Posted on 01/03/2006 12:12:37 PM PST by PatrickHenry
Also today, Dover's board might revoke the controversial intelligent design decision.
Now that the issue of teaching "intelligent design" in Dover schools appears to be played out, the doings of the Dover Area School Board might hold little interest for the rest of the world.
But the people who happen to live in that district find them to be of great consequence. Or so board member James Cashman is finding in his final days of campaigning before Tuesday's special election, during which he will try to retain his seat on the board.
Even though the issue that put the Dover Area School District in the international spotlight is off the table, Cashman found that most of the people who are eligible to vote in the election still intend to vote. And it pleases him to see that they're interested enough in their community to do so, he said.
"People want some finality to this," Cashman said.
Cashman will be running against challenger Bryan Rehm, who originally appeared to have won on Nov. 8. But a judge subsequently ruled that a malfunctioning election machine in one location obliges the school district to do the election over in that particular voting precinct.
Only people who voted at the Friendship Community Church in Dover Township in November are eligible to vote there today.
Rehm didn't return phone calls for comment.
But Bernadette Reinking, the new school board president, said she did some campaigning with Rehm recently. The people who voted originally told her that they intend to do so again, she said. And they don't seem to be interested in talking about issues, she said. Reinking said it's because they already voted once, already know where the candidates stand and already have their minds made up.
Like Cashman, she said she was pleased to see how serious they are about civic participation.
Another event significant to the district is likely to take place today, Reinking said. Although she hadn't yet seen a copy of the school board meeting's agenda, she said that she and her fellow members might officially vote to remove the mention of intelligent design from the school district's science curriculum.
Intelligent design is the idea that life is too complex for random evolution and must have a creator. Supporters of the idea, such as the Discovery Institute in Seattle, insist that it's a legitimate scientific theory.
Opponents argue that it's a pseudo-science designed solely to get around a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that biblical creationism can't be taught in public schools.
In October 2004, the Dover Area School District became the first in the country to include intelligent design in science class. Board members voted to require ninth-grade biology students to hear a four-paragraph statement about intelligent design.
That decision led 11 district parents to file a lawsuit trying to get the mention of intelligent design removed from the science classroom. U.S. Middle District Court Judge John E. Jones III issued a ruling earlier this month siding with the plaintiffs. [Kitzmiller et al. v Dover Area School District et al..]
While the district was awaiting Jones' decision, the school board election took place at the beginning of November, pitting eight incumbents against a group of eight candidates opposed to the mention of intelligent design in science class.
At first, every challenger appeared to have won. But Cashman filed a complaint about a voting machine that tallied between 96 to 121 votes for all of the other candidates but registered only one vote for him.
If he does end up winning, Cashman said, he's looking forward to doing what he had in mind when he originally ran for school board - looking out for students. And though they might be of no interest to news consumers in other states and countries, Cashman said, the district has plenty of other issues to face besides intelligent design. Among them are scholastic scores and improving the curriculum for younger grades.
And though he would share the duties with former opponents, he said, he is certain they would be able to work together.
"I believe deep down inside, we all have the interest and goal to benefit the kids," he said.
Regardless of the turnout of today's election, Reinking said, new board members have their work cut out for them. It's unusual for a board to have so many new members starting at the same time, she said.
"We can get to all those things that school boards usually do," she said.
Thanks for your post! But, er, a lot of people would also say that methodological naturalism, scientific materialism and the ilk are "spinning". Some would say that the theory of evolution is a "spin" - a continuum deduced from quantizations of another continuum (fossils in the geologic record) - or in the lingo, a "just so" story.
Indeed! Great catches, my dear sister in Christ!
The Supreme Court, IMHO, for decades was intent on secularizing the United States to conform it to the "progressive" ideological and even perhaps judicial model of the European countries. This is of course contrary to the Constitution - and is particularly evident in their prior - and woefully confusing - interpretations of the First Amendment.
The Lemon precedent uses a "secular" test. That is not a Constitution-based test - it is bad law and needs to be fixed.
The Constitution must never again be treated as an etch a sketch by the Supremes.
I cannot think of one that actually exists in our universe, so the burden is upon you -- my limited imagination says you are talking nonsense, so feel free to prove me wrong. I yearn to be awed by your intellect.
It is sadly amusing that when faced with hard arguments that you retreat into nonsense. If you had an argument, you could deftly slay my arguments with rigorous abandon. Oddly, that is not what has actually happened. Huh.
Richard Dawkins was the first Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. (among other things)
On your other issue, intelligence is not simple awareness or consciousness but also includes decision and process. The selection of a mate requires all three: awareness, decision and process.
My guess is that there's an article out there that fills the bill. Whoever finds it first should post it? What do you think?
It seems that those most eager to postulate a designer would have trouble operating a can opener.
Before you continue lecturing other people about science you should learn some. Come back when you can undetstand hy the moon is getting father away from the earth rather than gradually falling down.
If you speak from personal experience, I support you in this.
MoveTowardtheLight placemark
If you don't approve of my posts, feel free to skip right over them. I won't be offended.
Not sure you could recognize either.
"If not, they won't ever come down anywhere."
How can you prove that?
Great post, great tagline. I even liked that graphic.
It seems to me the retreat has been in the other direction, namely in refusing to prove how/whether the measure of predictive error complexity applies to organized matter that behaves according to predictable laws; how this esoteric math, into which you yourself retreat, demolishes the reasonable inference that where there are intelligble phenomena, intelligence may be involved in its construction and maintenance. Is that clear enough, or is that "nonsense," too?
Many of us here (myself included) opposed the President's choice of Miers for the Supreme Court, especially after we learned of her speech in the 90's where she seemed to endorse Roe. Will you oppose Alito if it appears he'll join Scalia & Co. in opposing the ACLU interpretation of the Establishment Clause? Will any of the others here oppose his confirmation and hold out for a more liberal judge?
And if I don't will you altogether disavow the fallibility of human reason, be only a slight believer, or set yourself up as its infallible king?
It would be even better if it were true.
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