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 ...
I wonder what would happen to the hapless student who chose as a class project to do a term paper on the weaknesses and gaps in the theory of evolution? Would the ACLU come in and demand that his paper be given a failing grade because it contradicts the dominant paradigm? Maybe they'd demand that the student be sent to a "re-education camp" to purge him of his dangerous anti-social way of thinking.
It is not the business of the ACLU nor the federal government. The disclaimer may or may not be boneheaded but federal courts putting their collective noses in where they don't belong is boneheaded.
evolution is "a theory, not a fact"
Well it is a theory, and that is the truth of it.
Bingo! I'm surprised that more people on this forum don't see that as the real danger here.
Meanwhile theory taught as fact is now safe in classrooms as long as it is the dominant theory....
Why is it the "dominant" theory?
If by "theory" one means "the best speculation that science can come up with," then it's a "theory."
The Taliban dictated from a central authority what may or may not be taught in local schools in Afghanistan. You might want to rethink your choice of words.
We know how this evolves.
Dangerous, dangerous stuff, I realize, but what is exactly wrong with this statement.
Scientifically, I am aware that there is more than ample evidence to prove evolution is a fact in the developments within a species, but I've seen no solid evidence to indicate it is anything more than a theory insofar as the occurrence of developments between species.
Would selective breedings of a gorilla, for example, produce a more intelligent and easier to feed animal like an orangutan?
Many years of selective breeding by man by design have suceeded in turning some wild animals into domesticated versions, but they have not suceeded in changing a species. Therefore, the portion of the theory of evolution that postulates nature will eventually make changes between species through time and chance remains a theory and not a fact.
Lots of them end that way and lots more never get to the courts because locals can not afford to fight the ACLU. So they bend over and take it from the secularists. The ACLU either needs to be defunded or a conservative equivalent needs funding. That a Republican administration controlling Congress and the Executive didn't get that done is a shame.
This is awesome good news!!! Thank you for posting it!!!
My stance might surprise you, but I think the ACLU was both right and wrong.
On a substantive level, dissing evolution as a theory is the same as dissing gravity as a theory. The word means something different in scientific parlance than it does in conservation among the general public.
I think evolution is reality, but that's not really relevant at the moment.
I think if the Cobb County school district wants to teach only Creation Science or its clone, Intelligent Design, they should be able to. I see no federal role in state education.
Unfortunately, the state of the law is such that there is a federal role in state education, and the state of the law is that religion is a verboten topic in public schoolrooms.
That's not something new. Given those legal realities, this case was very easy to predict.
How is it good news when the prevailing party only wins due to financial power rather than fact? Wouldn't you rather win in a fair fight or would you rather win just because you have bigger guns?
Well, the school district had the taxpayer to tap as financial power.
How exactly do you get deeper pockets than that?
This is not a clear cut case of a public school teaching Religion or ID. I'd be happy to discuss that but that wasn't my original point.
My original and current point is that the ACLU uses extortion and blood sucking to advance an exclusively secular agenda nowhere to be found in the US Constitution.
Kind of makes you wonder how the human race survived and science progressed before the Scopes Trials, doesn't it? /roll eyes
It is referred to as "The Theory of Evolution", for a reason, because it is nothing more than that, a theory.
And it actually can never be proven, ever.
Actually it goes against the principal of decay. Everyhing starts to decay, breakdown, fall apart.
But for some reason, life seems to advance, grow, change for the better.
But it should be decaying, falling apart, not changing into something more complex, but the change should be to the less complex.
Read The Road Less Traveled,
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