Posted on 12/19/2006 2:19:29 PM PST by Sopater
ATLANTA — A suburban school board that put stickers in high school science books saying evolution is "a theory, not a fact" abandoned its legal battle to keep them Tuesday after four years.
The Cobb County board agreed in federal court never to use a similar sticker or to undermine the teaching of evolution in science classes.
In return, the parents who sued over the stickers agreed to drop all legal action.
"We certainly think that it's a win not just for our clients but for all students in Cobb County and, really, all residents of Georgia," said Beth Littrell of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.
The school board placed the stickers inside the front cover of biology books in 2002 after a group of parents complained that evolution was being taught to the exclusion of other theories, including a literal reading of the biblical story of creation.
The stickers read: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."
A federal judge ordered the stickers removed in 2005, saying they amount to an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion. The school board appealed, but a federal appeals court sent the case back, saying it did not have enough information.
"We faced the distraction and expense of starting all over with more legal actions and another trial," said board chairwoman Teresa Plenge. "With this agreement, it is done and we now have a clean slate for the new year."
School board attorney Linwood Gunn said the agreement is not an admission that the stickers were unconstitutional. "The school board attempted to reach what they thought was a reasonable compromise," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The options that are always tossed to Christians who object to the secualrization of the public school system are open to anyone who disagrees with what the majority wants. Frevos on these threads seem to have no problem treating non-evos like second class citizens and tossing them scraps like that like an old bone to a dog. Well, if it's not a good enough option for the atheists/evolutionists, then it's not good enough anyone else.
Send your kids to a non religious school if you don't want them hearing about it. Or homeschool. Those options are open to you, too. Why should you be so priledged to have it your way or no way?
Creationists lost another legal case, tough luck for you, good news for reason and logic.
Not privelege, its the law.
And if its the law with a conservative Supreme Court, well...you figure it out.
Too bad that religion is here to stay and it's in the public schools in spite of the efforts of the ACLU, otherwise they wouldn't be so busy. Tough luck for you.
Baloney, public schools aren't supposed to teach religion, doesn't matter if majority of public is Christian. And if the majority in an area were Muslim, you'd have a cow trying to shut down the school.
Teach religion in your home and in your church and in religious schools. Don't bring down the rest of the kids by teaching them the fables of creationism.
Religion is here to stay, and good for it.
Religion in public schools is not, as evidenced by reams of caselaw and rulings.
Get over it.
Also appropriate to this thread:
Religious freedom in a cultural complex is inversely proportional to the strength of the strongest religion.Or...Robert A. Heinlein, Glory Road, 1963
Paging Nehemiah Scudder. Pick up the white courtesy telephone please.
I hear the real estate in Turkey is very reasonable these days, metmom. Course their flavor of creationism isn't exactly the kind of creation science you and others demand be taught in a science class.
Perhaps their great big, easy-to-read with big print and slick shiny pages Atlas of Creation can be exported over here to America where reputable and honest creation scientists like Kent Hovind or Carl Baugh can comb through it and replace every instance of the word "Allah" with "Almighty God" or "Intelligent Designer", thereby making it acceptable and the correct thinking brand of Creationism to be taught in biology or General Science.
How about a boneheaded idea to rummage through your closet without a warrant?
What on earth do those unlawful acts have to do with the subject of the thread?
No one in Cobb county was asking to have someone executed without a trial nor to rummage through anyone's closets. All that the parents of Cobb county were asking for was for their kids be informed of the truth, i.e., evolution is a theory and has not been scientifically proven to be fact. If taxpayers simply asking that their children be given some very basic but important informatio on a given subject by the same institutions their tax monies support isn't a fair and reasonable proposition I don't know what would be.
IF I want to learn religion, I'll take a Theology class.
If I'm going to learn science and the THEORIES that go along with it, then I'm going to go to Science class.
I don't see how or why the two should intermingle....
Homeschoolers are second class citizens? A school not teaching a particular religion's story of Creation in a SCIENCE class is tantamount to the followers of that religion being relegated to second class status?? Hardley. If you feel that way imagine how the Hindus, Buddists or people that believe in Animism must feel.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought you were a huge supporter of home schooling. Sounds like deep down you resent it; table scraps and an old bone and all that. Or at least resent having to sacrifice the time and effort that home schooling parents have to put forth to ensure their children get a good education. Most seem to think it is well worth it. Everyone has to pay taxes that go toward things they don't like yet I don't hear them claiming victim status.
What makes you think that atheists don't homeschool or that the only people that do are Christians? And that all homeschooling Christians use the Bible as their science textbooks?
Why is it that the cartoons always originate from far lefty of left sources?
Why do people who believe in evolution bother to care for the environment? Why don't they just believe in the survival of the fittest and take what they can? Why do these people fight to save endangered species? Shouldn't those species die off as Darwin would have it? Why, for that matter, do they even care if we want to believe in a creationist model? After all, if we're simply the product of evolution, who cares what we think? Maybe belief in God is part of that evolution, huh? If belief in God is so backward, why don't the monkeys believe in a monkey god? Or perhaps we who believe in God are more evolved than those other godless demi-apes? Maybe it is they who are underevolved and need to take it to the next level. If there is no God and we are purely the byproducts of evolution, then why do evolutionists care at all about the discussion? They might as well debate the existence of the Tooth Fairy. But yet, they do care! Is it that their faith in evolution is their religion? I dare say it is.
Well if science teachs that the earth is flat, does the earth flatten out to suit science? No of course not.
The point is they should not teach anything as an absolute in science, first thing it does is close minds.
Fundamentally wrong. One of the core elements of science is to construct a falsifiable hypothesis that can be tested. It is not simply fitting data to a theory, but using a theory to predict what data will be found next or what pattern future data will hold. If future observations contradict the theory used to predict them, then the theory is re-evaluated. Hence, a theory can be disproven experimentally, but can never, ever be proven.
I think you are confusing 'theory' and 'law'.
The observable facts of gravity are organized into the 'Laws of Gravity'.
The 'Theory of Gravity' is that which predicts unobserved particles, like gravitons.
There is a time and place for such a lesson, and it isn't in science classes.
Even if it's true?
In the absence of any physical evidence supporting it, and with of so much evidence contradicting it, such a claim is extremely hard to make.
The reason I don;t mention the Tooth Fairy is because nobody has been stupid enough to introduce her into science classrooms.
Yet.
I think you are confusing 'theory' and 'law'.
The observable facts of gravity are organized into the 'Laws of Gravity'.
The 'Theory of Gravity' is that which predicts unobserved particles, like gravitons.
Sorry, wrong again. Here are some appropriate definitions to help:
Theory: a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena; theories can incorporate facts and laws and tested hypotheses. Theories do not grow up to be laws. Theories explain laws.
Theory: A scientifically testable general principle or body of principles offered to explain observed phenomena. In scientific usage, a theory is distinct from a hypothesis (or conjecture) that is proposed to explain previously observed phenomena. For a hypothesis to rise to the level of theory, it must predict the existence of new phenomena that are subsequently observed. A theory can be overturned if new phenomena are observed that directly contradict the theory.
When a scientific theory has a long history of being supported by verifiable evidence, it is appropriate to speak about "acceptance" of (not "belief" in) the theory; or we can say that we have "confidence" (not "faith") in the theory. It is the dependence on verifiable data and the capability of testing that distinguish scientific theories from matters of faith.
Law: a generalization that describes recurring facts or events in nature; "the laws of thermodynamics."
Data: Individual measurements; facts, figures, pieces of information, statistics, either historical or derived by calculation, experimentation, surveys, etc.; evidence from which conclusions can be inferred.
Fact: when an observation is confirmed repeatedly and by many independent and competent observers, it can become a fact.
Nice slogan, but no substitute for actual facts.
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