[King of Florida]

Next up: the strengths and weaknesses of gravitational theory.

[raygunfan]

next up, strengths and weakness of challenging the government IRON FISTED ENFORCEMENT of the humanist religion of evolutionism being taught in GOVERNMENT RUN ‘public’ schools.

[lonestar67]

Oh my goodness! Now we cannot discuss the strengths and weaknesses of evolution as a theory.

And yes!

Lets discuss the strengths and weaknesses of gravitational theory. That’s how we came about the theory in the first place. That’s also how we will develop better theories in the future.

What is wrong with people?

[cripplecreek]

Opponents of teaching evolution

And that is the about 50% of the problem. Don't ban either. Creationism is a matter of faith and evolution is scientific theory.

[Dutchboy88]

Well, not exactly. A strength of evolution may be the recognition that some changes to species have been more beneficial and thus survived. A weakness may be the extrapolated claim that therefore all life has a common descent from one “thing”.

The old saw about gravity just clutters the room with a mis-matched analogy.

[steve-b]

Did Hillary teach these jokers to keep changing the rules until the result comes out the way you want, or did they teach her?

[steve-b]

Dr. McLeroy believes that Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event — thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion.

I'm sure that geology, nuclear physics, astronomy, etc, all have "strengths and weaknesses".

Geez. Is there something in the water in Texas?

[ClearCase_guy]

Schools like to talk about Critical Thinking skills. But the idea that the strengths and weaknesses of an idea might be actually covered in a classroom is too scary for them. My experience has been that when they talk about Critical Thinking, what they mean is that the conclusion has been wrapped up neatly for you and they expect you to unwrap it and smile.

Discussing possible concerns about Evolution is not the sort of thing that the teachers unions are going to accept.

[Soliton]

And on marches the Lying for Jesus movement.

[allmendream]

Strength: A highly useful theory that explains many facts about living systems and their genomes and helps explain the facts evident in the fossil record.

Weaknesses: A bunch of people who would rather deny the evidence of their senses than accept that Genesis is a parable.

Back in Galileo's time maybe they should have discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the Heliocentric model.

Strength: It explains observations more elegantly than epicycles within epicycles and fits withing the theory of the universal gravitational attraction of matter.

Weaknesses: A bunch of people would rather deny the evidence of their senses than to admit that their egocentric model of geocentricism is a faulty interpretation of Scripture.

[Conservative Actuary]

Is teaching evolution science or religion. If you are actually teaching science you must talk about the strengths and weakness of every theory. Scientific theories are models developed by rational man to explain the world around him. No theory is perfect or fully explains all observations. Theories improve over time as our ability to observe the universe around us improves. For example how Einstein improved upon Newton's gravitational theories.

[discipler]

ALIENS DID IT!
BEN STEIN: What do you think is the possibility that Intelligent Design might turn out to be the answer to some issues in genetics or in evolution.
RICHARD DAWKINS: Well, it could come about in the following way. It could be that at some earlier time, somewhere in the universe, a civilization evolved, probably by some kind of Darwinian means, probably to a very high level of technology, and designed a form of life that they seeded onto perhaps this planet. Now, um, now that is a possibility, and an intriguing possibility. And I suppose it’s possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the details of biochemistry, molecular biology, you might find a signature of some sort of designer.

[RightWhale]

The opponents find their arguments are evolving.

[drjimmy]

From the article: "Dr. McLeroy believes that Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event — thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion. 'I believe a lot of incredible things,” he said, “The most incredible thing I believe is the Christmas story. That little baby born in the manger was the god that created the universe.'"

McLeroy is the chairman of the state education board. This is the kind of thing he would like taught in the public schools over which he has authority.

[Non-Sequitur]

Dr. McLeroy believes that Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event — thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion.

He doesn't want to teach weaknesses, he want's to promote stupidity.

[Fester Chugabrew]

These are public schools.

No. Intelligence. Allowed.

[Coyoteman]

Strengths and weaknesses --what a crock!

If you want scientific debate over the theory of evolution try the scientific literature. Don't bother with religion and scripture. They have no role in science.

This "strengths and weaknesses" nonsense is just another way to try to teach a narrow, fundamentalist religion in the place of science. From that standpoint, it's a lie from start to finish.

[mtg]

But critics say it is a new strategy taking shape across the nation to undermine the teaching of evolution, a way for students to hear religious objections under the heading of scientific discourse.

No... it is a way of teaching evolution objectively.

[Mogollon]

Weaknesses in evolution?...Let's see maybe I can think of a few....

After 70 years of experimentation on the common fruit-fly in which millions of generations of the little bugs have been exposed to virtually every mutagenic agent known to man...they are still fruit flys and they are still unchanged. Looks like the primary mechanism for evolution is in serious trouble.

Fruit Flys Speak Up

Not to mention the primordial Slime/Soup/Ooze fairy tale in which all the millions of incredibly complex biomolecules supposedly self-synthesized for no particular reason.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

You can tell from these threads that evolution isn’t taught at all.

I still say add an additional religion class and have at it.

Public schools in Illinois already have religion classes where this could be argued.

[LiteKeeper]

"Weakness" - total inability of evolution to account for the origin of information. Information is a property of neither matter nor energy - the two fundamental entities in the universe. There is only one possible source of information: a mind.

I defy anyone to posit an alternative source.