Posted on 01/31/2004 2:47:59 AM PST by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:19:21 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
January 31, 2004 -- ATLANTA - Former President Jimmy Carter yesterday blasted a top Georgia education official's bid to strip the word "evolution" from textbooks in some of the state's public schools. Kathy Cox, Georgia's school superintendent, has come under fire for suggesting that science books used in the state's middle and high schools carry the term "biological changes over time" instead of "evolution."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
There is no proposal to ban that phrase. There is a proposal to ban the term "evolution." Are you having a problem?
Add to this Georgia shunning 'evolution' in schools, Nashville schools stopping the use of honor rolls, and the practice of not hiring role model teachers because kids might strive to be like them, and it has been a horrible week for the future of the nation, but a bonanza for the Good Intentions Pavers.Well said.
You do know, don't you, that Darwin's Origin of Species wasn't published until 1859?
Don't let patty throw you. His question implies there were no alternatives to creation so the Founders didn't have a choice. That didn't stop Paine or the atheists of the French Revolution. Atheism existed before Charlie Darwin.
Now that's a significant admission! Thanks!
Umm... Darwin didn't propose the theory of evolution until well after all the FF were quite dead. The FF were many things, but none of them could see into the future.
The FF also probably believed that bloodletting was a medically sound procedure since, at the time, people didn't know better. Just because people were ignorant in the past doesn't mean folks should be ignorant now that we know better.
The "suggested use" is to completely replace the word "evolution" with "biological change over time." Thus you spin any rejection of the banning of "evolution" as the banning of "biological change over time." What an odd thing to try!
Nevertheless, the phrase "biological change over time" is not being banned. Just for one thing, it's vague enough to refer to individual growth and death. It's vague enough to refer to what happens to rotting fruit.
Gov. Sonny Perdue said Saturday the word "evolution" should stay in the curriculum used for Georgia students, his first effort to quell a firestorm of controversy swirling around a volatile blend of religion and science.
"If you're going to teach evolution, you ought to call it evolution," the Republican governor said during an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "By that I mean, there ought to be a balance. Evolution, as I understand it, is an academic theory. I think it should be taught as an academic theory."
The governor sought to end a dispute surrounding last week's proposal by state School Superintendent Kathy Cox to replace the word "evolution" with "biological changes over time," a phrase that scientists describe as meaningless.
Perdue's comments, his first definitive statement on the issue, came just after he addressed the Georgia Christian Coalition's Families & Freedom Kickoff at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Atlanta. The governor did not mention the controversy during his speech.
"The name is what it is, and we should call it that," Perdue said. "I think that Superintendent Cox . . . will listen to the people on these proposals. In this business you don't get the privilege of thinking out loud. And I think Superintendent Cox was thinking out loud."
Perdue said he had not "had the opportunity" to discuss the issue with the superintendent. ...
So the phrase is used now?
Have you read the books in question as they exist now?
There are no existing bans in place, so it probably happens.
Have you read the books in question as they exist now?
To my own knowledge I haven't read any current Georgia textbooks. How does this help you with your curious attempt to stand the situation on its head? There is no movement to ban the phrase "biological change over time." There is a laughable proposal to ban "evolution," everywhere substituting "biological change over time."
Just for one thing, people aren't going to go around saying "biological change over time." You need to propose something shorter than "evolution," not longer. Maybe something like "morph."
Some would approve of the Howard Dean expression: "ARRRRRRGH!!"
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