Posted on 06/21/2006 8:33:46 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
In a veiled attack on creationism, the world's foremost academies of science on Wednesday called on parents and teachers to provide children with the facts about evolution and the origins of life on Earth.
A declaration signed by 67 national academies of science blasted the scriptural teaching of biology as a potential distortion of young minds.
"In various parts of the world, within science courses taught in certain public systems of education, scientific evidence, data and testable theories about the origins and evolution of life on Earth are being concealed, denied or confused with theories not testable by science," the declaration said.
"We urge decision-makers, teachers and parents to educate all children about the methods and discoveries of science and to foster an understanding of the science of nature.
"Knowledge of the natural world in which they live empowers people to meet human needs and protect the planet."
Citing "evidence-based facts" derived from observation, experiment and neutral assessment, the declaration points to findings that the Universe is between 11 and 15 billion years old, and the Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago.
Life on Earth appeared at least 2.5 billion years ago as a result of physical and chemical processes, and evolved into the species that live today.
"Commonalities in the structure of the genetic code of all organisms living today, including humans, clearly indicate their common primordial origin," it said.
The statement does not name any names or religions, nor does it explain why it fears the teaching of evolution or the scientific explanation for the origins of planetary life are being sidelined.
Signatories of the declaration include the US National Academy of Sciences, Britain's Royal Society, the French Academy of Sciences and their counterparts in Canada, China, Germany, Iran, Israel and Japan and elsewhere.
It comes, however, in the context of mounting concern among biologists about the perceived influence of creationism in the United States.
Evangelical Christians there are campaigning hard for schools to teach creationism or downgrade evolution to the status of one of a competing group of theories about the origins of life on Earth.
According to the website Christian Post (www.christianpost.com), an opinion poll conducted in May by Gallop found that 46 percent of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years or so.
Scientists say hominids emerged around six million years ago and one of their offshoots developed into anatomically modern man, Homo sapiens, about 200,000 years ago, although the timings of both events are fiercely debated.
Nearly every religion offers an explanation as to how life began on Earth.
Fundamentalist Christians insist on a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis in the Bible, in which God made the world in seven days, culminating in the creation of the first two humans, Adam and Eve.
A variation of this is called "intelligent design" which acknowledges evolution but claims that genetic mutations are guided by God's hand rather than by Charles Darwin's process of natural selection.
US President George W. Bush said last August that he believed in this concept and that he supported its teaching in American schools.
The academies' statement says that science does not seek to offer judgements of value or morality, and acknowledges limitations in current knowledge.
"Science is open-ended and subject to correction and expansion as new theoretical and empirical understanding emerges," it adds.
They DO connect the 2. Sure as shootin'.
Some do. Some want to try to. Some don't. Some don't care. So what?
That doesn't change that the TOE stands with or without abiogenesis. It is not dependent on it, as has been said probably tens of thousands of times on FR.
Did you have a point to make?
And about that Genesis, Exodus, Bible thing...there are many religious leaders who've DISconnected a literal interpretation of it from the TOE, the Emancipation Proclamation, Women's rights, etc.
It's significant because it is clearly connected above, and I was clearly told it wasn't connected.
So what that they found 500 wmds? Well....because we were told they were all destroyed? Well....because the SHELLS are specialized delivery systems that were supposed to have been destroyed.
There's nothing quite as delicious as the guilt-free feeling that comes with consigning untold millions to eternal damnation and the certainty of knowing that one is right.
It's not only a guilt-free feeling. It's a feeling of superiority. The mind set seems to have a need to know all, feel superior, criticize, and condemn, without ever having to turn the TV off and get up off of the the sofa.
Trying to redefine marriage, eh? ;)
Anybody write a letter to these clowns asking for evidence of this "scientific" just so story?
It's significant because it is clearly connected above, and I was clearly told it wasn't connected.
They aren't connected as far as science is concerned. Abiogenesis is currently a hypothesis. If it becomes a theory might they be connected? Maybe. Maybe not. So what? Is this what you hang your whole argument on? Whether or not there is a scientific connection, it doesn't change that the TOE stands on it's own, whatever the origin of life on this planet is, be it abiogenesis, aliens, poof-there it is, or whatever.
So what that they found 500 wmds? Well....because we were told they were all destroyed? Well....because the SHELLS are specialized delivery systems that were supposed to have been destroyed.
Is that supposed to have something to do with anything on this thread?
Yep, being told that something simply isn't so, and then seeing it being treated as if it were so.
That's my sole point.
It's confirmation that my memory really wasn't all that bad. :>)
"Seems like being born into the right family is one the keys to staying out of the Hot Place."
LOL Yep. Another way is to be able to randomly spray scripture. No prior knowledge of the whole story is necessary as long as those few words seem to fit. I'm still wondering if incest gets you a spot in hell or not. Since Adam and Eve and all their kids must have indulged in incest, I just wonder if God changed the rules later.
Faith in a book that's been written and re-written, translated and adjusted to suit those who comission it? It's a story written by men, that we're supposed to believe was handed down by an all powerful god? Too much of a leap of faith for me, but if it makes you sleep better at night, that's your right to believe it. Just don't expect me to believe it over things that can be proven through physical evidence.
"Anybody write a letter to these clowns asking for evidence of this "scientific" just so story?"
Speaking of clowns....
How about a pre biotic soup?
Let's make it easy, what was the composition of the atmosphere 4.5 billion years ago?
In fact, why don't you tell us how the theory, and I use the term loosely, of abiogenesis can be falsified.
There is no theory of abiogenesis. Just as there was no theory of gravity at the time of Galileo.
Nevertheless, the earth moved in Galileo's time, and continues to do so.
There are numerous conjectures regarding abiogenesis, and some have already been falsified. as we learn more, the conjectures will become more specific.
Abiogenesis as the "conjecture" of how life got to the third rock can never be falsified. There isn't even agreement on whether a pre biotic soup existed or what it was composed of. Nor is there any evidence of the composition of the atmosphere. Some things are unknowable. Speculation is not evidence and just so statements are not testable.
Falsifying a hypothesis that says two eggs, a piece of cheese and some heat makes a ham omelet says nothing about how life appeared on Earth.
Yet the document above claims that its started through natural chemical processes. That is a just so stroy backed by zero evidence and unfalsifiable.
They may be RIGHT but they are stuck in Karl Poppers box and can't get up.
They tracked mutations in the microbes which rendered them more successful at the higher temperatures.
They then started with a brand new unmutated batch of critters and did it again. Same mutations cropped up.
Furball, do you know the link?
Also, try Googling for the term "nylon bug."
Not good enough to display the whole panoply of macroevolution in vivo, but certainly good enough for a "proof of concept"...
Cheers!
Sorry. Won't work. Read a few science books if you want to know how it happened. But you aren't going to have the grey matter to understand it, so you will just end up back at Genesis, comfortable with the Jeanie story.
This is the one thing I will never understand about you creo's. You laugh at physical evidence that dates back millions and millions of years. BUT, you have no problem saying that it just all POOFED into existence. What are you scared of?
Grey_Whiskers, I never can tell which side of the argument you are on. Doesn't really matter, all of your posts whether on the bible or on science are always interesting.
"Falsifying a hypothesis that says two eggs, a piece of cheese and some heat makes a ham omelet says nothing about how life appeared on Earth."
What is your theory and where is your evidence?
Broadly based conjectures are difficult to falsify -- true. But science doesn't stand still. There are many research projects trimming away at the possibilities.
The conjecture that life was poofed into existence leads to no research.
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