Posted on 08/24/2005 6:51:49 AM PDT by Quick1
Topeka — From Darwin to intelligent design to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The debate over teaching evolution in Kansas public schools has caught the attention of a cross-country Internet community of satirists.
In the past few weeks, hundreds of followers of the supreme Flying Spaghetti Monster have swamped state education officials with urgent e-mails.
They argue that since the conservative majority of the State Board of Education has blessed classroom science standards at the behest of intelligent design supporters, which criticize evolution, they want the gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster taught.
“I’m sure you realize how important it is that your students are taught this alternate theory,” writes Bobby Henderson, a Corvallis, Ore., resident whose Web site, www.venganza.org, is part FSM tribute and part job search. Karl Gehring/Journal-World Illustration
Karl Gehring/Journal-World Illustration
“It is absolutely imperative that they realize that observable evidence is at the discretion of a Flying Spaghetti Monster,” he wrote to the education board.
Henderson did not return a telephone call for comment. He says in his letter that it is disrespectful to teach about the FSM without wearing “full pirate regalia.”
Board member Bill Wagnon, a Democrat, whose district includes Lawrence, said he has received more than 500 e-mails from supporters of FSM.
“Clearly, these are just supreme satirists. What they are doing is pointing out that there is no more sense to intelligent design than there is to a Flying Spaghetti Monster,” Wagnon said.
Intelligent design posits that some aspects of biology are so complex, they point toward an intelligent creator.
ID proponents helped shepherd a report and hearings that have resulted in science standards that criticize evolution and have put Kansas in the middle of international attention on the subject.
John Calvert, of Lake Quivira, the lawyer who was instrumental in writing the science standards that criticize evolution, said he had seen the FSM e-mails, and was not impressed.
“You can only use that misinformation so long,” Calvert said. Calvert said the science standards do not promote intelligent design, but show that evolution has its critics.
Wagnon and the three other board members who support evolution have written Henderson back, saying they appreciated the comic relief but that they were saddened that the science standards were being changed to criticize evolution.
Lookie here...
there are no missing links......keep up with the times....there are slow smooth transitions upward during times of plenty...then more abrupt ones which are caused by environmental changes and or catastrophes....but they are there....in black and white and the whole process from amobea to man has been going on for billions of years...WAKE UP. you can believe in God and still embrace tangible realities......they are not mutually exclusive.
Interestingly, the Chinese account postulates the evolution of man from parasites, and the Hindu account postulates the direct role of the deity in forming creatures.
Flying Spaghetti Monster bump
Yeah, but aside from that.
You prove my point.
Gravity is an observable phenomenon - a fact - which we cannot yet satisfactorily explain in detail, and there are therefore different theories regarding its nature - the particle/wave debates, string theory, etc.
Biological diversity is an observable phenomenon - a fact - which we cannot yet satisfactorily explain in detail, and there are therefore different theories regarding its nature - evolutionary theory, design theory, etc.
When they run out of rational arguments, they retreat into ad hominem attacks and creating strawmen.
Evolution is NOT incompatible with Christinity.
Most Catholics ( who are Christian ) believe in the science of evolution and don't purport to know that God created the earth in 6 24hr days...which is a human conception.
Now they are putting stickers in physics textbooks in Georgia that says "Gravity is not a proven theory". This is getting really out of control. Science is the gift that God gave mankind. How we use it is up to us. My faith is much bigger than "somebody's " idea of creation.
Uhhh, yeah it could. The designer could show us directly that this is how they did it. We could reproduce the information and verify it. We could base predictions on that information.
I think were gonna figure it out before that happens.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster however is an insult to the many, many more mainstream pasta religions everywhere. I would dare say it a religion of Terrorism.
DK
I prefer the 'tiny angels snipping DNA with tiny gold scissors' theory. It has just as much supporting evidence as ID. In fact, I *demand* it be taught in science classes.
Actually, there are plenty of rational arguments. The problem is that the IDers completely ignore them and instead listen to things that make them "feel" good, so we have to do some silly stuff to even get their attention.
May you be touched by His Noodly Appendage, for then you shall be truly blessed.
"Teach the controversy," yes. That's easy, BTW. The controversy is not in science. The controversy is in school board rooms.
The main question is on the ID side. There are the Raelians, the FSM-ists, the Last Thursdayists, etc. Coyoteman has the exhaustive if not complete list.
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