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.
Very facetious.
"True, true. But I do know who created that light that can be measured. Does that count?
"
Do you? I am sitting in a dark room, holding two containers. I pour one the contents of one container into the other. Suddenly, the room is filled with greenish-yellow light, where there was none before.
Who created that light?
What does hard science (biological evolution) have to do with the origin of life on earth?
Is should be doubted that we know anything at all about light, especially that it moves. It is there, it is something. It shares whatever ultimate origin things have.
Thanks. Actually I needed the uplifting post today. :-)
You made me smile.
"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.
Huh? It is an EM wave with the defined speed called "c".
LOL. Good comeback. 'Poof' by a supreme being just can't be possible. Now "big bangs", well, that's different.
You are the intermediary or agent producing light. Light was not created. The origin of the chemical reaction that produced the light was created by the One who created all things.
I'm evangelical and yet I accept evolution. Course, what the EVOS tend to ignore is that only micro-evolution has been clearly proven scientifically. Too bad more EVOS aren't truthful enough to admit there is no evidence for macro-evolution. No evidence for one species evolving into another- none, nada, zilch, zippo.
Oh and yes, I have reviewed Patrick Henry's links which basically jump to conclusions just like so many 'proofs' provided here at FR. It's pure fabrication just like the quote from this article...
"Commonalities in the structure of the genetic code of all organisms living today, including humans, clearly indicate their common primordial origin," it said. Clearly another jump to a conclusion not supported by scientific fact - commonalities can just as clearly assume a common designer. But since science can't prove God and the miraculous then we are supposed to accept millions upon billions of lucky mutations that just happened to continuously evolve from one species to the next. Sorry, not buying it.
Furthermore, the latest scientific discoveries in microbiology prove that what Darwin considered a 'small step' for macro-evolution has now widened to a 'step/jump' larger than the Grand Canyon.
For consistency, that should either be "everything" or "everthang."
I'd bet you'd embrace evolution if the altenative was the African creationist theory instead of the Anglo one...
The Ashanti people of Ghana in West Africa believed in a supreme being called Nyame, whose sons were lesser gods. Each son served a different purpose: one was a rainmaker, another the sunshine (etc.) Worship of Nyame was the exclusive preserve of the king through his priests; lesser people worshiped her sons.
oh I'm so glad we're homeschooling my kids. No, we're not going to indoctrinate them, but at least we can present both evolution and creationism at the same level, Evolution as a theory and creationism as a belief system, neither one of them has been proven but the evolutionist story keeps changing. There have been several times that their "unmistakable proof" has proven to be very mistaken.
It angers me to see that evolution is presented as a fact. Just watch the Discovery channel. Do they ever say "We believe the theory that 4 billion years ago...etc."? NO, it's always: "4 billion years ago this and that happened". I find that insulting. There is so little real evidence that could survive that long that it's ridiculous.
They're like little ants trying to describe how the Empire state building was built: "A million ant years ago before there were any ants, there was this little stone which nobody saw, that just got bigger and bigger and evolved into a huge building and some parts of the stone mutated into lights and some parts turned into computers, and the building grew to be millions of "ant feet" tall.
"You need to pay your electric bill."
Dang! You mean I wouldn't have to mix chemicals together to get light? What a concept!
Maybe I can get one of those Clapper thingies, and then I can create light just by clapping my hands together. That'd sure be easier than pouring stuff in beakers together.
The theory of evolution is widely condemned as nonsense since no one has ever seen one species evolve into another. That's because the human species hasn't been around long enough to see it happen. The theory is based on very, very fragmentary remains dug out of the earth, and those remains are only a very tiny sample of all the life that is known to have existed and is theorized to have existed. The fact that the fossil record is very far from complete does not automatically disqualify the theory, as many would have it. It's just the best theory about how different species share so many common elements.
Actually, evolution on a small scale is practiced daily and observed daily all over the world. Whenever gourds and melons interbreed and produce bizarre offspring you're seeing a kind of evolution at work. Anyone ever see or hear of such a thing as a mixed breed dog? Anyone ever see or hear of such a thing as a Eurasian? Anyone ever see or hear of such a thing as a nectarine? Most of the fruits and vegetables we eat today would be virtually unrecognizeable to a caveman or even Bronze Age folks. The giant ears of yellow corn we selectively evolved over time would be bizarre and even frightening to early Native Americans, as would all the breeds of lapdogs we have now.
Scientists try to avoid absolutes unless they can be proven by repeatable testing. Sometimes they make mistakes that take centuries of time to uncover as mistakes. Creationists seem to thrive on absolutes without any need for proofs and validation; one only needs a belief system and emotion to explain anything and everything without ever getting up out of the easy chair.
Flame away - I've got my Nomex undies on. :^)
Oh, I see. You must be thinking of the little bearded man on the yellow and white disk in this creation story:
"In the beginning nothing existed--no earth, no sky, no sun, no moon, only darkness was everywhere.
Suddenly from the darkness emerged a thin disc, one side yellow and the other side white, appearing suspended in midair. Within the disc sat a small bearded man, Creator, the One Who Lives Above. As if waking from a long nap, he rubbed his eyes and face with both hands.
When he looked into the endless darkness, light appeared above. He looked down and it became a sea of light. To the east, he created yellow streaks of dawn. To the west, tints of many colours appeared everywhere. There were also clouds of different colours.
Creator wiped his sweating face and rubbed his hands together, thrusting them downward. Behold! A shining cloud upon which sat a little girl.
"Stand up and tell me where are you going," said Creator. But she did not reply. He rubbed his eyes again and offered his right hand to the Girl-Without-Parents.
"Where did you come from?" she asked, grasping his hand.
"From the east where it is now light," he replied, stepping upon her cloud.
"Where is the earth?" she asked.
"Where is the sky?" he asked, and sang, "I am thinking, thinking, thinking what I shall create next." He sang four times, which was the magic number.
Creator brushed his face with his hands, rubbed them together, then flung them wide open! Before them stood Sun-God. Again Creator rubbed his sweaty brow and from his hands dropped Small- Boy.
All four gods sat in deep thought upon the small cloud.
"What shall we make next?" asked Creator. "This cloud is much too small for us to live upon."
Then he created Tarantula, Big Dipper, Wind, Lightning-Maker, and some western clouds in which to house Lightning-Rumbler, which he just finished.
Creator sang, "Let us make earth. I am thinking of the earth, earth, earth; I am thinking of the earth," he sang four times.
All four gods shook hands. In doing so, their sweat mixed together and Creator rubbed his palms, from which fell a small round, brown ball, not much larger than a bean.
A 4.5 billion year old Earth and 2.5 billion year old cellular life aren't facts, and any real scientist should recognize that fact. Scientists could use evidence to support a 4.5 billion year old Earth or 2.5 year old cellular life (as a Creationist could use evidence to support a 6,000 year old or so Universe), but that evidence does not make it a fact.
Furthermore, shouldn't scientists be in support of a debate on Creation/evolution; the one's in the article seem to be more dogmatic religious zealots than objective scientists.
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