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AAAS Board Resolution Urges Opposition to "Intelligent Design" Theory in U.S. Science Classes
AAAS ^ | November 6, 2002 | Ginger Pinholster

Posted on 11/07/2002 7:07:47 PM PST by Nebullis

The AAAS Board recently passed a resolution urging policymakers to oppose teaching "Intelligent Design Theory" within science classrooms, but rather, to keep it separate, in the same way that creationism and other religious teachings are currently handled.

"The United States has promised that no child will be left behind in the classroom," said Alan I. Leshner, CEO and executive publisher for AAAS. "If intelligent design theory is presented within science courses as factually based, it is likely to confuse American schoolchildren and to undermine the integrity of U.S. science education."

American society supports and encourages a broad range of viewpoints, Leshner noted. While this diversity enriches the educational experience for students, he added, science-based information and conceptual belief systems should not be presented together.

Peter H. Raven, chairman of the AAAS Board of Directors, agreed:

"The ID movement argues that random mutation in nature and natural selection can't explain the diversity of life forms or their complexity and that these things may be explained only by an extra-natural intelligent agent," said Raven, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden. "This is an interesting philosophical or theological concept, and some people have strong feelings about it. Unfortunately, it's being put forth as a scientifically based alternative to the theory of biological evolution. Intelligent design theory has so far not been supported by peer-reviewed, published evidence."

In contrast, the theory of biological evolution is well-supported, and not a "disputed view" within the scientific community, as some ID proponents have suggested, for example, through "disclaimer" stickers affixed to textbooks in Cobb County, Georgia.

"The contemporary theory of biological evolution is one of the most robust products of scientific inquiry," the AAAS Board of Directors wrote in a resolution released today. "AAAS urges citizens across the nation to oppose the establishment of policies that would permit the teaching of `intelligent design theory' as a part of the science curriculum of the public schools."

The AAAS Board resolved to oppose claims that intelligent design theory is scientifically based, in response to a number of recent ID-related threats to public science education.

In Georgia, for example, the Cobb County District School Board decided in March this year to affix stickers to science textbooks, telling students that "evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things." Following a lawsuit filed August 21 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, the school board on September 26 modified its policy statement, but again described evolution as a "disputed view" that must be "balanced" in the classroom, taking into account other family teachings. The exact impact of the amended school board policy in Cobb County classrooms remains unclear.

A similar challenge is underway in Ohio, where the state's education board on October 14 passed a unanimous, though preliminary vote to keep ID theory out of the state's science classrooms. But, their ruling left the door open for local school districts to present ID theory together with science, and suggested that scientists should "continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory." In fact, even while the state-level debate continued, the Patrick Henry Local School District, based in Columbus, passed a motion this June to support "the idea of intelligent design being included as appropriate in classroom discussions in addition to other scientific theories."

The Ohio State Education Board is inviting further public comment through November. In December, board members will vote to conclusively determine whether alternatives to evolution should be included in new guidelines that spell out what students need to know about science at different grade levels. Meanwhile, ID theorists have reportedly been active in Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico, New Jersey, and other states, as well Ohio and Georgia.

While asking policymakers to oppose the teaching of ID theory within science classes, the AAAS also called on its 272 affiliated societies, its members, and the public to promote fact-based, standards-based science education for American schoolchildren.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: crevolist
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To: Alamo-Girl
Happy 44th Birthday tomorrow! Hugs!

Thanks. Gee, to think that when I was a girl and looked forward to the year 2000 & beyond, I thought I'd be really really old. Like, 42, 43... =:-)

1,081 posted on 11/13/2002 10:41:42 PM PST by jennyp
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To: jennyp
Happy 2C birthday.
1,082 posted on 11/13/2002 10:44:18 PM PST by scripter
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To: jennyp; Right Wing Professor
To: f.Christian

Now I follow, thank you. Actually, I don't disagree with this at all since I see the left as abandoning the uncertianty of democracy and majority rule for the assurance technocracy and expert rule.

152 posted on 9/10/02 12:17 PM Pacific by Liberal Classic

and...

To: f.Christian

Dakmar...

I took a few minutes to decipher that post, and I must say I agree with a lot of what you said.

fC...

These were the Classical liberals...founding fathers-PRINCIPLES---stable/SANE scientific reality/society---industrial progress...moral/social character-values(private/personal) GROWTH(limited NON-intrusive PC Govt/religion---schools)!

Dakmar...

Where you and I diverge is on the Evolution/Communism thing. You seem to view Darwin and evolution as the beginning of the end for enlighted, moral civilization, while I think Marx, class struggle, and the "dictatorship of the proletariat" are the true dangers.

God bless you, I think we both have a common enemy in the BRAVE-NWO.

452 posted on 9/7/02 8:54 PM Pacific by Dakmar

"dictatorship(evo state/religion taliban) of the proletariat(brainwashed/indoctrinated zombies)" are the true dangers.

1,083 posted on 11/13/2002 10:46:00 PM PST by f.Christian
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To: Doctor Stochastic
Goedel: Primarily showed that the "Hilbert Programme" could not work.

Perhaps my memory is faulty, but didn't he also find a GR solution that permitted time-like loops?

1,084 posted on 11/13/2002 10:46:07 PM PST by edsheppa
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To: jennyp
entropy of the body...44---of the soul/mind...evolution(junk)!
1,085 posted on 11/13/2002 10:47:53 PM PST by f.Christian
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To: jennyp
LOL! I remember 44 - it was a very good time for me - old enough to finally be taken seriously and wise enough to value less responsibility.
1,086 posted on 11/13/2002 10:56:07 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Right Wing Professor; All
It's easy to mock their arguments for ID.

To: f.Christian

The fact that the nomenclature of the political spectrum is is reversed in the USA indicates the radical nature of our republic. The radical idea of the 18th century was reducing the power of central authority in favor of individual liberties. American liberals of today seem more interested in returning those hard won individual freedoms to the central government. (I deliberatly use the term central rather than federal because I am a Southerner who recoqnizes the difference.)

American conservatives today are Classical Liberals.

7 posted on 10/25/2002 9:34 PM PDT by limitedgov

Evolutionists are statist luddites...labour party---2nd-3rd wayers(socialists/engineers)!

The nomenclature is a flip/spin/twist/morph----'evolve' in America!

1,087 posted on 11/13/2002 11:42:49 PM PST by f.Christian
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To: f.Christian
An "I'm up and at 'em" placemarker.
1,088 posted on 11/14/2002 3:12:13 AM PST by Junior
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To: Right Wing Professor
I see it as self-contradictory to cede the enlightenment values of civil and equal discourse to a school of thought that seeks to suppress those values.

Good. Very good. Or, as Ayn Rand might have said, they seek to use our virtues against us.

1,089 posted on 11/14/2002 3:37:23 AM PST by PatrickHenry
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To: All
Congratulations to everyone on another 1000+ post thread!!
1,090 posted on 11/14/2002 5:55:00 AM PST by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: edsheppa
I think so.
1,091 posted on 11/14/2002 6:18:56 AM PST by Doctor Stochastic
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To: gore3000
[Me, post 885:]You posted a doctored quote from Darwin.

[You:] No I did not. According to you and your fellow evolutionists if one does not post the whole book it is a 'doctored quote' an 'out of context quote' or some such insulting garbage.

You not only omitted the next sentence from your quote-- which contradicted the point you were trying to make-- but you also added to Darwin's quote two words that weren't there. If that's not quote doctoring, I don't know what is.

Anyone who wants to see the sequence, please read Gore's original "quotation" from Darwin in post #782, my posting the actual quote in #804, and Gore's repetition of his fraudulent misquote in posts #842 and 863. (I say "fraudulent" because the added words reappeared even after his initial --doubtless inadvertent-- error had been pointed out to him in #804).

1,092 posted on 11/14/2002 7:02:49 AM PST by Lurking Libertarian
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To: gore3000
Here are some examples of species which are totally unexplainable by evolution but would be real easy to write off if all we had of them were their bones:

Wasp, butterfly, and euglena bones placemarker.

1,093 posted on 11/14/2002 8:00:55 AM PST by VadeRetro
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To: Doctor Stochastic
Another cute thing about Dembski's filter is that selecting "determinism" doesn't falsify design; it just means that determinism is a good enough explanation. Falling through that and selecting "probability" doesn't falsify design, either, just determinism. If you fall through "determinism" and "probability," then "design" is the mandatory inference--Dembski hopes--but nothing ever falsifies "design."
1,094 posted on 11/14/2002 8:10:23 AM PST by VadeRetro
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To: gore3000
First of all nothing you have said on these pages deserves respect.

I ain't looking for your respect. I'd be worried if I had it.

Second of all if you are indeed a professor, you should not be. No child should be around such a closed minded, insulting person.

18 - 22 year olds aren't children. But you'll be pleased to know that many feminists and other leftists on campus have said the same thing.

1,095 posted on 11/14/2002 8:10:44 AM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: f.Christian
Evolutionists are statist luddites...labour party---2nd-3rd wayers(socialists/engineers)!

This from the gang who are using state power to force their ideas onto the biology curriculum, over the objections of biologists.

What a wacky crew they are!

1,096 posted on 11/14/2002 8:13:54 AM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: jennyp
Happy Birthday, you sweet old lady! (From a +8.9 geezer.)
1,097 posted on 11/14/2002 8:17:42 AM PST by VadeRetro
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To: jennyp
Birthday? Did I miss the announcement? Well, belated or otherwise, Happy Birthday!
1,098 posted on 11/14/2002 8:27:23 AM PST by PatrickHenry
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To: jennyp
Happy Birthday!!

I'm just catching up on my reading.You're the same age as my wife (24 I believe).

1,099 posted on 11/14/2002 8:29:50 AM PST by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: <1/1,000,000th%
Trying for an even 1100.
1,100 posted on 11/14/2002 8:59:03 AM PST by Doctor Stochastic
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