is forcing you to read them or believe them."
Good, because there is no evidence they actually wrote them.
" OTOH, the public schools are forcing my children to read and believe evolution."
No, they are teaching your children science. They can believe whatever they wish.
Figured as much. Thank you. You've made a good many assumptions that must be taken on faith, beginning with the assumption that the biblical text is false WRT literal history, and ending with the assunmption you have an accurate figure to start with WRT the amount of water present on earth.With those assumptions in mind I can do the same math and come up with the same result. But there is a worldwide record of death buried in the earth's sediment; a record showing beasts of the sea in what are now deserts, showing former life in polar regions that are now uninhabitable. This would be expected if the biblical text is accurate.
I figure if the Catholic Church can reconcile the Bible and evolution, then adopting the theory of gravity should be like falling off a log!
But they get "tested" on it and they are required to put in the "correct" answers, even if they don't believe them.
There is a cure for this problem. Eliminate public schools. They are a waste of money anyway.
The beer game was on my computer: an online systems engineering class. The class just ended with me none the wiser. LOL! Adult ADD is an interesting concept. Oh, look! A chicken!
(I often have the TV as background noise so my studying doesn't get so boring. Or try turning the TV on mute with a good CD playing. It's a little more interesting that way.)
Looks like it's all taken care of.
Luk 8:17 For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.
The segregation of those sediments into fine layers would not. The apparent faunal succession in them would not. The exquisite preservation of tranquil surface features at various depths in one place would not. The preservation of glacial scraping and dry-land volcanic ash deposition would not. The list goes on and on.
When honest creationist geologists went looking for the Flood residues in the 1700s and 1800s, they couldn't find them. After a while, all the honest people stopped trying to force the result.
Exactly, that's why I've bugged your house and installed closed-circuit cameras. Quitcherwhinin', the people have a right to know.
"But they get "tested" on it and they are required to put in the "correct" answers, even if they don't believe them."
They aren't forced to believe it then. Thanks for agreeing with me.
" There is a cure for this problem. Eliminate public schools. They are a waste of money anyway."
I agree. But that isn't going to happen any time soon. Therefore, in science class, science should be taught.
But since the evidence is overwhelming that there was never a universal flood and the human race is not descended from eight survivors who lived only a few thousand years ago, one can easily conclude that Scripture is inaccurate. Whether that leads one to conclude Jesus didn't actually utter those words (and the author simply made it up), or that Jesus lied, or even that Jesus didn't exist, it appears to be a personal matter.
Thanks for the info (I've bookmarked your post).
You're welcome!
Here's another talkorigins essay on genetics.
I've yet to hear an ID argument for the fact that if a genetic marker is found (in the same place) in the genomes of pigs and whales it will also be found in giraffes and hippos.
The essay also discusses another frequently-cited identity in the primate genomes, the one that prevents the synthesis of vitamin C.
Since the theory of evolution is the ruling paradigm, they would be badly educated if they did not know about it. Even if I were still a young earth creationist I would want my kids to know the basics of the theory of evolution, and I would expect any good public school to teach it.
You can homeschool if you really don't want them to know anything about modern scientific thought.
If I said something like that, you guys would use it as an example of "creationist lies."
Am I out of it! What's a beer game? I sort of assumed slang for a local football thing.
My kids say even they're too old to keep up with the reaction times needed for modern computer games so, since I'm well into geezerhood, I sort of ignore them.
No, I wouldn't, if it were in response to a comment as silly as yours I'd probably laugh at myself.
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